How can social sciences drive your business

BUSINESS BOOST

Discover how the social sciences can bring fresh thinking and innovation to your workforce to boost your business

WELCOME TO BUSINESS BOOST

In this prospectus we showcase the work of our social scientists, and how it’s making a real impact on businesses and organisations seeking to innovate in their day-to-day operations.

Your business or organisation can work with us in a number of ways – from PhD placements through to knowledge transfer consultancy, and via many other modes of engagement. We have a wealth of experience of working with industry, and of making a real impact for mutual benefit.

As the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) outlines, the social sciences have a great deal to offer businesses – from understanding the potential for new goods, services and business models to improving relationships with providers, customers and employees.

In this prospectus you’ll read about diverse projects including how greener hairdressing practices are improving environmental sustainability, and how the power of harnessing data analytics can boost profits and productivity.

You may be surprised as to how our research can play a transformative role in industry, through bringing innovation into established operations.

The University of Southampton is recognised in the UK for the quality and impact of our research. More than 96 per cent of our research environment is rated as ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014) and we’re ranked as one of Europe’s top 100 most innovative universities by Thomson Reuters.

Our doors are open to businesses looking to engage with our worldleading research, just one aspect of a wider portfolio of support, services and facilities we offer to business.

Professor Mark Spearing Vice President, Research and Enterprise

Please contact our business engagement team, and let’s start the conversation, to give your business a boost!

Contents

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Ways we can work together

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Environment: Connecting experts to tackle the antimicrobial resistance challenge

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Environment: Promoting sustainable hairdressing practices across the UK

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Global economies: More than just numbers

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Data: How we’re unleashing the value of smart mobile data and reducing financial risk

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Health and wellbeing: How a useful new app is helping people help themselves to lose weight

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Our research impact in numbers

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WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER Where to start

Access to talent

Businesses thinking of working in collaboration with a university may feel a little daunted at first. Who do I contact? Which university department? What’s the best subject area? But we’re a friendly, knowledgeable and approachable team, and we can help. All we need is an initial conversation, then we’ll be able to offer a range of opportunities so that, together, we can set out the best way forward for your business or organisation to work with us providing a talent solution for your challenge to meet your timeframes and resources.

For example, we can provide access to talented undergraduate and postgraduate students to bring fresh thinking and innovation to your workforce through placements in your workplace to suit the scope and scale of your project, perhaps embarking on an idea you’ve been wanting to get off the ground, but you haven’t had the time or skills. Let us help you and develop a future recruitment pipeline.

Academic expertise We can help to match you with academic expertise which you can access through a range of consultancy and collaborative research projects or by having a researcher seconded to come to

work on a project within your business. We also offer tailored CPD and training opportunities for your staff.

Unlock funding Or, we can help you unlock funding for research in your organisation by accessing grants only available through a university collaboration. We can also explore setting-up a Knowledge Transfer Partnership through the sector-leading Innovate UK KTP scheme.

Business support Plus, we can help you access start-up business support through our Southampton Science Park or the SETSquared Partnership to get your new high-tech enterprise off the ground. And, we can commercialise our research for you to use through a licensing agreement.

We offer you a range of ways to engage and get your next innovation off to a flying start. Get in touch and we’ll provide friendly, experienced guidance and, together, give your business a real boost.

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Environment

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Connecting experts to tackle the antimicrobial resistance challenge New problems require a new approach. Which is certainly the case when it comes to tackling the increased threat of bacteria and viruses – which don’t recognise physical boundaries or government regulations.

Lead academic: Dr Emma Roe School of Geography and Environmental Science

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The antimicrobial resistance (AMR) challenge is one such problem. It poses a very real risk to public health and tackling it effectively will require input from many different stakeholders, from food retailers to government departments.

University research stimulates debate and gathers evidence upon which informed, and effective policy can be built. In this case, therefore, it was crucial to bring together a broad group of the right minds to start tackling the problem holistically. As such, we worked with our partners, the University of Newcastle and the Food Standards Agency, to host a significant networking event, inviting a group of experts whose input had, until now, been largely absent from the AMR debate. These included economic geographers, engineers and microbiologists.

Introducing them to retailers in the food industry, and government partners, as a group we discussed the role of large-scale food retailers and food supply chains and investigated how their role is evolving in the face of the AMR challenge. We also focused on how they might help to shape significant, future policy not just in the UK, but also internationally.

