Research activity

Research Centres

Research activity in the School focuses on five research centres. They attract top-level research-active academic staff and leading international partners, providing a distinctive offering to funders:

The True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance (True Potential PUFin)

Aims to empower the UK public to better manage their finances by providing free tools to help them make sound financial decisions.

Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL)

Provides voluntary sector organisations with access to free leadership development modules and research-led insight.

Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL)

Aims to improve policing through a wide range of courses and qualifications, and problem-solving research.

The Institute for Social Marketing at The Open University (ISM-Open)

Promotes networking and collaboration between academics, practitioners and policy makers active and interested in social marketing research.

Centre of Innovation in Teaching and Learning (InTeL)

Provides leadership for research, scholarship and quality enhancement in responsible management and law education.

Research Clusters

We also have a number of research clusters that capture key interests and common themes with the School.

We foster innovation and development in research by encouraging the formation of research clusters, with the intention that some of these will develop sufficient critical mass to become research centres.

Practice-oriented research

Brings together a number of colleagues from various departments within the Business School who have a common interest on organisational practice research.

Re-approaching Ethics in Practice

Seeks to re-invigorate debates on contemporary approaches to ethics in management and business studies through both theoretical and empirical intervention.

Leadership Development for the Health Sector

Aims to contribute to the evidence-base as to what kind of leadership development can produce which kinds of benefits for the Health Sector.

Research into Employment, Empowerment and Futures (REEF)

Seeks to explore and shape the future direction of empowerment, work and society from the Department for People and Organisations, in partnership with The People Space.