Professor Veronica Hope-Hailey, until recently Dean of the School of Management has been recognised with one of the top awards in the field of social sciences. The Academy of Social Sciences has appointed her as a Fellow which puts her among the most distinguished scholars and professional practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors in social sciences.
Following her six year term as Dean, Professor Hope-Hailey has embarked upon a new initiative as Vice-President (Strategic External Engagement) focussing on corporate and business collaborations. The aim of this role will be to build upon current Faculty/School-led teaching or research collaborations to create strong corporate partnerships with individual or clusters of institutions. This recognises the need for the University to work more closely with industry to maintain our research intensiveness and our fantastic record on employability.
The activity will seek to build on the work of the Corporate Engagement Team established in April 2018, which has focussed to date on listing, aligning and leveraging the numerous collaborations across the University for greater benefit. The aim is that, by creating certain centres of excellence with specific key business partners, we wish to take a more strategic approach to building their capability and profile, and also in term assist individual innovation, endeavour and venturing.
Professor Ian White, Vice-Chancellor and President said “In her important senior role as Vice-President, Veronica will lead a series of projects looking at how we can engage more effectively with external partners, with an initial focus on our corporate relationships.” The type of activities we would like to see established include a programme to encourage and grow some of our key partnerships and providing support to specific University research centres to create a mix of disciplines and capabilities that align well with priorities of external partners.
This Vice-President role will work closely with the PVC(Research), Research and Innovation Services, the Director of Development and Alumni Relations, and with members of all Faculties and the School to develop these enduring and sustainable external partnerships.