On 25 February the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will launch a call for retail-themed KTPs as part of its £2.5 million Retail Sector Initiative, funding collaborative research and knowledge exchange activities in the sector.  Their recent announcement states that—”Understanding the behaviours of individual people, communities and organisations is key to understanding the challenges now facing the retail sector”. They particularly welcome, therefore, proposals in the following areas:

1) the changing nature of the UK high street and changing retail spaces

2) e-commerce, m-commerce and omni-channel retailing

3) consumer (including ‘big’) data

 For more information please see the following link to the pre-call announcement on the ESRC website:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/16967/esrc-retail-sector-initiative-2013.aspx

 The ESRC are holding  a launch event for the Retail Sector Initiative on 28 February 2013, further information about this event is available at the following link:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/24936/launch-workshop-for-the-esrc-retail-sector-initiative-2013.aspx

 A full briefing document will be available next week.

 Contact Dominic Collins: d.collins@staffs.ac.uk , ext. 3404,  for further information.