COI Chairs:
Dr Michelle Richey, Loughborough Business School
Dr Lauren Tuckerman, Adam Smith Business School (University of Glasgow)
Dr Shuai Qin, Aston University
Title: Engaged Scholarship Community of Interest
Subject area: Research methods
Rationale for proposal:
Launched at the ISBE 2024 Conference, the key challenge for this community of interest will be facilitating a shift from “explaining the difference” to “making a difference” with social sciences research. Business schools face mounting pressure to produce relevant outputs in rapidly changing world. At the same time, many schools lack the capacity to train faculty to create ‘impactful by design’ research. Fostering meaningful engagement with communities can take time. The present proposal is for ISBE to facilitate continuity among an emergent community of peer learning and practice, initially through a CoI that would grow to SIG status as activities and COI membership reach key milestones in membership and frequency.
The proposed COI builds on ISBE workshops during 2022 and 2023 which established strong interest and commitment among existing ISBE members. In 2022, an ESRC funded “Engaged Scholarship Learning Lab” (led by colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University) established a series of training events and workshops to support the growing community of academic and practitioners using ES to answer pressing questions. In 2023, an ISBE supported workshop featuring prominent leaders in entrepreneurship, ES and community activism (Prof. Lorna Treanor, Prof. Pablo Munoz, Prof Monder Ram) hosted lively discussions with faculty at all levels. The outcome was a set of initial guiding ideas and principles, which form the basis of this proposal. The proposal also builds on the momentum of recent popular training conferences for ECRs including the NARTI Engaged Scholarship for Entrepreneurship Scholars in 2023 held by ISBE organisational member University of Leeds and the Innovation & Research Caucus Engaged Scholarship for ECRs in the innovation ecosystem (which received 80 applications for 30 places). While these activities focused exclusively on ECR development, their popularity indicates the growing demand for ES training and a need for ongoing activities in this area.
Proposed Aims and Objectives:
Proposed aims:
- Create a community of practice focussed upon engaged scholarship.
- To establish a research agenda that can support individual career progression and societal benefit.
- To disseminate good practice in this area and encourage greater engagement in engaged scholarship within the academic community i.e. increase the quantity and quality of engaged scholarship.
Aims will be fulfilled through the following objectives:
- To establish an ISBE Community of Interest group
- To hold a series of events wherein scholars and others interested in engaged scholarship can co-create a research agenda and attract new members.
Proposed Governance Team:
Co -Chair(s):
Lauren Tuckerman, Michelle Richey, Shuai Qin.
Management Group
Advisory Positions: Monder Ram, Pablo Munoz, Deema Refai, Lorna Treanor
We expect this CoI will be relevant and of interest to scholars in different interest groups and specialisms, since all are incentivised by the REF to produce research with impact.