In one PVEF, Cardiff University lecturer Aled Singleton set out to explore how to visualise energy futures, both in Wales and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan. Using serious games and video-based mapping techniques, Singleton sought to create a dialogue between two different energy geographies, building on an existing research project and leveraging multiple partnerships. Key to this project has been the democratisation of discussions over the location, scale and type of future energy infrastructures, using techniques that include online walks via Google Maps. Singleton has since published a 15-minute film of the project and continues to work with the communities involved. In addition, the school has used podcasts and business breakfasts to reach out and bring in those who share our vision for positive change and our notion of being a business school with a genuine social purpose. The Power of Public Value podcasts, for example, comprise a series of informal discussions between staff, our public value entrepreneurs in residence and supporters from our external advisory panel. Put together, they offer a fascinating insight into how individuals and organisations have taken public value and really run with it. We have also worked closely with the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and Business in the Community, as well as pioneering work on the
cases; and applications for accreditation. For details, please refer to the table on page 21, while noting that some activity paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. Engagement & outreach The explosion in creativity and motivation has been extraordinary, while being inclusive of all academic and professional services colleagues. It is also a million miles away from the tick-box exercise of meeting static and largely alien requirements seen elsewhere. Our grand challenges have become an enabling ethos, giving our people permission to do more and reconcile what they do with their values and the desire to contribute beyond traditional academic metrics. Nevertheless, our academics have also emerged at the publishing forefront of important new research centres and themes on topics that include modern slavery, fintech, the circular economy and sustainable finance. Faculty and staff members have created exciting and distinctive new courses, while reinvigorating core offerings in economics, business studies, operations management and across our MBA programmes. The school’s innovative MSc in Sustainable Supply Chain Management, for example, is a direct outcome of the desire to embed public value in our teaching. It addresses the subjects of modern slavery, social equity, net-zero carbon production and consumption and the circular economy, among others. This allows us to tackle the core skills expected in logistics and operations management, interweaving them with the strong thread of our grand challenges. Meanwhile, PVEFs were introduced as one mechanism for allowing faculty and staff to explore ways in which their skills and passions could be applied to specific social or environmental issues. Open to employees at all levels, PVEF recipients were granted time on their workload model, as well as modest funding, over the course of 12 months. The ensuing projects have ranged from the provision of sanitary products to women in Nepal to the application of collaboration platforms and tools in co-operatives, as well as marketing assistance around the founding of a dedicated centre for disabled children to explore their potential for active and therapeutic play. Some of these PVEF projects have been built into impact case studies for REF 2029, the next instalment of the UK’s system of research quality assessment, while others have simply made a difference to the communities we care about.
22 Business Impact • ISSUE 2 • 2026
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