Sussex Law School hosted a two-day Knowledge Exchange Network event at the end of May, with a focus on Competition, Procurement and Economic Governance. 

The event, which was organised by the recently established Competition and Procurement Policy Research and Knowledge Exchange Network, brought together University of Sussex scholars from the departments of Law, Politics and Economics, as well as world-class experts, to share expertise in the area of competition and government procurement market regulation. 

The meeting played host to nine sessions, which tackled topics such as the commercialisation of public procurement and corruption, transparency in extraction industries and procurement, investment and economic governance in Africa. 

Taking part in the sessions were 27 speakers, among them Sussex faculty, academics from other higher education institutions, and experts from external organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, UNCITRAL, the UK and the Botswana competition authorities and CorruptionWatch. 

The event was held as part of a wider, on-going initiative, which is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and seeks to promote knowledge interactions between higher education and businesses, public and third sectors, community bodies and the wider public, increasing understanding, raising awareness and using higher education knowledge for positive impact. 

Speaking after the event, Dr Kamala Dawar said: “This was a great opportunity to bring together policy makers, practitioners and researchers to identify some of the knowledge gaps in the area of good economic governance in competition, government procurement and investment regulation.

"We are very pleased that so much interest was generated and that this two day workshop has already led to future conference papers, publications and further engagements with policy making processes."