The exercise has markedly helped to refine our research objectives. It has also laid important foundations to establish a network for academia, corporates, and policy-makers to keep this important dialogue open.

And, it will help support future research projects – putting the UK as a whole on the front foot to tackle the AMR challenge.

“ This project delivered some novel insights into the potential transmission of AMR through the retail food chain. It has the potential to inform global food standards and we’re pleased to be working with the Universities of Southampton and Newcastle to promulgate its findings through our networks with food policy regulators across the globe.”

Steve Wearne Head of Policy, Food Standards Agency

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Environment

TURNING HAIR GREENER Promoting sustainable hairdressing practices across the UK We want to help businesses adopt more environmentallyfriendly and sustainable ways of working, and much of our business research involves helping to make this happen in practice, backed by funding from the ESRC’s Impact Acceleration Account.

Lead academic: Dr Denise Baden Southampton Business School

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Promoting sustainable hairdressing practices across the UK hairdressing industry accounts for 5% of the UK’s GDP and uses significant amounts of energy. Working in partnership with the Hair and Beauty Industry Authority, Hair Drying Solutions, and the Vocational Training Charitable Trust, we developed and launched a certification scheme that hairdressing salon stylists could complete online to equip them with new skills to adopt greener products and practices within their own salons.

For example, one salon introduced low-flow shower heads, saving 14,400 litres of water and equating to a cost saving of £1,426 annually. We also developed a training programme and found that salons acted as enthusiastic advocates to encourage the wider hairdressing community to use more environmentally-friendly hairdressing practices and products.

Throughout the project, we awarded successful certification to more than 70 salons and 1,500 stylists. We also ran 60 sustainability workshops and training events for hairdressing professionals and trainers, to educate

the sector about greener products and practices.

The partnership has contributed towards the sustainability component of the UK’s hairdressing training curriculum, and Davines, an eco-friendly hairdressing product supplier, now promotes certification to salons who stock its products.

Other ways we’re helping businesses become more sustainable…

Through exploring sustainable business models by reducing environmental 2 unsustainability and making products more durable – and exploring how to make products available through sharing rather than purchase, supporting pilot schemes such as a ‘library of things.’

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Through helping businesses manage their greenhouse gas emissions through training and workshops, including working with the Uganda Manufacturers Association in reporting its contribution 2 2 towards the achievement of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals.

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“ We were the first salon to obtain the sustainable salon certificate, and the exposure we have had has really helped our business. We have many customers coming to us now because they have heard about our sustainability credentials.”

Samantha Cunningham Shine hair salon, Southampton

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Global economies

MORE THAN JUST NUMBERS How a new way to estimate mortality rates is making an impact on future planning The production of mortality estimates is a hugely important and complex task.

Governments and businesses need continually to plan ahead, and many decisions will rest on these estimates.

Mortality estimates feed into national population projections, which are the definitive source of information that the government uses to better understand the UK’s changing population. Future planning for social and health care, social security and financial resilience rely on such projections.

In this project researchers based within our Centre for Population Change worked with our partners, the Office for National Statistics, to develop a new methodology

for estimating life tables. They continue to review the ONS’s mortality assumptions to ensure that the use of new criteria provide a much more rounded view of future population change. These developments are of interest for thousands of businesses and organisations up and down the UK who rely on population projections for vital future planning.

In the private sector, life tables are used in insurance companies

and the financial services, as well as being of enduring interest to the media. For example, the new methodology is set to have a significant impact on the actuarial industry, whose statistical forecasts can inform more realistic, and fairer, pricing of life and health insurance products.

This, in turn, should lead to greater product innovation and a better deal for consumers

“ This work is a great example of collaborative methodological research that has the potential to make clear and significant impact on our partners, the Office for National Statistics, and beyond.”

Lead academic: Dr Erengul Dodd Centre for Population Change, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton

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Population people The ESRC Centre for Population Change brings together experts in the fields of demography, economics, geography, gerontology, sociology, social policy and social statistics, plus expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

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Data

ADDING FINTECH INTELLIGENCE How we’re unleashing the value of smart mobile data and reducing financial risk Our academic community is uniquely placed to help businesses meet the challenge of the data economy – and our research in the area of fintech, or financial technology, and the data-driven economy is particularly significant.

