Proposal for Continued EPSRC Support of AIM Research

This proposal requests a final round of funding from EPSRC for AIM Research to ensure successful delivery of the AIM Research initiative and to support development of a new initiative, AIM Practice, designed to significantly increase the impact of UK management and manufacturing research on managers and business performance. AIM Practice will create and support a network of UK manufacturing and management scholars, encompassing those in IMRCs, Engineering Departments and Business Schools who wish to see their work have greater impact on policy and practice.EPSRC has been a co-funder with ESRC of AIM Research, the UK's management research initiative, since its inception. EPSRC has funded specific research activities under the auspices of AIM and has supported the post of Deputy Director, which has been filled by Professor Andy Neely. The ESRC funding for AIM Research runs to the end of December 2011, whereas the current EPSRC funding runs to 30 September 2010. This proposal requests a final round of funding from EPSRC to bring the EPSRC contribution in line with the ESRC contribution. This funding will enable the current AIM Directorate to ensure the successful conclusion of AIM Research. The establishment and monitoring of KPIs by the AIM Executive Steering Committee shows very good progress and provides clear signals that providing the momentum is be sustained (for which EPSRC funding is critical) AIM Research will conclude very successfully at the end of 2011. In addition to successfully concluding AIM Research, EPSRC's support is essential in scoping and prepare the ground for the launch of AIM Practice, a new initiative which builds on the learning (in substance as well as process) of AIM Research and which is explicitly focused on making a step change in the level of impact and engagement between UK management research and managers in manufacturing and service businesses.

AIM Practice has as its central focus impact. The question we are seeking to address is how can we better enable management and manufacturing research to impact managers in manufacturing and service businesses, as well as the public sector. Annually UK Universities invest over 50 million in management research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise more than 3,300 UK business and management faculty were declared research active. Internationally these figures grow substantially. The Academy of Management, the world's premier academic association for management scholars, now has over 18,000 members from more than 100 countries. All of these scholars devote their research time to exploring issues associated with business and management. The results of their deliberations are published in academic journals and discussed in classrooms around the world, but still concerns are expressed about the weak connections between managers and management researchers. Put simply, the question AIM Practice seeks to answer is - how can we ensure the rich seam of knowledge produced by the management and manufacturing research community has real impact with practitioners and policy makers? The assumption underpinning AIM Practice, dervived from our experience of creating and running AIM Research is that there is much we can do to enhance the practical impact of management research. Well-developed mechanisms for publishing exist, but there are alternative and more relevant ways in which knowledge might be codified and disseminated with greater impact. New technologies, including social media and web 2.0, could be used to present research findings in a form that can be much more easily understood and applied. Fledgling efforts to do this are made by some scholars and research groups, but the UK lacks a national focus that takes the findings of management and manufacturing research and presents them in a form that the managers of manufacturing and service businesses can use. Our intention is that AIM Practice will fill this gap by serving three sets of customers - (i) managers in manufacturing and services businesses (ii) policy makers at the front line of UK competitiveness and productivity and (iii) management scholars located in business schools and engineering departments, including those in Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres. For managers in m