- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Ashley Community and Housing Ltd will develop innovative ways to measure their impact on the life-journeys of refugees and migrants
- Sector-leading expertise in ethnic minority entrepreneurship, impact measurement and business model innovation will enable the social enterprise to benefit from new, sustainable income streams
- The project will develop a transformed business model and provide a competitive edge to fundraising and philanthropy efforts.
Aston University are collaborating on a bold business transformation programme with a Midlands-based provider of housing and integration services for refugees and migrants.
Through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), a team of researchers are working with Ashley Community & Housing Ltd to better measure how its programmes deliver social, economic and cultural benefits to refugees and migrants. By delivering a transformative new business model, the KTP will drive growth in ACH’s commercial training programmes, build new partnerships with philanthropists and incorporate evidence of impact into local authority funding bids.
In a first for the sector, the KTP will use Aston University’s leading expertise on business support for ethnic minority entrepreneurs to develop a Holistic Impact Measure (HIM). This will determine the wide-reaching impacts of ACH’s refugee and migrant integration, education and housing programmes. The HIM will look at outcomes like finding a job, as well as broader life-journey measures like improvements in self-confidence, mental wellbeing, physical health and engagement with social and community activities.
The partnership will enable ACH to enhance how it designs, brands and resources its programmes, with a business model to grow new income streams so the social enterprise can invest in freehold housing for the first time. Following the KTP, ACH will also be better positioned to develop integration and education programmes that are tailored to the needs of refugees and migrants across the communities it works with.
Tom Dixon, head of business development at ACH, said:
"Aston University’s academic rigour provides us with the evidence base to demonstrate that the approaches we’re taking are the right ones. We’ll be able to better understand and build on the value we’re making to the lives of refugees and migrants, securing our future as a provider of supported housing and integration services.”
Professor Monder Ram, director of the University’s Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), said:
“Working on this KTP with a social enterprise like ACH is exciting. We are drawing on our extensive body of work in refugee and migrant integration and applying it in a way that can directly benefit those people across our community who engage with ACH’s programmes. This means our research is generating social and economic value.”
With expertise that is ideally suited to this project, CREME has a local, national and international reputation for innovating new approaches to refugee entrepreneurship and integration that are co-designed, delivered and evaluated with community partners. Its work benefits diverse and overlooked communities and helps to drive meaningful change in social inclusion, migration policy, supplier diversity and wages. The team will also draw on world-leading research in business model innovation and service operations management at Aston Business School, one of the UK’s most recognised business schools for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, funded by Innovate UK, are collaborations between a business, a university and a highly qualified research associate. The UK-wide programme helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills. Aston University is a sector leading KTP provider, ranked first for project quality, and joint first for the volume of active projects.
For more information on the KTP visit the webpage.
- Notes to Editors
Watch our short film to see how it works and visit our website for examples of KTP in action at Aston.
To find out more about how your business can benefit from working with Aston University, please email ktp@aston.ac.uk.
The KTP is led at Aston University by Professor Monder Ram OBE, CREME Centre Director. Professor Ram’s work is internationally recognised and has helped to shape the field of ethnic minority entrepreneurship over the last 30 years. He regularly consults for small and ethnic minority businesses and was named one of the country’s most influential Asians by the Institute of Asian Professionals. He sits on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for BAME Business Owners.
The project is supported by Dr Shuai Qin, a specialist in the design, implementation, and evaluation of support programmes for refugee-owned start-ups. He develops new ways to facilitate and monitor the impact of support services on the life journeys of refugees and has previously worked with ACH to help design their programmes. With research expertise that is central to this KTP, Dr Qin is supervising the KTP Associate and developing impact evaluation and commercialisation strategies for ACH.
ACH will also benefit from the expertise of Dr Ahmad Beltagui at Aston Business School. His research focuses on design-driven innovation, innovation ecosystems and digital technology as applied to social and business challenges. Dr Beltagui is supporting ACH to develop scalable commercial products and services and will co-supervise the KTP Associate.
About Aston University
For over a century, Aston University’s enduring purpose has been to make our world a better place through education, research and innovation, by enabling our students to succeed in work and life, and by supporting our communities to thrive economically, socially and culturally.
Aston University’s history has been intertwined with the history of Birmingham, a remarkable city that once was the heartland of the Industrial Revolution and the manufacturing powerhouse of the world.
Born out of the First Industrial Revolution, Aston University has a proud and distinct heritage dating back to our formation as the School of Metallurgy in 1875, the first UK College of Technology in 1951, gaining university status by Royal Charter in 1966, and becoming The Guardian University of the Year in 2020.
Building on our outstanding past, we are now defining our place and role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (and beyond) within a rapidly changing world.
For media inquiries in relation to this release, contact Sam Cook, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44) 7446 910063 or email: s.cook2@aston.ac.uk
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