In her latest blog (December, 2022) Oxford Brookes University PhD student, Hannah Tornow, puts out a final call for any companies wanting to engage in our collaborative research, asking you to get in touch
We are now well into the new semester of a new academic year, so it feels like time to provide a short update on my PhD journey. Similar to last summer (2021), my progress and next steps on my PhD journey were reviewed in a viva by a committee of different researchers. In this PhD viva I received helpful feedback and passed with a note of commendation, which I was very honoured to receive.
In the past couple of months, as data collection has progressed, I have exceeded the expectations of my PhD project plan and I have been pleased by the high response rates from companies in the Oxfordshire region. Nevertheless, even higher participation levels can improve results further and ensure a greater potential to inform policies. Therefore, I am calling all innovation-based companies in Oxfordshire’s innovation ecosystem to engage with my research. I hope you all see the urgent need for equality, diversity and inclusion to support the innovation within your company but also for the whole region, so if you haven’t been part of this research yet, please come forward and get in touch.
As a reminder, this research takes a holistic approach looking at three different levels where innovation takes place – level 1, the ecosystem; level 2, innovation-based companies in the ecosystem; and level 3, the employees contributing to innovation. What is required from you if your company is willing to participate? I would ask you to distribute a 15-minute online survey among your employees to capture how your employees perceive the company environment and their own role in innovation. In a second step, I would ask you to identify one key representative for an interview to examine how your company understands innovation, culture, flexible working and what policies and practices exist in your company.
Why should you participate? – You will be contributing to the investigation of gender-inclusive innovation in the ecosystem. Through participation in this research, you may also gain knowledge and understanding about how innovation works in the Oxfordshire innovation ecosystem and what can be done to overcome potential barriers to innovation.
Dual dissemination of research findings
This PhD is unusual, in that there will be a dual dissemination strategy – an academic one and an industry one to ensure the ecosystem and the companies engaging in this research benefit from this research. This is one of the reasons that Advanced Oxford is actively supporting this PhD project.
Please share this call to action to reach a wider audience and get in touch to find out more.
Hannah ([email protected])
