Experts Matter. Find Yours.
Connect for media, speaking, professional opportunities & more.
Aston University Professor Patricia Thornley elected Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering
• Professor Patricia Thornley joins a total of 69 leading engineers from around the world to the Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering • Each individual recognised for their outstanding and continuing contributions to their profession • Patricia Thornley is the Director of the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University Professor Patricia Thornley from Aston University has joined the Royal Academy of Engineering as a Fellow. The Director of the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute, which is based at the University, joins a total of 69 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering this week. The group consists of 60 Fellows, four International Fellows and five Honorary Fellows, with each individual having made exceptional contributions to their sectors in their own way, as innovation leaders, inspiring role models, or through remarkable achievements in business or academia. This year’s new Fellows are the first to reflect the Academy’s Fellowship Fit for the Future initiative announced in July 2020, to drive more nominations of outstanding engineers from underrepresented groups ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2026. This initiative will see the Academy strive for increased representation from women, disabled and LGBTQ+ engineers, those from minority ethnic backgrounds, non-traditional education pathways and emerging industries, and those who have achieved excellence at an earlier career stage than normal. These new Fellows will be admitted to the Academy, which comprises nearly 1,700 distinguished engineers, at its AGM on 22 September. In joining the Fellowship, they will add their capabilities to the Academy’s mission to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all. Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “Our Fellows represent the best of the best in the engineering world, and we welcome these 69 excellent and talented professionals to our community of businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics. “This year’s new Fellows are the most diverse group elected in the history of our institution. The engineering profession has long suffered from a diversity shortfall and the Academy is committed to changing that, including by ensuring that our own Fellowship community is as inclusive as it can be. It is well established that diverse organisations tend to be more agile and more innovative, and as the UK’s National Academy for engineering and technology, we have a responsibility to reflect the society we serve in addressing the shared challenges of our future.” Professor Thornley added: “It is such an honour to be admitted to the Academy and be able to represent Aston University, EBRI and females within engineering, and I look forward to working with the Royal Academy of Engineering in the future.”
Offshore A’s – UMW’s David Rettinger is the go-to expert for the Varsity Blues trial
The Varsity Blues case captured headlines over two years ago, when news broke that wealthy parents paid upwards of $25 million in bribes to help their children cheat on test scores and secure college admission. As the trial gets underway this week, Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger, who oversees Academic Integrity Programs at the University of Mary Washington, can provide unique insight into the scandal and the rise of contract cheating at colleges and universities across the country. He was recently interviewed by CBS News about the billion dollar cheating industry that has emerged in Kenya, where Americans are paying African students to do homework, write essays and in some cases, even complete degrees for them. "I think the state of cheating at colleges and universities is serious and getting more serious," David Rettinger ... told CBS News. He said that cheating is problematic because it means people can graduate from degree programs without actually being qualified in their fields. "We trust our doctors have been to medical school," Rettinger said. "Cheating leads us to overall social corruption because it leads us to having a cadre of professionals who can't actually do the work that they claim they can do." You can see the full interview and story here: Dr. David Rettinger is available to speak with media regarding this issue of cheating and academic integrity. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
IDC Quarterly Tech Brief: Your Guide For The Digital-First World
September 2021 Editor's Comments Happy September! We hope you got a chance to recharge and enjoy the summer. Now that we’re looking into the last half of 2021, our experts agree that we’re not going back to the pre-pandemic normal, but we can’t help but be optimistic with recent news on vaccinations, lifting of restrictions, kids going back to school, and some of us returning to the office. As the world slowly moves from a pandemic to a digital-first state, we will see permanent shifts in the way we live, work, play and learn. IDC expects the next 3 years to remain highly fluid due to the growing range of global challenges. And now, more than ever, business and government leaders will need to operate and invest in increasingly digital-first markets, while building digital infrastructures, enabled by an intelligent, empowered, and a well-connected workforce. In this edition of IDC Canada's Quarterly Tech Brief, we’ll explore