Aston University are collaborating on a bold business transformation programme with a Midlands-based provider of housing and integration services for refugees and migrants.

Through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), a team of researchers are working with Ashley Community & Housing Ltd to better measure how its programmes deliver social, economic and cultural benefits to refugees and migrants. By delivering a transformative new business model, the KTP will drive growth in ACH’s commercial training programmes, build new partnerships with philanthropists and incorporate evidence of impact into local authority funding bids.

In a first for the sector, the KTP will use Aston University’s leading expertise on business support for ethnic minority entrepreneurs to develop a Holistic Impact Measure (HIM). This will determine the wide-reaching impacts of ACH’s refugee and migrant integration, education and housing programmes. The HIM will look at outcomes like finding a job, as well as broader life-journey measures like improvements in self-confidence, mental wellbeing, physical health and engagement with social and community activities.

The partnership will enable ACH to enhance how it designs, brands and resources its programmes, with a business model to grow new income streams so the social enterprise can invest in freehold housing for the first time. Following the KTP, ACH will also be better positioned to develop integration and education programmes that are tailored to the needs of refugees and migrants across the communities it works with.

Tom Dixon, CEO of ACH, said:

"Aston University’s academic rigour provides us with the evidence base to demonstrate that the approaches we’re taking are the right ones. We’ll be able to better understand and build on the value we’re making to the lives of refugees and migrants, securing our future as a provider of supported housing and integration services.”

Professor Monder Ram, director of the University’s Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), said:

“Working on this KTP with a social enterprise like ACH is exciting. We are drawing on our extensive body of work in refugee and migrant integration and applying it in a way that can directly benefit those people across our community who engage with ACH’s programmes. This means our research is generating social and economic value.”

With expertise that is ideally suited to this project, CREME has a local, national and international reputation for innovating new approaches to refugee entrepreneurship and integration that are co-designed, delivered and evaluated with community partners. Its work benefits diverse and overlooked communities and helps to drive meaningful change in social inclusion, migration policy, supplier diversity and wages. The team will also draw on world-leading research in business model innovation and service operations management at Aston Business School, one of the UK’s most recognised business schools for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, funded by Innovate UK, are collaborations between a business, a university and a highly qualified research 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 a sector leading KTP provider, ranked first for project quality, and joint first for the volume of active projects.

For more information on the KTP visit the webpage.