Dundee academics help weather economic storm
Academics from the University of Dundee and University of Abertay Dundee gather with Jim Mather MSP and Jamie Henderson, Innovation Portal.
With the economic downturn set to continue, Dundee academics reached out a helping hand to businesses large and small on Tuesday 28th April 2009.
The University of Abertay Dundee, University of Dundee and the Innovation Portal, together with Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, combined forces to show local businesses how they can weather the current economic storm. The group hosted two free business workshops aimed at encouraging businesses to utilise academic expertise to find their unique and competitive edge.
Mr Mather also engaged directly with the businesses to help identify the best way forward and delegates benefited from a series of workshops and presentations from leading business academics such as ‘How did we get here and what might happen next?’. Delegates will also have the opportunity to find out more about how Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with the city’s universities can benefit their business.
Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said: “With Scotland in recession it is crucial we work together across the public and private sector to support jobs and bring about the strong recovery we all want to see.
“That is what our economic recovery programme is all about and sessions like these can only help us build on the work already underway to support businesses across Scotland. Tapping into the world class expertise in our higher education sector is more vital than ever in the downturn and I hope that this event will help businesses of all types not just survive, but go on to prosper.”
Dr Allan Taylor, Director of Academic Operations at Abertay’s Dundee Business School, said: "Now more than ever we need to engage across all agencies to address possibly the worst economic downturn in a generation. The Weathering the Storm conference is about pulling expertise and knowledge across agencies - Universities, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Government, Councils and local businesses - to address concerns over the recent credit crunch, and also to provide a forum for looking at strategies for survival, as well as for future growth.
“There is a wealth of expertise and knowledge within our local Universities, which might make all the difference to businesses. This is a great opportunity for businesses to meet our experts and be introduced to the work of the Innovation Portal to help weather the storm.”
Published on Friday 8 May 2009