The Business and Enterprise theme covers a wide range of industries including the energy and tourism sectors as well as innovation and entrepreneurship.

Interests within the Business and Enterprise theme are in areas such as:

• Entrepreneurship
• Environmental sustainability
• Marketing
• Employee relations
• Finance

Contact

Professor Alistair Anderson

Business & Enterprise Research Staff

The Governance & Society theme explores the interfaces between governance and society at local, national and international scales.

Disciplines contributing to the G&S theme include:

• Law
• Politics and Public Policy
• Accounting and Finance
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Transport Policy

Governance and Society research staff are involved in international class multi- and interdisciplinary research whose underlying aim is to bring benefit to societies, economies and individuals.

Areas of Research

Current areas of research activity (and dissemination) include:

• Care North and E Harbors - two European projects examining practical ways of reducing energy use and CO2 emissions from local transport and port activities, undertaken by researchers from IMaGeS and RGU's IDEAS Research Institute.
• Effective Communication with Jurors in the UK - Collaboration between researchers in Law and Psychology looking at jurors understanding of evidence and legal process.
• A Multidimensional Framework for Evaluating and Selecting Bankruptcy Prediction Models - Financial research aiming to develop a forecasting model to predict the business failures.
• The UK Government's legislative ‘war on terror': legal, social and human rights outcomes - collaborative research between researchers in Sociology and Law
• ‘Variated Civil Society: the Brussels offices of the regions' - A Research project in Public Policy funded by the British Academy
• Do small town main streets still matter?- Multidisciplinary research looking at the relationship between small town main streets and cultural identity
• Relatives' experience of post mortems - A Research project featuring researchers from Law and RGU's Health and Welfare Research Institute, funded by the NHS Endowment Fund.
• A Global Study for the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) - A team from Accounting searched for good practice in the development and assessment of non-technical skills in accountancy trainees.
• Socio-legal studies conference 2012. Major law conference being hosted by Governance and Society members.

Contact

Professor David Gray

Governance & Society Research Staff

This theme focuses on the use and impact of information and knowledge, with an emphasis on information user perspectives.

The aim of the Information & Communication theme is to develop understanding of, and solutions to, information and communication challenges in society through quality research and practitioner engagement.  

Information & Communication covers a broad range of related subjects such as:

• Information literacy
• Communication
• Knowledge management
• New media
• Librarianship
• Publishing
• Information management

RAE 2008

In RAE 2008, RGU was the top university in Scotland, and second equal in UK, for overall research quality in Library and Information Management. The Information and Communication theme brings together expertise and knowledge within RGU and all of the research within this area (Unit of Assessment 37) was of international quality, with the majority rated as Internationally Excellent or World-leading. This is based on the 2008 average scores for overall research quality in the subject area.

Engagements and Outputs

Typical types of engagements undertaken by members of the Information & Communication theme staff include:

• Externally-funded research projects (funding bodies include NHS, UNESCO, AHRC, and The European Union
• Technology transfer partnerships (including Amor Group)
• Consultancy work with public and private sector clients including Shell Expro and The United Nations

Contact

Dr Simon Burnett

Information & Communication Research Staff

A theme within the Institute for Health and Welfare Research.

Our aim is to better understand the pathology of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases at the cellular level, and develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that will be translated into clinical practice.

The group include researchers with a widespread expertise spanning from immunology, molecular biology, nutrition, organic and medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, physiology, clinical biochemistry, and pharmacy practice.

• Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
• Ischaemic heart disease
• Obesity and co-morbidities - incorporating the
  Centre for Obesity Research & Epidemiology (CORE)
• Nephropathic cystinosis
• Drug discovery, formulation and delivery

View Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease Potential PhD Research Projects

The cross disciplinary nature of the group spans the areas of basic science, clinical and practice based research. Our outcomes are readily transferable into treatment and prevention strategies at patient level.

Download the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Research flyer

Contact

Dr Giovanna Bermano

Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease Research Staff 

A theme within the Institute of Health and Welfare Research.