insights on the digital-first world, best practices, and digital transformation stories from Canadian tech leaders at our upcoming IDC CIO Series webinar on September 22, and as usual, we also reveal the latest research, survey results and market forecasts. And last but not least, we're happy to announce IDC Canada's biggest technology event of the year, IDC Connections 2021 is coming up on November 4th. Save your seat today! FEATURED IDC CIO Panel Series – Part 2: Building Resiliency & Innovation into Your Canadian Journey Join us on Wednesday, September 22 at 2 p.m. ET for the latest session of our IDC CIO Panel webinar series where we will dive into what digital resiliency means for you, and how to leverage the latest Digital Infrastructure and Digital Innovation trends to your advantage. Hear from industry-leading tech executives, Antoine Haroun, CIO at the Peel District School Board, Irene Zaguskin, CTO at The Printing House, and Michael Kurek, VP of Sales & Operations, Data Center Solutions at Dell Technologies as they unpack how the pandemic accelerated their digital transformation journey, and their best practices for planning and managing IT during uncertain times. Our experts will also host 3 sessions around how the Future Enterprise operates in a Digital-First World, a look ahead at the forces of change heading into 2022, the Future of Digital Infrastructure, and the need to strive for a balance between digital innovation and resiliency to remain relevant and competitive. Your Canadian Research Checklist Here are some of our most popular Canadian reports of the quarter to help you understand changing market conditions and succeed in 2021. ✓ IDC Market Glance: Service Providers in Canada, 2Q21 ✓ The Rise of Canadian Cloud Ecosystems ✓ Canadian Cybersecurity Market Snapshot, 2Q21 ✓ Canadian Cybersecurity Buyer Persona: Managed Security Services Benefits ✓ Canadian Managed Cloud Services Adoption, 2021 Forecast Highlights ✓ Canadian Wireless Services Forecast, 2021–2025: Wireless Wars 18 ✓ Canadian Internet of Things Forecast, 2021–2025 ✓ Outlook for Canadian SaaS Applications, 2021 ✓ Worldwide Managed Cloud Services Forecast, 2021-2025 ✓ IDC's Forecast Scenario Assumptions for the Canadian ICT Market, April 2021 IDC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: DIGITAL RESILIENCY SCORECARD Explore IDC's new Digital Resiliency Scorecard Does resiliency still matter in a "post-pandemic" world? Quite simply, it does. In IDC's recent Digital Resiliency Benchmark Survey, we found that 65% of U.S. buyers and 55% of Worldwide buyers have plans to invest in resiliency over the April 2021-April 2022 timeframe. Watch The Digital Resiliency Scorecard webinar to learn more ICYMI: BLOG HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS QUARTER Future of Customer - More Human Experience - Over 34% of executives point to transforming the customer experience as the top business function. Learn more about the Future of Customer framework with IDC’s Keyoor Adavani. Read More → Major Smartwatch Market Consolidation: A Canadian Take - In May Google announced a new unified smartwatch platform in partnership with Samsung. Learn how this partnership is expected to shake up the market dynamics in Canada with Shahd ElAshri. Read More → Telesat Vying For LEO Constellation Leadership - A new commercial space race has begun and among the entrants for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, Telesat is an emerging leader in this multi-billion-dollar market. Learn more from IDC's Lawrence Surtees. Read More → Federal Budget Innovation Goals and What’s Next for Recovery - COVID-19 fast-tracked innovation and digitization. See how the federal budget plans to support digital transformation, and learn how customer centricity and AI can set you apart from the competition with IDC's Mark Schrutt. Read More → UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENT IDC Connections 2021 Canada: Accelerating Your Path to a Digital-First Enterprise Mark your calendars! IDC Connections is back this year and we can't wait for you to take a front-row seat. Don't miss an afternoon full of IDC experts' insights, special guests, networking, and hear from the tech leaders who are driving this new era of rapid transformation. This year's highlights include: A special closing keynote on the Future of Sports and Entertainment with Humza Teherany, Chief Technology & Digital Officer at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Creating digital innovation & experiences at your organization, with IDC's Chief Research Officer, Meredith Whalen Embracing digital infrastructure, with IDC Canada's Dave Pearson Leveraging new industry ecosystems, with IDC Canada's Nigel Wallis Guidance from our popular CIO Best Practices Panelists PODCASTS WORTH A LISTEN Find out why clients are raving about our new podcast series! In an era seemingly filled with uncertainty, the Future Enterprise podcast is a must-listen. It's a podcast for business and tech executives, aimed at helping you leverage technology to achieve innovative, disruptive, and productive business outcomes. Listen in as IDC host, Joseph Pucciarelli, Group Vice President & IT Executive Advisor interviews C-level executives from around the world on their digital transformation initiatives touching on each of the "Future of X" digital initiatives. Senior IDC research leaders often join in the conversation. Listen Now → Thanks for being a part of our IDC Quarterly Tech Brief Newsletter community! Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified quarterly when the next issue comes out.
