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C&C support brand management prize

C&C Group have once again sponsored the Brand Management assignment for Strathclyde Business School’s marketing undergraduate students – in doing so, all students were given the chance to work on C&C Group’s brand ‘OUTC!DER’.

The students - 194 in total - were all tasked with coming up with a brand strategy and plan, with the top five students selected to go forward in the competition. The five selected - Alicia Evans, Scarlett Eccles, Jude Dudley, Niamh Casey and Jamie Patterson - were tasked with presenting to C&C Group on March 11 at Wellpark Brewery.

Alicia Evans was named overall winner of 'Best Brand Manager with Overall Best Brand Plan' for the Brand Management module by the judges, Michael McAdam, Brand Manager, OUTC!DER, and Elle Trinder, Assistant Brand Management.

Alicia said, “Being named the Best Brand Manager is incredibly rewarding. Presenting my brand plan directly to the team at OUTC!DER and C&C Group made the experience even more meaningful, as it meant the hard work I put into it was being evaluated not only academically but also by industry professionals.

“This has been a great confidence boost and reinforced my passion for brand strategy and marketing. My brand plan allowed me to bring together many of the concepts learnt throughout the module and apply them in a practical way. It pushed me to think strategically about positioning, target audiences, brand identity, and how marketing decisions can influence brand perception and growth.

“Working on a real-life brand made the assignment feel more engaging and meaningful. Finding out that I was presenting my brand plan to the OUTC!DER team and C&C Group added extra value and motivation, as it meant all my hard work went beyond achieving the highest grade. This was an amazing opportunity to experience what working in brand management looks like in the real world.”

Elle Trinder from C&C Group said, "It was a pleasure to welcome the top five Strathclyde business students to Wellpark Brewery as part of their final year Brand Management module. It was great to see the well-researched OUTC!DER brand plans with amazingly creative ideas, presented by the brand's target audience themselves! Each student should be proud of their excellent efforts and we wish them all the best for the future."

Thomas McAlinden, class co-ordinator for the Brand Management module, said, “This project embodies Strathclyde’s ethos of being ‘the place of useful learning’ and is a great opportunity for the students to work on a real-life brand and apply theory to practice. I’m delighted that my initial approach to C&C Group to engage with students in this module has resulted in a continuing relationship over the years which has benefits for all.

“I’d like to say well done to all the students who took part, especially the five who were selected with presenting to the judges – and congratulations to Alicia who was named overall winner.”

Management Science academic awarded UKRI Policy Fellowship

Dr Esmaeil Khedmati Morasae from the Department of Management Science has been awarded a UKRI Policy Fellowship to work with the Scottish Government. Esmaeil will be applying systems thinking and complexity-informed approaches to support housing strategy and policy development in Scotland over the next 18 months.

This fellowship is part of the latest cohort of 41 UKRI Policy Fellows, bringing academic expertise directly into the heart of UK policymaking to strengthen the connection between research, evidence, and public policy.

More information can be found at the UKRI LinkedIn Post Fellows | UK Research and Innovation and on the UKRI website Policy Fellows - UKRI

Solvias Leadership group Exec Ed programme

Phil Considine, Director of Executive Education, together with academic team Professor Jill MacBryde and Dr Steve Paton delivered the final module of the Solvias Leadership Group Executive Education programme on March 9 and 10 in Konstanz on the Germany/Switzerland border.

Solvias is a leading international pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing    company. The Vision to Value’ Executive Development Programme is run by Strathclyde Business School with the aim of helping the company develop its people and the organisation overall to future proof the business.

The programme is designed to equip Solvias’ leaders with the strategic, commercial, and leadership capabilities needed to deliver on its ambitious five-year vision through a blend of immersive workshops, industry case studies, site visits, and peer collaboration. This particular module was focused on operational excellence and innovation.

Solvias’ management are located in Switzerland, USA, UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Academic co-authors new BIS Bulletin

Dr Livia Pancotto (Senior Lecturer in Banking in the Department of Accounting and Finance and currently Visiting Economist at the BIS) has co-authored a new BIS Bulletin examining the economic implications of artificial intelligence across countries. The study explores how countries’ preparedness to adopt and deploy AI — together with their sectoral production structures — shapes the technology’s potential effects on productivity and economic growth.

The analysis finds that while advanced economies are currently better positioned to benefit from AI in the near term, emerging market economies could narrow this gap by investing in digital infrastructure, human capital and institutional capacity. Such efforts could both amplify productivity gains and help mitigate labour market risks through reskilling policies, thereby supporting long-term economic convergence with advanced economies.

The BIS Bulletin is available here: https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull121.htm

Marketing Class Prizes

Class prizes were presented to Department of Marketing students for Semester 1 classes recently.

Prizes were awarded to the student who achieved the highest overall grade in Marketing for the exam and class assignments. This year’s third year prize was shared between two students who achieved the same grade for the exam, the group report and the individual assignment.

Congratulations to all the students who received awards.

Management Science students benefit from useful learning

Department of Management Science students have had the opportunity to work on real business problems, and listen to practitioner experiences across various programmes recently:

• The MSc Business Analysis and Consulting programme has had guest talks from external practitioners with Wavestone Consulting, Synpulse and OVO. Additionally, the Becoming an Effective Business Analyst experiential learning module has featured client case studies from Deloitte, StormID, Sphera software solutions, WB Alloys.
• On the MSc Data Analytics programme, the Data Analytics in Practice experiential learning module has featured a client case study from Jacobs, and engineering and construction consultancy. They work with water companies throughout the UK, and the project was about detecting and predicting sewer blockages from available data.
• On the BA Business Analysis and Technology programme, the Honours year Business Analysis and Practice experiential learning module has featured client case studies from Barclays on scam detection and prevention strategy for Barclays corporate banking, and from DSTL on defence spending options for the upcoming 10 years.

