Business and economy

Our research investigates transformations driven by contemporary processes of globalisation, from the advent of digital economies and the delivery of public services, to the interconnected challenges of environmental and social sustainability.

Through critical analysis of the global political economy, our projects seek to find solutions to some of the most significant challenges that face individuals, organisations, communities and policymakers in the 21st century.

• International student mobility and climate change
  Estimating the environmental costs associated with the internationalisation of higher education.
• Putting mental health research into practice
  Charities might not be the first thing people think about when they hear the word ‘industry’. However, third sector and charitable companies like Second Step contribute tens of billions of pounds to the UK economy each year - Dr Myles-Jay Linton
• Informal governance and achieving sustainability – the next steps for Bristol Pound
  Launched in 2012, the Bristol Pound (£B) is the UK’s largest local currency, operating in both digital and cash forms. It aims to create a more resilient and sustainable independent business sector in Bristol, and a fairer and more inclusive local economy by changing how individuals and organisations behave financially.
• Embedding research findings into teaching and learning primary maths
  A successful Knowledge Exchange project funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account has embedded Bristol research findings into new materials for Maths teachers
• A productive partnership in professional learning for maths teachers
  Bristol research informs the use of Video Clubs for teacher development by the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM)
• Developing the potential of an SME
  In 2018 the ESRC awarded Industrial Strategy funding to Bristol for Early Career Researcher secondments to business and industry. Dr Olivia Maynard led one of these secondments with Carlos Sillero-Rejon, working with Upping Your Elvis, a creative agency SME.
• Reducing the Poverty Premium
  In 2016 the Personal Finance Research Centre measured for the first time how many current low-income households are actually affected by poverty premium, and by how much.
• Driving responsible use of antimicrobials
  Researchers, practitioners and industry bodies across the food chain successfully combined forces for policy and practitioner changes in antimicrobial use on farms and in veterinary practices.
• Using LED lighting reduces the attraction of disease-carrying insects
  Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Integral LED and conducted by a team from the School of Biological Sciences, revealed that domestic LED lights are much less attractive to nuisance insects such as biting midges than traditional filament lamps.
• Controlled release antimicrobial to offer alternative to antibiotics
  Ten years of Bristol’s pioneering biomaterials research has led to the launch of a novel technology to prevent and treat bacterial infection. The award-winning technology has exciting potential across human and veterinary medicine and could help combat the rising threat of antimicrobial drug resistance.
• Public Faith and Finance
  Levels of personal debt and financial hardship are rising, leading many to resort to payday lenders. In a context of welfare retrenchment and increasing financial exclusion, faith organisations, including from minority faiths, are not just plugging the gaps, but setting out alternative and often innovative approaches to welfare and economic justice.
• Keeping infrastructure safe and operational
  Enabling accurate, cost-effective regular testing on structures such as railways and buildings that avoids major disruption.
• Measuring social influence for business and government
  Developing new analysis tools that determine the extent to which social networks influence decision-making.
• Reducing damaging vibrations in helicopter rotors
  An award-winning partnership with Helitune has delivered new technology and jobs by solving a long-standing engineering problem.
• A clearer picture - spotting trends in noisy data
  Bristol statisticians have developed methods that enable users to spot trends and patterns in noisy data, from inflation trends in New Zealand to wear patterns on fabrics.
• XMOS - innovations in embedded systems
  A University of Bristol spin-out company now employs more than 50 people across three continents, working to improve efficiency and lower production costs for electronics manufacturers.
• Heathrow pods - a new form of personal rapid transit
  A new form of fast, reliable and low-cost driverless personal transport is now being used by thousands of passengers every day at Heathrow Airport.
• Analysing limestone to improve oil extraction
  Studies of modern limestone have led researchers to develop a model exploring the behaviour of carbonate reservoirs, reducing the inherent uncertainties in oil and gas extraction.
• The epic reach of elliptic curves
  Pioneering research carried out by one of the UK’s leading teams of cryptographers is steering radical changes in global online security.
• Raman thermography improves chip lifetimes
  Raman thermography measures the temperature of tiny semiconductor device structures, helping companies around the world improve the lifetimes of their products.
• Wireless HDTV, anywhere in the home
  Innovations in wireless video transmission yield major benefits for media companies and consumers.
• Revolutionising access to financial services
  Research has shown that financial exclusion is determined by more than just geography, helping shape policies to halve the number of people without a bank account.
• Cracking graphite extends nuclear power station life
  Using advanced materials analysis to help extend the lifespan of nuclear power reactors, with substantial financial and environmental benefits.
• Bringing Wi-Fi to the mass market
  The University's major role in establishing standards, developing products and testing methodologies has helped turn Wi-Fi into a global phenomenon.
• Tackling climate, crime and salmon
  The statistical methodology that's helping solve commercial, social and scientific problems around the world.
• Catching up with corporate bribery
  Research from the Law School means that the onus is now on commercial organisations to show that they have adequate anti-bribery procedures in place.
• Making professional bodies more professional
  New governance structures and practices improve professional competence, strategic decision-making, and services in professional bodies across the UK.
• Mixed treatment comparisons inform clinical guidelines
  A new technique for comparing healthcare treatment options is helping policy makers in the UK, Canada, Germany, and South Korea.
• Numerical models make for smoother helicopter rides
  Making aircraft wings and helicopter rotor blades lighter, more efficient and with fewer fatigue-inducing vibrations.
• Held by light
  Researchers have worked with local firm Biral to develop a device that can hold and manipulate airborne particles (aerosols), allowing them to be studied over time.
• Cost-effective flood hazard information
  SSBN is translating research into cost-effective global flood hazard information, helping the insurance industry and others assess risk in regions with little information on flooding.
• Polymer encapsulation and moisture management
  Discoveries about the interaction of polymers with surface structures have resulted in innovative products such as easily removable and programmable drug release chewing gums.
• High resolution imaging and chemical analysis combined
  Combining electronic imaging technology with optical chemical analysis has created a system that can image samples with a resolution of 1nm and perform chemical analysis using Raman spectroscopy.
• Diamond insights
  Industry joined forces with science to realise the full financial and technical potential of diamonds, already one of the world's major natural resources.
• Stress measurement
  Faculty of Engineering researchers and their spin-out company Veqter have developed a unique service that measures hidden stresses inside mission-critical industrial components.
• Transforming industrial safety through ultrasonics
  Bristol has brought world-leading, efficient and financially viable Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) to the nuclear power and aerospace industries.
• Improving dairy cow welfare and farm profitability
  Dairy cows and the dairy farming industry in the UK and overseas are benefiting from strategic animal-husbandry changes and lameness-control programmes.
• Monitoring the world’s forgotten volcanoes from space
  When Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010 it left millions of travellers stranded and cost airlines an estimated €900 million. Now geophysicists are using satellites to provide advance warning of eruptions from other forgotten volcanoes.
• Aerosol properties may hold clue to better lung disease drugs
  Exploring improvements to inhaler technology could reduce overall drug dosages, leading to more cost-efficient treatment while limiting systematic exposure and side effects.
• Carbonate reservoirs
  Scientists are studying the chemical composition of modern limestones and how water interacts with them to help understand the development of porosity in ancient carbonate builds-up through time. The research is helping to develop a model that is being applied by industry to predict the quality of carbonate oil reservoirs.