Researchers exploring migrants, refugees and asylum seekers’ integration into labour markets will head to Glasgow Caledonian University in August for the SIRIUS project’s first academic conference.

Sessions across the two days will be structured around six themes, including the role of the third sector in promoting the integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in European societies and labour markets, biographies of labour-market integration, and labour-market integration policies for migrants.

The Yunus Centre is the coordinator of the EU H2020-funded SIRIUS project, which aims to advance the integration of migrants and refugees in European labour markets. The project involves universities and organisations in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK.

Keynote speakers will include: Professor Christina Boswell from the University of Edinburgh, Professor Barbara Oomen from Utrecht University, GCU’s Dr Ima Jackson and Dr Amparo Gonzalez-Ferrer from the Spanish National Research Council and the Spanish Government.

The free conference will take place on campus on August 29 and 30. All staff and students are welcome to attend and registration is now open on Eventbrite.

An exciting Report on 15 selected YSBCs, planned and produced by YY Foundation, is a quick guide to the Academic/university Social Business Programmes and partnerships of the YSBC (Yunus Social Business Centre) Network.   It contains interviews from Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Former UN Assistant Secretary General Mr Thomas Gass, Dr Ashir Ahmed, Dr Andeas Heinecke, Dr Anita Nowak and others.

For more information and to view the report, please visit the website below:

http://socialbusinesspedia.com/news/details/731

Kali Gibson, an MSc Social Business and Microfinance student at GCU has been awarded first prize in the postgraduate category of the PRME Chapter UK and Ireland third annual Responsible Business and Management Writing Competition.

For more information, please visit the website below:

https://www.unprme.org.uk/single-post/2019/04/30/Announcement-of-winners-PRME-Writing-Competition-2018-19

Steve Rolfe and Lisa Garnham have written an article published in The Conversation on the ‘Four simple ways landlords and letting agents can make life better for tenants’.  To read the article, please click on the link below:

https://theconversation.com/four-simple-ways-landlords-and-letting-agents-can-make-life-better-for-tenants-115319

Prof Simone Baglioni, Dr Olga Biosca and Dr Tom Montgomery have written a blog on a recent TransSOL project paper examining attitudes towards Brexit across eight countries.  To read the blog, please click on the link below:

Europeans scarred by globalisation are more likely to support Brexit too

The call for papers for the Social Business Academia Conference 2019 is now open.  For further details please visit the website below:

http://socialbusinesspedia.com/sbac/2019

Highlighting our Scottish research during Tartan Week at GCNYC.  Researchers from the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health discussed how banking can be a force for good in an event to promote a US-UK collaborative research initiative, entitled Money, Debt and Public Health with Professor Cam Donaldson, Professor Pamela Gillies and Dr Olga Biosca along with Jonathan Morduch from New York University.

The politican in charge of Scotland’s finances will outline the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals at GCU’s annual research celebration in May.

Derek Mackay MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution, will be the keynote speaker at the event, to be held in the University’s Hamish Wood building on Friday, May 31.

He will be joined by Dr Ruth Hussey CB OBE, former Chief Medical Officer for Wales, and Shane McHugh, Head of International Partnerships at the Royal Academy of Engineering.

GCU’s research strategy is underpinned by the Sustainable Development Goals, issued by United Nations in 2015 and developed in order to “end poverty, ensure prosperity for all and protect the planet”. Through our own research, GCU addresses the Sustainable Development Goals via three societal challenges of Inclusive Societies, Healthy Lives and Sustainable Environments.

This work will be exhibited throughout the day via various workshops and activities, rounded off by GCU’s annual Three-Minute Thesis competition. Workshops include Solving water issues in Nigeria, Electrical stimulation to promote health in adults, and much, much more.

This one-day event also gives you the opportunity to meet our research community; get to know our PhD students, research associates and post-doctoral researchers. They will share with you the innovations and explorations that have the potential to make a positive impact in the world.

Then, on Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8, the community element of our annual research celebrations takes place as we host our Citizen Science Days with partners in the north of the city as part of the Glasgow Science Festival.

Last year’s event was a great success with over 200 people attending. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took part in an experiment to measure the speed of a cricket ball at our Meet the Researcher event, held in the Gorbals. This offered school pupils the chance to meet university researchers, and learn about science and further university-community links in pursuit of the SDGs, which apply to all countries of the world and are in place until 2030.

Details on how to sign up for workshops and other events can be found here. It is not essential to sign up for the entire day.

A new research project is under way at GCU London, investigating the financial lives of people with long-term health conditions and low incomes.

Led by Dr Olga Biosca, working with Profs Rachel Baker, Cam Donaldson and Antony Morgan and Dr Neil McHugh, the project is funded by Guys and St Thomas’ Charity for one year.

The aim of the project is to establish whether there is a link between people’s financial lives (including the use of microcredit initiatives) and their health (focusing on co-morbidities), and the mechanisms that facilitate this association.  This builds on a previous study in Glasgow, “Finwell“, funded by the Chief Scientist Office and completed in 2017.

Three new researchers have been appointed at GCU London:  Dr Ahalya Bala, Dr Greg White and Marta Mojarrieta.  They will generate quantitative and qualitative data using financial diaries, qualitative interviews and Q methodology.

Director of the Yunus Centre, Professor Rachel Baker, said: “This is an exciting and important project and builds on previous work in Glasgow. These are fantastic appointments through which we can strengthen existing research links between the Yunus Centre in Glasgow and GCU London.”

Professor Antony Morgan, Dean of GCU London, said: “This is a great opportunity for GCU London to demonstrate its collaboration with colleagues in Glasgow.  For me, it’s more than the Finwell researchers occupying a space in London, highlighting the possibilities that can arise through good partnership working to deliver common University goals. I hope we can grow such opportunities through collaborative with other parts of the University.”

Glasgow Caledonian New York College is hosting a series of Tartan Week events during April.

Researchers from the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health will discuss how banking can be a force for good in an event to promote a US-UK collaborative research initiative, entitled Money, Debt and Public Health; and the Centre for Climate Justice will outline how climate change is increasingly one of the biggest factors affecting health and wellbeing in urban areas, in a special Townhall Event.

The campus will also host a brand new exhibition by the award-winning Scottish artist Ethel Walker, whose paintings are inspired by landscapes on the west coast of Scotland.

For more information about the events, visit the Alumni & Friends section of the website.