Applied Knowledge Exchange

Ailsa McKay, Professor of Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University’s Caledonian Business School, writes in The Scotsman that cutbacks will hit women the hardest.

Headlines relating to the impact on jobs of the global financial crisis and the resulting economic downturn have talked of a “mancession”, a phrase coined by US economists describing trends in unemployment in the early stages of the current recession. The conclusion drawn from the initial statistics was that the slump appeared to be hurting men more than women.

Read the article here

Hamish Dingwall, Director of Research, Innovation and Enterprise at Glasgow Caledonian University, features in this week’s Business 7 magazine.

His views on the value of Social Enterprises to the business sector are examined in the article.

Find out more information about the Applied Knowledge Exchange works with Social Enterprises.

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.

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.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange shall be going to the S2S fair in Edinburgh next month to promote its activities in Social Enterprise. Come and say hello to us at the exhibition!

Five Glasgow Caledonian University staff are participating in an Understanding Social Enterprise course run by the Social Enterprise Academy this week.

The course is part of a Scottish Government initiative to foster stronger links between University’s and the burgeoning social enterprise sector in Scotland.

We will also be helping place students in social enterprises and showcasing our activity in this area at the S2S trade fair.

Follow us on Twitter #CaledonianAKE to find out more about our work in this area.

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.

The  Scottish Government has published a report following a consultation with the public sector on its views on whether the UK Equality Bill should introduce new socio-economic duties to Scottish public bodies.

The consultation asked whether the provision in the Bill to place a duty on certain public bodies to have due regard to socio-economic inequalities in strategic decision making (which, as the Bill stands, applies to England and Wales only) should be extended to Scottish public bodies.

69 written responses were received by the close of the consultation. Overall, there was a majority of respondents in favour of the application of the socio-economic duty to public authorities in Scotland.

A common theme was the existence of poverty and socio-economic inequality and other forms of inequality in Scotland, the impact of this and the need to address such issues. Others suggested a duty would ensure consistency and continuity of work to address socio-economic inequality and have a positive impact upon resources for such work and increase scrutiny of strategic decisions.

However, there were some perceived problems with the application of a socio-economic duty to public authorities in Scotland. Amongst these, a common theme was the existence of current arrangements and frameworks. There are also fears it would increase bureaucracy and make public authorities vulnerable to legal challenge and judicial review.

What is your view? Join the debate here.

Glasgow Caledonian University is already gearing up for a busy year of new courses and seminars created especially for businesses.

First up is a new Top Up MSc programme in Human Resource Management, aimed at HR and business professionals who already hold the postgraduate Diploma in HRM and would like to advance to MSc level.

Launching on Thursday 4th February 2010, the course involves two taught modules comprising Consulting for Strategic Change, and Leadership and HR Management.

Launching this spring, Economics for Equality is a short course to help policy makers, community activists and businesses to understand how talking the language of economics can help in the promotion of gender equality.

Economics for Equality will provide your organisation with a supportive learning environment to explore the relevance of gender and the economy to public spending, policy making and your business.

Also on the cards for March 2010 is Glasgow Caledonian University’s Postgraduate Certificate in Social Enterprise is the only postgraduate degree in Scotland designed specifically for the growing Social Enterprise sector. It was developed through the collaboration of Glasgow Caledonian University and the Scottish Social Enterprise Academy to provide organisations with techniques to aid them in demonstrate greater entrepreneurial flair, innovation and self-reliance. The year-long part-time course has been designed to meet the needs of busy professionals and has been designed for flexibility around three weekends.

For more information on any of these courses, click here or contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange on 0141 331 3125.

Renewable and clean energy enjoys a ‘significant comparative advantage’ in Scotland according to a Scottish Government report published this week.

The study highlights Scotland’s location, natural resources, research and development and manufacturing bases as key advantages for developing Scotland’s clean energy resource.

The report shows one additional gigawatt of onshore or offshore wind capacity could reduce Scotland’s current total carbon emissions by around 3%. Electricity grid infrastructure will be a fundamental influence on Scotland’s ability to accommodate growth in renewables.

Energy Minister Jim Mather said Scotland’s energy advantage lies in securing low carbon electricity from renewables and clean fossil fuels.

The Scottish Government has recruited the help of Scottish Water, John Lewis, BT and Scottish Power for a new 2020 Delivery Group to ensure that all sectors of Scotland’s economy and civic society contribute fully to achieving the Climate Change Delivery Plan which includes the target of a 42% reduction in emissions over the next decade.

Dr Alastair Sutherland of the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University says: ‘Here at GCU’s School of Life Sciences, we are looking at optimising microbial consortia in anaerobic digestion so that we can more efficiently generate biofuels including methane gas at micro- and macro-generation levels.

‘Inputs can be waste material or substrate such as seaweed or microalgae grown noncompetitively with food crops. We are particularly investigating anaerobic digestion of seaweed for use by small island communities and perhaps councils who need to remove cast seaweed from leisure beaches.
 
‘However, anaerobic digestion of grass and other horticultural waste and waste paper are being investigated. The benefits are developments in renewable biofuels, reduction in landfill waste and the release of associated methane (a greenhouse gas) from landfill.’

The School of Life Sciences works with local, national and international partners and is fully committed to promoting the economic vitality of Scotland and the UK . To find out more contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange.