Monthly Archives: December 2011

CEEDR, Middlesex University, receives funding for Big Society research

Posted by environmentandthethirdsector in Uncategorized

big society research.

 


15 November 2011

Business people looking at documents

Middlesex University’s business research centre, Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR), has been awarded a grant to study the role of social enterprise in building the “Big Society”. 
  
The research will be carried out by Middlesex researchers Leandro Sepulveda and Fergus Lyon in partnership with The Guild, a consultancy and training provider for third sector organisations and social enterprises. 
  
The grant of £11,500 was awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Department for Business Innovation & Skills and Barclays. 
  
The project, which runs from November 2011 to March 2013, will look at the engagement of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) and social enterprises with the Big Society agenda and the changing circumstances in which they operate in relation to this government’s policy agenda.    
  
The research will also look at what challenges these organisations and their services will face in making the transition from a more grant dependant towards a more entrepreneurial social enterprise business model. 
  
The qualitative research approach will consist of interviews with VCOs and social enterprises operating in the health and social care sector and key stakeholders in the roll out of the Big Society in the East of England. 
  
“Middlesex University was selected to do this research because it is one of the leading places of academic research into social enterprise in England,” said Leandro Sepulveda, principal researcher at CEEDR. 
  
“This project is important and timely because it will shed light onto whether VCOs and social enterprises actually engage with elements of the Big Society agenda and the extent to which the Big Society understand and support these organisations.”