Our research strategy is informed by our school mission and vision to ensure a vibrant research culture, with supportive structures that provide the intellectual resources necessary for tackling the complex problems of a modern and global economy with a focus on sustainability. Our strategic approach fundamentally engages our traditional disciplines: Accounting, Business Management, Economics, Finance and Real Estate. It also incorporates pushing beyond these boundaries to build critical mass in high quality multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange expertise utilising the five research centres in the School: Aberdeen Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance; Africa-Asia Centre for Sustainability; Centre for Governance, Accountability and Sustainability; Centre for Labour Market Research; and Centre for Real Estate Research.
Our Mission for Research
Powering change for better businesses and better lives through impactful research addressing global societal challenges.
We see our ability to inform and change the ways in which stakeholders think about specific challenges (often contesting conventional wisdom) as integral to our role, alongside influencing policies and practices of governments, institutions and corporations. We, therefore, treat theory, policy and practice as interconnected and inseparable, and regard changes in intellectual discourses within and across disciplines, and more broadly within society, as a measure of impact as much as changes in policy and practice.
Our Vision
- To gain international recognition for leadership in interdisciplinary research on sustainable and socially inclusive transitions.
- To embed a culture of working with stakeholders in the private and public sectors, nationally and internationally, through collaborative innovation.
- To ignite breakthrough innovations by uniting change-makers, entrepreneurs and strategic thinkers in the world’s energy cities.
The School’s mission and vision for research embrace and reflect the aims of our University’s 2040 Vision:
- Inclusivity: Harnessing the views from diverse stakeholders to address societal problems.
- Interdisciplinarity: Incorporating the different views of multiple disciplines to gain better insight into solving problems.
- International: Recognising that context is important to stakeholders and to the challenges they face.
- Sustainable: Understanding that whatever solutions are proposed, they must be sustainable and incorporate a recognition of their effects on society and the planet.
Strategic Objectives
- Attract and retain internationally highly recognised scholars who combine research excellence with an enthusiasm to encourage and:
- Support research capacity building within the School across our academic disciplines;
- Enhance its international reputation; and
- Develop further interdisciplinary links in the School and across the University using our Research Centres as catalysts for interdisciplinary research.
- Increase the research income streams to ensure the sustainability of research in the School;
- Grow an integrated and vibrant PhD programme; and
- Engage with public and private non-academic stakeholders consistently.