About the Project
Principal Investigators (PIs) are lead scientists responsible for delivering transformative publicly funded scientific programmes. Becoming a publicly funded PI is a career enabler for scientists and carries significant peer prestige. However the role and expected impact of PIs have grown substantially beyond traditional scientific activities. Publicly funded PIs must be adept in the areas such as technology transfer, strategy, management, entrepreneurship, brokering, negotiation and mediation. They must engage with a broader range of stakeholders including scientific peers, technology transfer offices, industry, policy makers, NGOs and regulators. The activities of publicly funded PIs can create transformative social scientific networks that can respond effectively to public science initiatives as well as contributing to creating economic activity and prosperity. There have been pioneered studies of PIs that have focused on the barriers, managerial tensions, technology and market shaping activities as well as value creation and governance.
Against this background the aim of this full RDF studentship is to contribute to the pioneering empirical studies of PIs by focusing on strategizing behaviours and pioneering activities of higher performing principal investigators (HI-PI) in the physical sciences engineering, life sciences, and social sciences and humanities. This study will use the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant holders as a proxy for HP-PIs. In particular the study focus will be on the strategizing behaviours, actions, and practices HP-PIs engage in and the strategic approaches they use to make strategic choices to create new research avenues using public funded research programmes. The study will draw on the fields of strategic management, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Eligibility and How to Apply
Please note eligibility requirement:
• Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities [preference for 1st class honours]); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply for this funding if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please note: Applications that do not include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words (not a copy of the advert), or that do not include the advert reference (e.g. RDF18/…) will not be considered.
Deadline for applications: 28 January 2018
Start Date: 1 October 2018
Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff. We welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to improving employment practices for the advancement of gender equality and is a member of the Euraxess network, which delivers information and support to professional researchers
References
Recent publications by supervisors relevant to this project:
• James Cunningham. Matthias Menter and Conor O’Kane (Forthcoming) Value Creation in the Quadruple Helix: A Micro Level Conceptual Model of Principal Investigators as Value Creators, R&D Management
• Cunningham, J.A., Menter, M. and Wirsching, K. (2017) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Governance: A Principal Investigator centered governance framework, paper accepted for Small Business Economics. DOI: 10.1007/s11187-017-9959-2
• James A. Cunningham, Paul O’Reilly, Conor O’Kane, Vincent Mangematin and Brendan Dolan (2017) Female Publicly Funded Principal Investigators, in (ed) Albert N. Link, Gender Issues in Entrepreneurship, Edward Elgar.
• James Cunningham, Vincent Mangematin, Conor O’Kane and Paul O’Reilly (2017) At the Frontiers of Scientific Advancement: The Factors that Influence Scientists to Become or Choose to Become Publicly Funded Principal Investigators, Journal of Technology Transfer, DOI: 10.1007/s10961-015-9400-4.
• Conor O’Kane, James A. Cunningham, Paul O'Reilly, A. Zhang (2017), What factors inhibit publicly funded principal investigators’ commercialisation activities in New Zealand?, Small Enterprise Research, DOI: 10.1080/13215906.2017.1396558.
• Paul O’Reilly and James A. Cunningham (2017), Enablers and barriers to university technology transfer engagements with small and medium-sized enterprises: Perspectives of Principal Investigators, Small Enterprise Research, DOI: 10.1080/13215906.2017.1396245.
• James Cunningham (2015) Technology Transfer from Universities in Concise Guide to Entrepreneurship and Innovation, (eds) David Audretsch, Al Link and Chris Hayter, Edward Elgar, pp.205-210
• James Cunningham, Paul O’Reilly, Conor O’Kane and Vincent Mangematin, (2015) Managerial Challenges of Publicly Funded Principal Investigators, International Journal of Technology Management, 68(3-4),176-202.
• Maribel Guerrero David Urbano James Cunningham and Damien Organ, (2014) Entrepreneurial Universities in two European Regions: A case study comparision of their conditioning factors, outcomes and outputs, Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(3), pp. 415-434.
• James Cunningham, Paul O’Reilly, Conor O’Kane and Vincent Mangematin, (2014) The Inhibiting Factors that Publicly Funded Principal Investigators Experience in Leading Publicly Funded Research Projects, Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(1), pp.93-110.
• Maribel Guerrero, James Cunningham and David Urbano (2015) Economic impact of entrepreneurial universities’ activities: An Exploratory Study of the United Kingdom, Research Policy 44(3), 748-764.
• James Cunningham and Al Link (2015) Fostering University-Industry R&D Collaborations in European Union Countries, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 11(4),pp.849-860.
• Vincent Mangematin, Paul O’Reilly and James Cunningham, (2014) PIs as boundary spanners, science and market shapers, Journal of Technology Transfer, 39(1), pps.1-10.
• Conor O’Kane, James Cunningham, Paul O’Reilly and Vincent Mangematin (2015) Underpinning Strategic Behaviours and Posture of Principal Investigators in Transition/Uncertain Environments, Long Range Planning, 43(3), 200-214.
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