North East Entrepreneurs Forum to Sponsor PhD Studentship at University of Teesside

The North East Entrepreneurs Forum has agreed to offer a £30k bursary to support one full time PhD student at the University of Teesside for three years starting from around the middle of this year.

The student will research the enterprise creation processes involved in the networking activities of established entrepreneurs.

The core activity to be studied will be the workings of the Entrepreneurs Forum, which was launched in February by Sir Richard Branson at an event attended by many of the region’s entrepreneurs.

The Forum provides a number of opportunities for established North East based entrepreneurs from different backgrounds to meet and exchange views and information. Its core objective is to support and encourage emerging entrepreneurs who could play a key role in the economic regeneration of the North East.

Sir Peter Vardy, Chairman of the Entrepreneurs Forum and Chief Executive of Reg Vardy plc, said: “The aim of the Forum is for established entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and experiences, and to draw on these to help new owner/managers as they seek to build their businesses.

“The Forum’s wider purpose is to help businesses grow, to create jobs and to generate wealth in the region, making the North East a hotbed of entrepreneurship. The University of Teesside research will play a crucial part in establishing to what degree the Forum contributes to this. It will monitor the growth of our entrepreneurs’ businesses and measure the impact the Forum has on the success of the region’s businesses.”

The studentship will be based in the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, part of the Teesside Business School at the University of Teesside. It will be supervised by Professors Ted Fuller and Alan Lawton.

Candidates wishing to apply should contact Professor Ted Fuller on 01642 342905 e-mail ted.fuller@tees.ac.uk

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