Aston Law School corporate governance experts launch new book on investor stewardship
Dr Daniel Cash and Robert Goddard co-wrote Investor Stewardship and the UK Stewardship Code: The Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance The book will be relevant for an international audience of academics, regulators and policymakers in financial regulation, investment regulation and financial services It coincides with the publishing of the Stewardship Code 2020 signatories as part of a new regulatory code by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) Two members of Aston Law School have released a new book around investor stewardship to coincide with a major milestone by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The FRC published the first main list of Stewardship Code 2020 signatories on 6 September 2021, after a round of reporting earlier this year. This milestone details who is following the Code and allows the regulator to focus on holding signatories to the articulated standards of stewardship and how it is reported. The new book by Dr Daniel Cash and Robert Goddard, Investor Stewardship and the UK Stewardship Code: The Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance, provides a critical assessment of the development of the Stewardship Code 2020, which sets out principles regarding the role of institutional investors in corporate governance. It discusses how the regulatory framework for stewardship evolved before and after the financial crisis, and how that evolution resulted in the 2020 Code. It also critiques the Code from a practical and academic perspective, as well as evaluating the wider regulatory framework; in particular, the position of the FRC merging into the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA). Dr Daniel Cash, senior lecturer in law at Aston Law School, said: “The Stewardship Code is a big deal in British governance, and that is exactly what the book looks at. “It examines the history of the stewardship Codes and regulation in the UK, and uses this to critically examine the new 2020 Code. “That critical analysis leads into projections of how the Code may fare in the modern business environment, aspects that may affect its progression, and puts forward elements that can make the Code’s impact more substantial. “This important regulatory development will play a massive role in aligning the actions of investors with the wider societal needs in the new world being dominated by ESG concerns. “Stewardship Codes modelled on the UK’s original 2010 version have been introduced in numerous markets and, as such, the book will be relevant for an international audience of academics, regulators and policymakers in financial regulation, investment regulation and financial services.” You can buy a copy of Investor Stewardship and the UK Stewardship Code: The Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance here.
Aston Business School to host hybrid conference on tax
• The Tax Research Network (TRN) annual conference will run from 8 – 10 September both in person and online • The focus of the three-day event will be on tax research and education • Over 80 speakers and delegates from across Europe, USA, India, New Zealand and South Africa will take part in the event with around half livestreamed on YouTube Aston Business School (ABS) will host the prestigious Tax Research Network (TRN) annual conference this week. The TRN is one of the main global groupings of those interested in tax research and education with around 500 members worldwide. The event, which is sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Tax (CIOT) and the ICAEW Charitable Funds, will run from 8 – 10 September both in person and online. Two days (8-9 September) will focus on tax research and the third day (10 September) on tax education which will be a series of workshops looking at different current issues in teaching tax. Over 100 speakers and delegates from across Europe, USA, India, New Zealand and South Africa will take part in face-to-face keynote speeches and panel discussions in Aston Business School with around half live-streamed on YouTube. Professor Andy Lymer, who is head of accounting at Aston University and chairing the event, said: “I am delighted that Aston Business School is hosting the Tax Research Network’s (TRN) annual conference. “This is their annual conference which is usually a face-to-face event but was virtual last year and this year hybrid. “Our hybrid approach is a first for ABS with a mix of face-to-face lectures and live-streamed parts interlaced with pre-recorded paper and keynote and panellist contributions. “Aston University will be represented by various academics including Dr Carlene Wynter who is chairing a session on tax and housing linked to the work she did last year with others at the university on social housing and tax as well as presenting a paper.” The schedule includes Dyfed Alsop, CEO of the Welsh Revenue Authority and Stephanie Gray, head of income tax and reserved tax unit in the Scottish Government and various workshops from speakers including Phyllis Alexander (Bournemouth University) on developing international tax teaching in light of current trends in this area towards developing fairer tax systems and Nicky Thomas (University of Exeter) and Terry Filer (Swansea University) on innovations in teaching tax including making use of VR and Lego. You can book your place(s) here. The full schedule for the conference is available here. Full details of the parallel sessions are available here.
