Research Funding Prize for Zinc Mission 2 Businesses

Research Funding Prize for Zinc Mission 2 Businesses

Zinc’s Mission 2 programme focused on unlocking new opportunities for people in places that have been hard-hit by globalisation and automation, creating 16 businesses focused on a variety of new, innovative solutions to meet this challenge.

To showcase the impact of social sciences research on a new businesses,  and to increase and improve engagement between one of the businesses and academic researchers, Aspect funded a £10k research prize, awarded to Tandem, whose aim is to end transport poverty in small towns and cities. Using the prize, Tandem built a collaborative programme of work with academics from the universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen.  Outputs from the award and subsequent engagement included an open access report on the research that was done surveying and modelling user preferences, and an event to share the learning – which was promoted via the Aspect network.  One outcome from this work was that Tandem realised the importance of understanding and communicating the policy implications of their business, and the ways in which they – as a business – can better engage with policymakers.