Bristol takes lead on new globalisation research agenda

1 October 2007

The Worldwide Universities Network, of which the University of Bristol is a partner, has been awarded £3.7 million to set up a new Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies.

The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), of which the University of Bristol is a partner, has been awarded £3.7 million by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to set up a new Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies.

The project is part of a major initiative by the ESRC to fund new research centres, large grants and professorial Fellowships to support high-quality, independent social science research that is designed to have significant social and economic impact worldwide.

A substantial work programme within the new centre, which will be headed by Professor Andy Green of the Institute of Education, will be led by Professors Susan Robertson and Roger Dale of Bristol’s Graduate School of Education, in association with colleagues, as part of the WUN Constructing Knowledge Spaces initiative. The new centre will focus on the dynamic inter-relations between social cohesion and competitiveness and the roles that education and training can play in promoting these.

The work led by the Bristol team will focus on the transnational (global and European) scales of knowledge production, dissemination and use through the education sector. The Bristol team’s work was initially funded through the WUN/CKS Globalisation of Education collaboration, and this stream has grown in significance through links with other WUN partners, particularly the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with Associate Professor Kris Olds), the University of Toronto (Associate Professor Karen Mundy), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Washington-Seattle.

Professor Robertson said: ‘This award demonstrates the significant potential that can be gained through WUN activity.’