Our academic teams from the Centre for Risk Research are leading the way in this exciting – and highly disruptive – area, adding significant value into internet businesses’ operations.

In this case, we translated our research insight into new knowledge for an internet and mobile fintech company, through an in-depth risk management and mobile fintech training programme.

The partnership saw us working collaboratively with Audaque Data Technology Ltd, a leading

Lead academics (left to right): Dr Tiejun Ma, Professor Ming-Chien Sung and Professor Johnnie Johnson Centre for Risk Research, Southampton Business School

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data solutions company based in China, which had already been highlighted by the Harvard Business Review for improving the effectiveness of a risk management model. This, in turn, would improve the chances of ensuring more profitable lending to smartphone customers.

Our team worked at the company’s HQ to provide specialised training to Audaque employees, to embed the new, and highly effective, smartphone users’ risk management methodologies into the company’s

risk management models and data analytic systems.

The benefits of our involvement have been significant. Following Audaque’s adoption of the new risk management methodology, its successful lending has grown exponentially, leading to substantially increased profits.

This has also significantly enhanced the company’s brand and reputation, subsequently helping them win multiple governmental contracts worth several million pounds.

£ no.1 Other ways we’re helping fintech businesses‌

Our Centre for Risk Research is boosting the value derived from data solutions and risk management in other ways, too. This includes successful collaboration with a number of financial services and fintech firms to improve their business risk management methodologies, ranging from pension funds and trading exchanges, to fintech software firms and AI start-ups.

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Health and wellbeing

POWER TO THE PEOPLE How a useful new app is helping people help themselves to lose weight

There’s little doubt the UK is facing an obesity crisis.

According to a recent government report, more than half the UK’s adult population could be obese by 2050 – costing the NHS a staggering £10 billion a year.

Our research into health and wellbeing takes many routes.

It spans different areas of research from medicine to technology to psychology and focuses on helping to improve people’s health and wellbeing in practical ways. Working in partnership with Changing Health Ltd, with support

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from local authorities and the NHS, our research has now supported the development of an innovative weight-loss app called POWeR.

“ In a trial of 500 people, 30% of POWeR users lost 5% of their weight after just 12 months with minimal support: three emails and one brief phone call during the year from a practice nurse. This 5% is a crucial amount, because it’s sufficient to halve the incidence of diabetes.”

Lead academic: Professor Lucy Yardley School of Psychology

Based on NICE guidelines for weight management, POWeR has been developed with users to ensure accessibility and effectiveness across different genders, ages and educational levels, and it’s suitable for people with, or without, long-term health conditions.

It’s easy to use, and very effective. Users log-on to the POWeR app each week to track their weight and set and review eating and physical activity goals. Then, they receive automated personalised advice based on their progress, such as tips on how to change behaviour or habits, or success stories about how other users have stayed motivated to lose weight.

Five local authorities and one NHS clinical commissioning group in the UK have now adopted the POWeR app and they are rolling it out for patients to use. A larger-scale UK-wide roll-out of the app is also planned by NHS England, to be used in tandem with other interventions to help patients with diabetes.

Other ways we’re helping organisations boost health and wellbeing…

Through our research into the effect of space flight on human muscle tone which will not only help astronauts on future space missions – but also benefit people on Earth by feeding back into research on muscle-wasting conditions, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders, and the effects of ageing.

Through collaborative research that combines cutting-edge, printed smart fabrics, plus intelligent control and health care methods to create wearable, electrical stimulation technology helping improve mobility for people who are recovering from a stroke.

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You may be surprised as to how our research can play a transformative role in industry, through bringing innovation into established operations.

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Top choice:

We’re a top 20 university in the 2019 Times Good University Guide

Great minds:

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We’re no.8 in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014)

Best for business: Our business incubator is globally no.1

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96% of our research environment has been rated as ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014)

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Partnership:

40% of our research activity involves industry collaboration (REF 2014)

We rank third in the UK for our work with SMEs through contract research, consultancy, facilities, CPD & IP income

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Dr Jane Kavanagh-Lauridsen Business Engagement Manager University of Southampton T: +44 (0) 23 8059 3095 E: business@soton.ac.uk

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Find out more www.southampton.ac.uk/business University of Southampton Research and Innovation Services University Road Southampton SO17 1BJ

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