The Case for Career Advocates: An Organization Is Not a Meritocracy
This blog post is the first in a three-part series by Renee Dye 94PhD, associate professor in the practice of Organization & Management that summarizes the key messages she delivers to students in the hopes that it can catalyze and support the career success of a broader group of ambitious employees who aspire to make it to the C-Suite One of the paradoxes of the GenZs and Generation Alphas is their intuitive understanding of the phenomenon of social media…at the same time they maintain an almost ideological conviction that the workplace – apart from systemic biases – is otherwise a meritocracy, where talent is perfectly and objectively evaluated – and the best and most deserving rise to the top. Surely a cursory exploration of Instagram and TikTok would convince even the most skeptical of the fundamentally idiosyncratic nature of success in a networked world? The Real World is likewise characterized by outcomes in which success is imperfectly correlated with capability level. Someone whose capability level is less than yours may lap you in the race to the top of the organization. That may seem unfair, but that’s because you’re making the mistake of assuming that career success is predicated purely on capability. A survey of MBA graduates from Emory University's Goizueta Business School a few years ago produced a startling insight: of all the skills that we provided to our students during their MBA tenures, our students felt most unprepared to navigate “organizational politics” in their careers. The reason that I found this fact so astonishing is that today’s students, who are Digital Natives and in part Social Media Natives, are the most connected and self-promoting generation the world has ever seen. Yet today I find that my students continue to exhibit little practical understanding of how career success is forged…so much so that I now devote an entire class session in my core Strategy class to demonstrating the importance of relationship management and advocacy cultivation. Capability is not unimportant; far from it. As I tell my students, though, capability is table stakes these days as the level of education and skill sets continues to advance among individuals. If you’re not smart and capable you’re not getting in the door. But once you’re in, your career path and ultimate career success will be more determined by (1) your level of aspiration and unflagging commitment to achieving your goals; (2) your performance outcomes in your individual roles; (3) your work ethic and conscientiousness; and (4) the relationships you have with other people within your organization. And the relationships that matter the most are the individuals with influence and power over your future career opportunities. Let me put it starkly: without career advocates (notice the plural), it will be much, much harder to make it to the senior management ranks. Full stop. Some facts to bear this assertion out: • People with advocates are 23% more likely to move up in the careers • Women with advocates are 22% more likely to ask for a stretch assignment to build their reputations as leaders Ultimately, having an advocate confers a career benefit of 22-30%, depending on who’s doing the asking and what they’re asking for. That’s increasing your odds of making it to the C-Suite by nearly a third! If anecdotal evidence is more your thing, here are a couple of quotations for you: • A lot of decisions are made when you are not in the room, so you need someone to advocate for you, bring up the important reasons you should advance” (Catalyst Survey, as quoted in Elizabeth McDaid, “Mentor vs. Sponsor,” September 3, 2019) • When you get to the level in your career when decisions are not just being made by an individual manager, feedback from other leaders becomes crucial. Rosalind Hudnell, Chief Diversity Officer, Intel. As quoted in Hewlett, Sylvia Ann, Melinda Marshall, and Laura Sherbin. “The Relationship You Need to Get Right,” HBR 2011) • “I was great at building businesses and had tons of cheerleaders, but I had that typical Asian keep-your-head-down-and-you’ll-get-taken-care-of mindset.” My boss had to take me aside and tell me that if I didn’t actively cultivate her as my sponsor, I would never progress beyond senior associate” (quoted in Hewlett, Sylvia Ann, Melinda Marshall, and Laura Sherbin. “The Relationship You Need to Get Right,” HBR 2011) To reiterate: an organization is not purely a meritocracy where talent and hard work speak for themselves; and it’s much, much harder to advance within an organization without effective advocates. "This blog post is the first in a three-part series that summarizes the key messages I deliver to my students, in the hopes that it can catalyze and support the career success of a broader group of ambitious employees who aspire to make it to the C-Suite,” writes Renee Dye 94PhD, associate professor in the practice of Organization & Management. “Most of my lessons are derived from my own unlikely personal journey from literary scholar to top-tier management consultant to C-suite executive for a publicly traded company, but they are also heavily informed by leading researchers like Sylvia Anne Hewlett. In the final blog, I discuss the impact of remote work on career success.” For more insight and to continue reading this article and series, please visit Dye’s blog. To arrange an interview – simply click on Dye’s icon now to book a time today.
