Loughborough University London researchers working on 10 new impactful projects
On Wednesday 13 March 2019, the first 10 projects funded under Loughborough University London’s innovative JOINT Fund came together to share their progress.
The JOINT Fund is a school wide funding scheme to help seed and develop Research, Teaching and Enterprise (RTE) projects led by academic staff in London. The funding forms part of our strategy for Loughborough University London to initiate and incubate multi-disciplinary work across our seven institutes, to accelerate research and teaching activities through internal and external partnerships.
Through the JOINT fund, we want to accelerate the growth of RTE activity on our Loughborough University London campus.
Professor Jo Tacchi, Associate Dean for Research said:
The JOINT Fund is designed to help build a new kind of research community in London. It seeks to capitalise on our collaboration opportunities and encourage high impact research, teaching and engagement. It is brilliant to see the fund being used by our Loughborough University London Institutes to work together with colleagues in the East Midlands and beyond.
Along the funded projects are multi-disciplinary groups of researchers looking into eSports, digital health in China, and the physical activity levels of working women. The fund has enabled a number of workshops, a prototyping event, international travel for staff and the opportunity to bring together colleagues from across a range of disciplines. Companies and organisations such as BT Sport, Citizens UK, and Sport England have been involved with more in the pipeline.
Professor David Deacon, Dean of Loughborough University London commented:
It is incredible to see the diversity of projects supported under this year’s JOINT Fund. It is early days, but we can already see some of the research being undertaken having an impact in and around our campus. We also have others working towards international impact. We look forward to tracking the progress of these projects over the coming years.
We will be posting this year’s projects each week on our blog so make sure to check our Loughborough University London blog to see the wide range of projects!
A brief overview of this year’s projects can be found here:
| Lead | Project Description | Blog |
| Dr Philipp Kern |
Developing Nations and the leadership of Multinational companies (MNCs) |
Investigate management challenges of MNCs emerging from developing nations. |
| Dr Emily Hayday |
CSR and Esports |
This research aims to mobilize and engage key Esport stakeholders, alongside individuals working within the area of sport for development, community and youth programmes to explore and recognise the diverse social development opportunities Esport may provide. |
| Dr Holly Collison and Dr Ksenja Kuzmina |
Working Women and Exercise |
The objective of this study is to better understand the relationship and experiences working women have with physical activity and exercise. |
| Dr Vicky Lofthouse |
Reducing Single Use Coffee Cup Waste in Here East: A pilot study |
2.5 billion cups are thrown away across the UK each year, almost none are re-cycled. The aim of this project is to undertake user-centred research and stakeholder analysis to identify, design and test behavioural change interventions to reduce single use coffee cup waste. |
| Dr Yang Zhao and Dr Rohit Dasgupta | Digitalisation advantage: Harnessing the power of digital innovations to improve healthcare access | Our project explores how elderly population in ageing societies (e.g. China) can benefit from digital healthcare innovations. |
| Dr Kun Fu |
Utility Business Model Innovation through Digitalisation in Low-income Communities |
This project aims to improve our understanding of the current energy business context under the influence of digital technologies, and the role of key stakeholders in the energy ecosystem, explore their experiences of different business models, and identify the barriers and enablers of digitalisation in driving the emergence of new utility business models. |
| Dr Angela Dy | Diverse Digital Founders | A network gathering for entrepreneurs of colour, industry and policy stakeholders hosted by Loughborough London, and co-facilitated by YS/YS, Digital Women UK and BARC. |
| Professor Thomas Tufte | Communication in Brazil | Considering the new political-economic reality in Brazil, this initiative will develop an ambitious action research project that investigates experiences of communication for social change. This will be done in partnership with researchers from two universities and practitioners from a range of civil society organisations in Brazil. |
| Dr Laura Santamaria | Fair Energy Mark | During 2017-18, we engaged in developing Citizens UK’s Fair Energy campaign, a scheme aimed to tackle issues around fuel poverty, environmental and economic injustices in the energy. |
| Dr Anna Grosman | Strengthening Collaboration | Conduct a natural experiment in the form of an intervention at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP) designed to introduce organisations to one another that would lead to fostering of organizational ties, further firm growth and innovation. |
Projects will come to the end of their JOINT Fund funded period at the end of July 2019 with a celebration of Loughborough University London’s research activities planned for early summer. A new round of JOINT Fund projects will be launched in June 2019. For more information please contact Ben Cole b.p.cole@lboro.ac.uk.
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2020 QS World University Rankings and top in the country for its student experience in the 2018 THE Student Experience Survey.
Loughborough is in the top 10 of every national league table, being ranked 4th in the Guardian University League Table 2020, 5th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 and 8th in The UK Complete University Guide 2020.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
Specialising exclusively in postgraduate-level study, Loughborough University London is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers cutting-edge master’s and PhD degrees, as well as business collaboration, research and enterprise opportunities.
The seven specialist institutes at Loughborough University London include: Design Innovation, Digital Technologies, Diplomacy and International Governance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International Management, Media and Creative Industries, and Sport Business. Close industry partnerships with a wealth of leading businesses and creative organisations means teaching and learning is informed by real-life challenges and driven by true industry pressures.