Our research is dedicated to the enhancement of lifelong mental health and wellbeing from a multidisciplinary perspective. We embrace an evidence-based approach to informing policy initiatives, clinical practice, and the education and training of healthcare professionals.

Programmes of research within the theme include:

• Bereavement care
• Ante-natal care
• Promotion of healthy ageing
• Mental health policy
• Self care interventions
• Clinical care provision for ethnic minority groups 
• Trauma care - focused within the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research (ACTR)
• Mental health and forensic nursing practice

View the Neurological & Mental Health Potential PhD Projects

Download the Neurological & Mental Health Flyer

Contact

Dr Susan Klein

Neurological & Mental Health Research Staff

A theme within the Institute of Health and Welfare Research.

Our research employs cutting edge techniques to address health problems that are presented both within the environment and the workplace. Our interests focus on clinical and basic science research into environmental health and physical wellbeing.  Our interests include:

Environmental Health

• Development of novel semi-synthetic flavonoids against MRSA
• Triclosan as an antibacterial agent
• Development of novel antibacterial wound dressings
• Tracking the diet of the Scottish population in relation to the Scottish Dietary Targets

Occupational Health

• Use of gait analysis to understand chronic back pain
• Assessment of tendon properties and adaptation in patients and athletes
• Self-management of chronic conditions
• Exercise and physical activity in Physiotherapy,
• Movement analysis to aid diagnosis & outcome measurement in Physiotherapy
• Medical evacuation procedures from oil rigs 

View Environmental & Occupational Health Potential PhD Projects

Download the Environmental & Occupational Health Flyer

Contact

Professor Cherry Wainwright

Environmental & Occupational Health Research Staff

The related subjects of energy, environment and sustainability extend across a range of significant research activities within IDEAS.

The theme includes research dealing with technical solutions to real problems, including issues of renewable energy from wind and water, environmental sensing and remediation and psychological and behavioural studies concerning the relationship between people and the wider environment.

Within the theme lie a number of established research centres and groups including:

• Well Engineering Research Group
• Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment CRE+E
• Environments for People Research Centre EfP.

The IDEAS institute takes the direct relevance and impact of its research as a central point of its work, including work with government and industries including the oil and gas sectors, construction, architecture, urban design and energy providers. The impact of this activity on practice in itself forms a specific research centre, Centre for Understanding Sustainability in Practice (CUSP).

In the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, research in the Schools of Engineering, and Architecture and the Built Environment, was graded as "world leading" for 5% and 10% (respectively) of the submission, with a further 80 and 60% judged to be at international level.

Energy, Environment & Sustainability Research Staff

Digital technologies impact all areas of modern life. At IDEAS, researchers in our Digital Technologies theme work at the leading edge of research in software and electronics.

A key principle of our research is social relevance and much of our work brings benefit to science, industry and the wider public.

• Our Knowledge Based Sytems Group conducts research on knowledge modelling, discovery and acquisition.

• Our Computational Intelligence Group has a primary focus in four related areas: evolutionary algorithms; probabilistic modelling; parallel computing and neural networks.
• Our Information Retrieval research group has a primary focus in four related areas: formal models for context-sensitive information retrieval [Renaissance Project]; knowledge-enriched interactive search over enterprise and domain-specific collections [Autoadapt Project]; content-based multimedia and social media search; and knowledge discovery and management.
• Our Cognitive Engineering Group focus on imaging, graphics, visualisation, video communications, cognitive & performance modelling and user interaction.
• Our Centre for Video Communications conducts research and development work around the technology of imaging and communication including video compression, software and hardware architectures and high-performance digital communications.

• Our Information Systems Group research group has a technology transfer focus that adds a new business-oriented view to existing information retrieval and systems expertise and bridges the gaps with other research groups. The group has three main themes: business information systems, learning technologies, and user-centred information retrieval.

Digital Technologies Research Staff