Sustainability in action: United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (UN PRME)

Principle 4 | Research We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable, social, environmental and economic value. The challenges of responsible and sustainable management practice demand research that draws on the perspectives and expertise of multiple academic disciplines and offers insights and solutions that can be implemented in practice to achieve impact in business and society. Cranfield is already globally recognised for the impact our research has though its application in the ‘real world.’ In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), 88% of our publications were rated as world leading or internationally excellent (compared to 74% in 2014) and the School of Management was ranked 7th (out of 108) in the UK for research impact (compared to 22nd (out of 101) in 2014). Our ambition is now explicitly to direct this impact toward sustainable innovation and delivering a sustainable future, with one of the four focus areas of our corporate plan to “be recognised globally as the UK’s Applied Research Powerhouse, and as a leader of sustainable innovation.” We are increasingly finding ways to build bridges between schools to engage in collaborative research activities, with the School of Management’s focus on how environmental and social value creation supports long-term business resilience and success complemented by the environmental knowledge of the School of Water, Energy and Environment and the engineering expertise of the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing. The Resilience Grand Challenge, a pan-university thematic research initiative, is a powerful example of how a field can be advanced by bringing together perspectives in this way. The School of Management’s Sustainable Business Group research focuses on informing organisational transformation towards sustainability with a focus on: • innovation; • partnerships; • manufacturing, digitalisation and supply chains; • organisational change. In addition, we are increasingly engaging in interdisciplinary research related to sustainability and responsible management across the School of Management, including examples in this chapter of research activities at the intersection of sustainability and resilience, and sustainability and human resource management. However, we recognise that we still have more work to do, and this is reflected in our goals for this Principle. Our Research and Innovation Office (RIO) helps us co-design research with industry and government, which contributes to sustainable innovation, and delivers positive impact. “It’s about building on our heritage as a really strong institution, working with industry and stakeholders to deliver real-world change, and to solve their problems. What we want to do is grow that and scale it up and really be globally recognised for our strength in this space.” Alicen Nickson, Director of Research and Innovation. 4a: Incentivise and support research at the intersection of sustainability and other disciplines. 4b: Work with the library team to include SDG tags against all published research to enable tracking of research output by SDG. Goals:

14 Sustainability in action