Millennials at Work – Let our experts offer insight into the next generation of employees
Millennial workers now total 56 million, representing 35% of the total US labor force. How can organizations harness their unique talents and strengths? Goizueta Professor Andrea Hershatter recently joined the Goizueta Effect to explore this generation’s use of technology as a “sixth sense,” their inherent trust in organizations, and their tendency toward an extrinsic sense of fulfillment. In the interview Hershatter uses her expertise and years of experience to discuss a wide variety of topics such as: Defining Generations What Makes a Millennial? Exploring Boomers, GenX and Zoomers Millennials’ Relationship with Technology & Organizations How COVID-19 Has Impacted Millennials Dynamics & Interplay Between Generations The Next Generation and The Future Andrea Hershatter is Senior Associate Dean and Director of the BBA Program in Emory’s Goizueta Business School. She regularly provides consultation to corporations and academia on the Millennial generation and has been an outside expert to the Graduate Management Admission Council in enhancing undergraduate student outreach. She is a frequent presenter on the topics of entrepreneurship, generational workplace culture, and management education. Andrea is available to speak with media about this topic – simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
When it comes to marketing, the endgame is almost always to increase brand awareness, strengthen relationships between companies and consumers, and boost market share. But counter-marketing efforts are often employed to reduce consumption of “vice” goods such as cigarettes, sugary sodas, and fast food. Earlier this year, Michael “Mike” Lewis, professor of marketing, faculty director, Emory Marketing Analytics Center, published “Investigating the Effects of Excise Taxes, Public Usage Restrictions, and Anti-Smoking Ads across Cigarette Brands.” in the Journal of Marketing. Mike, along with co-authors, Yanwen Wang PhD14, associate professor of marketing and Canada research chair in Marketing Analytics at the University British Columbia, and Vishal Singh, professor of marketing, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, took a closer look at the role counter-marketing plays in the consumption of “vice” goods. Given that many “vice” categories are dominated by high-equity brands such as Marlboro, McDonald’s, and The Coca-Cola Company, the authors wanted to explore whether or not strong brands “might also affect the efforts of advocacy groups and regulators to disrupt these relationships and reduce consumption,” they note in their paper. The research focused specifically on the interplay between branding and counter-marketing with respect to cigarette consumption. By focusing on brand manufacturers rather than on regulators and consumers, the authors believe they’ve closed a gap. “The literature on smoking cessation has largely ignored the impact of branding on efforts to reduce cigarette consumption,” they write. “This is an oversight given that marketing researchers have found that brand-consumers’ relationships have significant effects on consumer decision-making.” A full article on the research is attached and is well worth the read. In that piece, readers will learn more about how the researchers expected that strong brands would take advantage of their increased customer loyalty and diminished price sensitivity to protect them from counter-marketing tactics. And while it might be counter-intuitive, the author’s research suggests that market leading cigarette brands would be better off pushing for excise taxes on cigarettes (versus smoking restrictions), as such tax increases would be attractive to government agencies (by increasing government revenue), and big brand cigarette companies would capture more market share. In other words, when it comes to combating counter-marketing efforts, “brand managers may devise strategies or lobbying efforts based on their category position,” suggest the researchers. “This isn’t a clear-cut battle of good versus evil. It’s more a matter of a brand’s people advocating for one position,” said Lewis. “A position that’s going to make them more resilient to some of these tactics.” In addition to big brand cigarette companies, the paper’s findings have implications for brands that anchor other vice categories, such as McDonald’s and The Coca-Cola Company, entities that have been the target of counter-marketing campaigns by various anti-obesity groups. According to Lewis, Wang, and Singh’s research, much of the response by these brands to the counter-marketing attempts has been centered around public relations, but the authors see opportunities to employ “different tactics” that are “appropriate for different brands,” they write. "Relationships between consumers and relatively weak brands may be disrupted using taxes, while for strong brands, the appropriate tactic seems to be usage restriction that limit public consumption. Our results suggest that brand building is the correct response to taxes, whereas usage restrictions would call for other responses, such as lobbying.” If you are a reporter looking to know more about this subject or if you have questions, then let our experts help. Professor Michael Lewis is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. In addition to exploring trends in the overall marketing landscape, Lewis is an expert in sports analytics and marketing. He is available for interview - simply click on his icon to arrange a discussion today.
