Applied Knowledge Exchange

Samantha MacLean, Programme Leader for the MSc Human Resource Management at Glasgow Caledonian University, presented an award to Kelly Rossi of First People Solutions at the Scottish Recruitment Awards in Glasgow this month.

Rossi picked up the award for Individual Volume Specialist of the Year and won the award against a colleague and a representative from Search Consultancy at a glittering ceremony at the Hilton Hotel.

Glasgow Caledonian University completed the research for the Scottish Business Insider Awards, using the expertise of Samantha MacLean and the Caledonian Business School to design the categories for the awards and oversee the research process for the nominations.

This year’s Scottish Environmental Technology Network (SETN) annual conference will be held at Glasgow Caledonian University on 15th June 2010.   

The environmental technology conference is this year a collaboration between SETN and the Caledonian Environment Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Caledonian Environment Centre will be supported by GCU’s business gateway, the Applied Knowledge Exchange.

Funded by the SEEKIT programme of the Scottish Government, the event is free for SMEs to attend and will inform businesses about developments in the Scottish environmental technology sector, EU environmental legislation and R&D tax credit workshops.

SETN provides services to Scottish SMEs to improve their competitiveness in the environmental sector including areas such as contaminated land assessment & remediation, waste management, resource recovery, water and wastewater treatment, sustainable urban drainage systems and environmental management.

The Caledonian Environment Centre offers a dedicated team of professionals with expertise in waste resource management, carbon management, environmental sustainability and bioenergy.

Simon Glen, project officer at the Caledonian Environment Centre at GCU, will be speaking at the event, along with representatives from Zero Waste Scotland, EAE Ltd and Environmental Law Chambers.

SETN is led by the Contaminated Land Assessment & Remediation Research Centre based at The University of Edinburgh and works with research base groups from around Scotland.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s Applied Knowledge Exchange was at the S2S Social Enterprise Fair this week. We enjoyed chatting with Social Enterprises, other universities and inviduals about the growing social enterprise sector.

Our PgC Social Enterprise course was a hot topic of the day!

Find out more from wwww.gcu.ac.uk/business or give us a ring on 0141 331 3139 for a copy of our promotional DVD, which features Mel Young of the Big Issue and Homeless World Cup.

IMechE/ICE/IET/IChemE 

BLOODHOUND THE 1000 MPH

CHALLENGE

Glasgow Caledonian University and Scottish Power are co-sponsoring an exciting event featuring John Piper, Chief Engineer on the JCB land speed record car, talking about Britain’s latest attempt at the world land speed record.

The lecture will concentrate on the Bloodhound car, but will also talk about how the challenger cars tend to be very different and therefore there is no need to be secretive about the technology. The talk will include a general overview of the aims of the project, then the story of the design so far with some great visuals on the stress analysis work carried out by Arup.

Come to the event on: 22nd April 2010:
5:30pm for 6:30pm
Saltire Centre/Carnegie Lecture Theatre
Glasgow Caledonian University
Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, G4 0BA
For more information and to register your interest please contact:
Andrew Cowell on a.cowell@gcal.ac.uk
Find out more about the event here

The Applied Knowledge Exchange sponsored a successful Social Enterprise colloquium here at GCU this week.

We joined special guest speakers Karen Gilligan from Kibble, Tony Traynor from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Roana Dickson from GCU’s School of Health and Heather Sim from Space Unlimited.

Our speakers talked with our MBA and fourth year students about the development of Social Enterprises - a hot topic for the Scottish Government. Very interesting stuff! We will be at the S2S fair to get involved in promoting Social Enterprise next month.

Glasgow Caledonian University will be attending the KTP Scotland Awards Ceremony on 2nd February at the Doubletree Dunblane Hydro in Perthshire.

Glasgow Caledonian Uni has had several successful KTP partnerships with businesses including Novograf.

Current KTPs include those with Fearsom UK and If Only Holidays Limited.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is Europe’s leading programme helping business to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base.

At the Applied Knowledge Exchange, we welcome enquiries about funding and eligibility for Knowledge Transformation Partnerships from business and third sector organisations.

The main speaker at this year’s event will be Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland.

SMEs play a vital role in driving the Scottish economy and “yet they do not always received the recognition they deserve for their extraordinary achievements”.

These were the views emphasised by Alasdair Northrop, Editor of Scottish Business Insider, at the SME 300 Awards 2009 event in Glasgow.

According to Scottish Government research, SMEs account for 99.2% of enterprises here and they employ around 52.8% of the population.

Overall the SME 300 companies saw a 0.3% fall in profits reflecting the beginning of the recession. However, that compared to a 2.2% fall in Insider’s Top 500 companies listing, which seems to indicate that SMEs are more resilient in this climate.

Insider, in association with accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff, set up the awards three years ago to mark the achievements of SMEs in a number of areas including leadership, innovation and focus.

Cormac Bryce, PhD Researcher in the Division of Accounting, Finance & Risk at  the Caledonian Business School, conducted in-depth research for the SME 300 Awards 2009.

Cormac’s research was then put to the panel of judges led by Gio Benedetti. The other judges were Vivien Kyles, Chief Executive of Hamilton Park Racecourse; Audrey Corfield, Head of Office for Glasgow at Marsh; founder of Braveheart Geoffrey Thomson; and Chartered Accountant Nelson Gray.

Emergency veterinary care firm Vets Now scooped the SME 300 Company of the Year award at the Insider & Scott-Moncrieff SME 300 Awards 2009.

Eight awards were presented at a glittering ceremony at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow, attended by 300 key players in the Scottish SME marketplace. The awards recognise the achievement of Scotland’s best performing companies with a turnover of up to £20 million.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s Applied Knowledge Exchange supported the event, working closely with accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff to complete the research for each award nomination.

Canongate Books and Prosource IT provided Vets Now with competition for the top spot, taking two awards each. Canongate Books picked up prizes for Fastest Growing SME 300 Company and Most Focused Company. Prosource IT won Best Employer and Best Medium Company.

The event was hosted by comedian Fred MacAulay and speaker Charan Gill, the mastermind behind the Harlequin Restaurant Group.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange’s support of the SME 300 Awards comes hot on the heels of its sponsorship of ‘Scotland’s Business Oscars’ – the Insider Elite Awards 2009 in October. Principal of Glasgow Caledonian University, Professor Pamela Gillies, was a finalist in the prestigious Public Service Leader of the Year category.

Whether you are an SME, charity, multinational or public sector organisation, the Applied Knowledge Exchange can provide professional consultancy services, specialist research facilities, bespoke work-based learning opportunities, tailored to your business needs.

For further information contact Fiona Stewart-Knight.

On 2 September 2009,  from 9-5pm an event that aims to explore points of contact between the histories, cultures and peoples of Asia and Scotland will take place at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Strathclyde. To attend this free event, please e-mail your details to knowledgetransfer@ahrc.ac.uk.

The event aims to bring arts and humanities researchers in Scotland together with partners from related disciplines and organisations explore contacts between Scottish and Asian cultures with a view to shaping future relationships. These points of contact could be in Asia or in Scotland, or within the wider Scottish and Asian diasporas.

The key questions are what shapes should future relations between Scotland and Asia take and how can arts and humanities researchers work with non-HEI partners in order to realise these?