Paul Nightingale appointed Director of Impact Acceleration
Professor Paul Nightingale, Professor of Strategy and Deputy Director of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), has been appointed to a new leadership role that will have strategic oversight for the delivery of a grant awarded to Sussex by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
This ‘impact acceleration’ grant will increase the impact of social sciences research at Sussex through a programme of capacity building and partnership development.
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Michael Davies, chaired the appointing committee. He said: “This is an important role in which Paul will work closely with academic colleagues and professional services across the University, to increase the capacity of researchers to deliver impact, to develop new partnerships that will improve the ways we work with non-academic organisations, and to disperse funds to support projects that will connect researchers and research-users.
“Paul has an excellent track record of working with funders, engaging with a wide variety of external organisations, and producing clear impact from his own work; and he has significant experience of the impact context in which we are working.”
Professor Nightingale was originally trained as a chemist and worked in industry before studying for a PhD on the changing technology of technical change. He then worked for 10 years in the Complex Product Systems Innovation Centre, jointly run between SPRU and CENTRIM at the University of Brighton.
His current research investigates financial innovation and its impact on the economy.
He was recently co-investigator on the collaborative Brighton Fuse two-year research and development project to analyse the growth of Brighton’s successful creative, digital and information technology cluster, and pilot schemes to promote further innovation and economic development. Backed by several government ministers, the report has been instrumental in obtaining £170 million investment for the creative industry in Brighton and Hove.
The impact acceleration award runs until 31 March 2018 and sits along other impact activities such as the BBSRC programme, Excellence with Impact, a competition involving researchers in Life Sciences, Psychology and BSMS (Brighton and Sussex Medical School).