Early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 2020 had fallen sharply from its pre-pandemic high in the UK as the economy was essentially shut down for long periods due to COVID-19 This decline was due to fewer nascent entrepreneurs than normal – that is, individuals in the first three months of starting their new business venture Nevertheless, around two-thirds of working-age adults looking to set up a business within three years said the pandemic had influenced their decision to re-assess their future engagement with the labour market As in previous economic downturns it is the small business community that drives the recovery across all sectors of the economy. UK entrepreneurs once again stand ready to rise to the challenges and opportunities created by the Coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout from Brexit, a new report says. The latest Global Entrepreneurship Team (GEM) UK report found that although around of half budding entrepreneurs said that the UK government had so far dealt effectively with the economic consequences of the pandemic, there must be improved programmes, financial support and advice to start-ups and scale-ups through different stages of the business life cycle. GEM is the world’s largest survey of entrepreneurship and is the only global research source that collects data on entrepreneurship directly from individual entrepreneurs. It measures various rates of entrepreneurship in 43 countries in 2020. GEM’s UK team – which is led by Professor Mark Hart of Aston University – compared attitudes, activity and aspirations in the UK, Germany and the United States as well as the four home nations of the UK. Access to finance remained one of the major obstacles to entrepreneurial activity in the UK. Enhanced tax benefits for entrepreneurs, such as tax breaks for start-ups and businesses in difficulty to reduce early exits and better tax incentives for recruitment, investment in managerial and digital practices and skills were also highlighted1. The report also called for more entrepreneurial education, especially at school age as well as improved technical education and improved links between the educational system and industry to boost growth post-COVID and post-Brexit. It found that the UK still lags behind many comparable economies in this respect. Mark Hart, professor of small business and entrepreneurship at Aston Business School and deputy director of the UK’s Enterprise Research Centre, said: “The GEM survey undertaken in the last few months of 2020 showed a sharp fall in the number of individuals in the early stages of setting up a new business compared to the pre-pandemic high in 2019. “This is hardly surprising, but the analysis has also shown that the entrepreneurial foundations of the economy and society are still strong and these will be crucial for the recovery after the pandemic and in dealing with the ongoing economic fallout from Brexit. “Those ethnic-minority communities that have borne the brunt of the pandemic in terms of infection, hospitalisation and sadly deaths demonstrated their resilience by maintaining their previous levels of early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA rate) which were significantly higher than for the non-ethnic minority population. “Clearly, the pandemic has had no damaging impact on the level of entrepreneurial activity by immigrants and ethnic-minorities although it has depressed it for life-long residents and the non-ethnic population. “There is undoubtedly an appetite for people to start their own businesses in the next three years and many report new opportunities because of the pandemic but they are delaying the actual decision to get the business operational.” The full GEM UK impact report, sponsored by NatWest, is available for download here.
Aston University researchers based in the College of Health and Life Sciences have been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project by Innovate UK, to bring its academic and scientific expertise to assist Catalent in the development of its Zydis® technology, the leading orally disintegrating tablet (ODT). The Zydis ODT fast-dissolve formulation is a unique, freeze-dried oral solid dosage form that disperses almost instantly in the mouth with no water required. It helps delivering treatments to patients and consumers who have difficulty swallowing conventional pills, or where rapid onset of action is desirable. The aim of the KTP partnership is to develop and prove an accurate predictive decision-making tool to pre-determine accurate levels of absorption enhancer for each Zydis product, potentially facilitating faster pharmaceutical development, improving efficiency, and reducing time to market. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a three-way collaboration between a business, an academic partner and a KTP Associate. The UK-wide programme helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills. Aston University is the leading KTP provider within the Midlands. Academic lead on the project is Professor Afzal Mohammed, who is also chair in Pharmacy in the College of Health & Life Sciences (HLS) and a member of the Aston Pharmaceutics Group (APG) at Aston University. Afzal said: “This is a great opportunity for us to share and translate our academic experience in cell based models, excipient and formulation characterisation to develop an evidence based predictive tool that has the potential to expedite product development at Catalent.” Ralph Gosden, head of Zydis product development at Catalan, added: "We are excited to be working with Aston University on this project. Their expertise in drug transportation, cell biology, data analysis and model cell line design, coupled with its world-class facilities means that together, we will be able to achieve significant improvements in efficiency, and accelerate new product development.” Professor Mohammed will be supported by other colleagues from the Aston Pharmaceutics Group, including, Dr Dan Kirby, who has experience in drug delivery and improving patient acceptability of dosage forms gained through original research; Dr Affiong Iyire who has research expertise in the formulation of drugs for pre-gastric absorption and innovative cell models; and Dr Raj Badhan, who is a pharmacokinetics expert with vast knowledge of in silico methods. The outcomes of the project will be integrated into Aston University’s curriculum through teaching case studies, thereby developing well equipped graduates.