National Data Library Expert Advisory Group Appointment

Sharada Davidson, Department of Economics and Fraser of Allander Institute, has been appointed to the National Data Library’s Expert Advisory Group which was established by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in September 2025.

The group consists of invited members drawn from industry, academia and civil society with a diverse range of expertise in Data and AI.

Sharada has worked on economic measurement and statistics undertaken in partnership with, for example, the Fraser of Allander Institute, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, Office for National Statistics and Northern Ireland Office.

The objectives of the Expert Advisory Group are to:

• provide strategic insight and scrutiny to shape NDL design and delivery
• review proposals and advise on user impact and operational feasibility
• share expertise from past initiatives and emerging innovations
• advise on principles that support transparency and strengthen public confidence
• highlight policy and legislative considerations that may affect responsible data sharing

Sexual harassment in Scottish hospitality industry research

Professor Dennis Nickson from the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation was recently invited by the CIPD Southeast Scotland branch to present research on sexual harassment of employees by customers in the Scottish hospitality industry.

The research findings were from ongoing research being conducted with colleagues, Dr Tasos Hadjisolomou, Dr Irma Booyens, Professor Tom Baum and Tayler Cunningham. Professor Nickson was one of three speakers presenting as part of a session, ‘Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Exploring the Risks and Prevention Measures.’

The event was attended by a mix of HR professionals and students from a number of Scottish universities.

RSE grant for WEO academics

The Department of Work, Employment and Organisation’s Dr Daria Luchinskaya and Professor Tom Baum have been awarded a Royal Society of Edinburgh SAPHIRE grant on the civic role of higher education in supporting sustainable university cities in Glasgow and Osaka.

Daria and Tom will be working with collaborators at Kansai Gaidai University and across the University of Strathclyde.

ReBI Sustainable Finance workshop

The Responsible Business Institute (ReBI) within the Department of Accounting and Finance will host its third Sustainable Finance Workshop on March 31. Following the successful delivery of annual workshops on this theme since 2024, this year’s event continues ReBI’s commitment to advancing discourse in sustainable finance. The programme features presentations from several prominent scholars in the field, including Bin Xu (ICMA), Viet Dang (University of Manchester), and Florian Peters (University of Amsterdam).

This workshop also functions as a key industry engagement event, supported by the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) KTP Pump Priming Fund (£7,500). This funding was awarded to facilitate the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Nature Broking and Strathclyde’s academic team, led by Professor Dimitris Andriosopoulos (Founding Director of ReBI) and Dr Kyung Yoon Kwon (Deputy Director of ReBI). Reflecting this collaboration, the event will include an industry panel session featuring Luke Baldwin, CEO of Nature Broking.

Further information regarding ReBI’s previous workshops and upcoming activities can be found here.

Horizon Europe research event

Dr Aylin Ates was invited to attend a Horizon Europe event in Berlin with more than 50 participants from over 20 organisations across Europe, bringing expertise across applied AI in strategic industrial sectors, next generation manufacturing of key EU products and resilient supply chains and health adaptation to climate change.

The two days of workshops on February 26 and 27 included cross-disciplinary collaboration, idea pitching and consortium building activities for strong EU project proposals.

Industry leaders join Remake Value Retention Centre roundtable

Professor Lesley Walls, Professor Matthew Revie, Guo Shi and Euan Barlow recently took part in the Remake Value Retention Centre (RVRC) Industry Roundtable on Maximising Products and Materials Value in High Integrity Sectors.

Part of the RVRC programme, the event was joined by over 20 industry leaders and featured structured discussions on driving circular change within high-integrity transport and energy sectors.

The ReMake Value Retention Centre (RVRC) is a Green Economy Centre funded by UKRI. It’s led by the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) and University of Strathclyde, in partnership with the University of Exeter and the University of Sheffield. Its aims are to create new economic value, reduce waste and emissions, build material resilience across nationally important sectors, and accelerate the transition to net zero while delivering substantial economic impact for the UK.

SISC-led BSI Code of Practice on nature market community benefits now out for public consultation

Matthew Hannon, Professor of Sustainable Energy Business and Policy in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation, and Director of the Strathclyde Institute for Sustainable Communities (SISC), has been acting as Lead Technical Author on behalf of the British Standards Institute (BSI).

He has been developing a Code of Practice for the Nature Investment Standards (NIS) Programme on “Nature markets – Community engagement and benefits from natural capital projects”, and the Code of Practice is now out for public consultation, to be launched later this year.

The Code of Practice provides practical recommendations for nature projects on good practice for community engagement and the delivery of community benefits, to support the scale-up of high-integrity nature markets.

The NIS programme is sponsored by DEFRA and the Scottish Government, and its aim is to establish a standards framework that creates a high-integrity market for investment in natural capital.

Professor Hannon said, “As nature markets gather momentum, their impact on our landscape is becoming more pronounced. This raises the question of how project developers should engage with - and benefit – the communities who live in close proximity to these projects. This Code of Practice breaks new ground by offering BSI guidance to developers, communities and other practitioners about how to design natural capital projects in a way that empower and enrich communities across the UK.”

The Code of Practice and consultation can be found here: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/insights/brochures/bsi-flex-705-nature-markets-community-engagement-and-benefits/

Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge

A team comprising three business school students has made it to the final of the Strathclyde Inspire-organised Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge 2026.

Abishek Guda, David Tack and Amina Nebozhyna will be presenting at the finals on April 1.