ISBE / ERC Winter symposium 2025
The ERC team hosted the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) 2025 ECR/ECA Winter Symposium on February 19th at Warwick Business School’s London offices at The Shard.
The one-day symposium was designed to give early career researchers and doctoral students an opportunity to present research papers in development and gain feedback from both their peers and experienced academics.
The day began with a welcome and introductions from ERC Director Professor Stephen Roper, and Dr Kellie Forbes-Simpson of Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, who is also a Chair of the ISBE ECR Forum. We then moved into paper presentations in two parallel sessions, one focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems and resilience and the other on innovation digital and sustainability.
In the former, chaired by Kellie Forbes-Simpson, we heard presentations on rural entrepreneurial ecosystems, family businesses, poverty alleviation and government investment scheme outcomes. The presentations included researchers focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs including refugees, women and the neurodiverse. Session discussant Dr Maria Wishart noted that she was “particularly struck by diverse and intriguing range of contexts within which researchers were working, and I anticipate some super interesting papers in the future!”
The second session, which was chaired by Dr Halima Jibril (with Dr Serdal Ozusaglam as discussant), included similarly varied presentations on a range of innovation and sustainability-related themes including measurement of digital maturity, the potential of AI for venture capital decision-making, and the role of accelerators in firm growth, and university-industry collaboration. There were also presentations on the links between cultural values and innovation, and the sustainability of ethnic minority businesses.
The day concluded with an illuminating discussion between Stephen Roper and Jonathan Slow, Head of Economic Analysis at Scottish Enterprise, which gave participants an opportunity to hear first-hand about the realities of research-policy engagement, and how to achieve wider impact through academic research.
The day provided a valuable career development opportunity for all those that attended, in a relaxed and positive environment. As one presenter summed up: “It was great to present at such a supportive event and connect with fellow early career researchers! The discussions and feedback were incredibly valuable – thank you.”
Kellie Forbes-Simpson also reflected: “It was great to see Warwick Business School, the ERC and ISBE come together to support Early Career Researchers. These types of events provide great opportunities for ECRs to develop their networks and start building confidence in presenting their work. The standard and quality of research presented was fantastic, I look forward to seeing these ECR progress their research further.”
