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Sarah Bowen receiving her award

An APM award certificate for Dr Xiangming (Tommy) Tao

The 2026 Association for Project Management (APM) Education and Research Awards in Manchester recognised both student and academic excellence from the Project Management MSc programme in the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School.

Recent MSc graduate Sarah Bowen, supervised by Dr Gary Bell, won the APM Postgraduate Dissertation of the Year award for her dissertation exploring how leadership styles influence value creation in innovation and project management contexts. Her research found that diverse leadership styles are important in helping projects meet the needs of a range of stakeholders — including customers, employees, communities and the environment — and that different leadership approaches are better suited to achieving specific outcomes at various stages of the innovation process and project life cycle.

Her award continues the ongoing success for the Business School’s Project Management MSc students, who have now been recognised in the category for five consecutive years. Since 2022, students from the programme have achieved five wins and two finalist placements — all under the supervision of Dr Bell — in what is believed to be an unmatched national record.

SPRU academic Dr Xiangming (Tommy) Tao also received a Highly Commended award for APM Research Paper of the Year alongside co-author Professor Deniz Ucbasaran of Warwick Business School.

Their paper, “How does failure normalization foster product innovativeness in new product development? The role of passion and learning,” found that businesses that develop new products can become more innovative when they treat failure as a learning opportunity. But this works best when project leaders are highly passionate about inventing and motivated to learn from mistakes.

The paper was praised by judges as “high quality, well-argued, and methodologically rigorous,” with significant contributions to both project management theory and practice.

These latest awards build on a growing reputation for project management research at the Business School. Previously, Professor Andrew Davies has received the APM Research Paper of the Year Award in 2022 and the PMI Research Achievement Award in 2024.

Reflecting on their awards, Dr Tao said:

"Receiving a Highly Commended award from the APM is genuinely meaningful to me — not only as a researcher, but also as Co-Director of the Project Management MSc. It reflects the culture we have worked hard to build at SPRU, where rigorous research and excellent teaching reinforce each other. I am proud to share this recognition with my fellow Co-Director Dr Carlos Sato, our teaching team, and our students, who continue to show what is possible when research and practice are closely connected. This also builds on the strong foundations that Professor Andrew Davies established with his own APM and PMI awards."

Sarah Bowen said:

"I was very pleased to receive the Project Management Postgraduate Dissertation of the Year award and really valued my time on the Project Management MSc. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Dr Gary Bell, for his invaluable support and guidance, as well as his encouragement throughout my dissertation."

Professor Davies, acting Head of Department, SPRU, highlighted the implications of the current and past awards, saying:

"Five consecutive years of national recognition at the APM Awards are a remarkable achievement and a testament to the quality of our students, teaching, and supervision on the Project Management MSc. At SPRU, we bring together world-class research in innovation and project management with hands-on teaching, and these awards show that our students are producing work that stands up to the highest professional level."

Discover our  Project Management MSc and shape your journey towards becoming a globally recognised project leader. SPRU celebrates its 60^th anniversary in 2026.