From Research to Impact: Transforming Practice for Inclusive Enterprise
The CREME Agenda 2025
Foreword
The past year has reminded me—yet again—of the ingenuity and grit that characterise the UK’s ethnic-minority entrepreneurs. Amid economic headwinds and rapid technological change, they have not stood still; they have innovated, collaborated and re-imagined what inclusive prosperity can look like. Their energy is the heartbeat of the work you will discover in this report.
That work is anchored in CREME’s three guiding principles—Engaged Scholarship, Transforming Practice, and Outstanding Engagement & Dissemination—which ensure that robust research is translated into action with (not just for) the communities we serve.
Our flagship Time to Change partnership with NatWest continues to gather pace. Independent research shows that if its ten recommendations are fully implemented, the annual contribution of ethnic-minority businesses (EMBs) could soar from £25 billion to £100 billion—a four-fold uplift that would benefit everyone in the UK.
We have complemented that systemic agenda with a suite of targeted initiatives. A new Financial Resilience programme backed by the Aviva Foundation, led by our Aston partners the Centre for Personal Finance and Wellbeing, is designing practical interventions to safeguard family finances during the vulnerable early stages of business growth. Our Generative AI for Social Good collaboration with the British Academy explores how inclusive, AI-driven tools can accelerate refugee integration, while a doctoral project on sustainable agri-food supply chains tackles the environmental and economic challenges faced by Bangladeshi caterers and other micro-businesses.
Equally important is voice. With civic-participation partners across the country, we convened the first UK-wide Migrant Participation Conference at Aston University in February 2025, galvanising over 100 delegates to widen representation in public life. And through a Knowledge-Transfer Partnership with ACH, we are pioneering a new framework to capture the social and economic impact of refugee-led services.
None of this would be possible without the extraordinary commitment of my CREME colleagues, our PhD researchers, and a growing network of funders, corporate allies, policymakers and—above all—the entrepreneurs whose lived experience keeps our scholarship honest. I am deeply grateful for your trust and partnership.
Yet gratitude alone will not deliver change. I invite policymakers to set clear, evidence-based targets for inclusive enterprise; corporations to open supply chains and mentorship pathways; and communities to champion the innovators in their midst. Together, we can make diversity everyone’s business—and in so doing, make enterprise everyone’s future.
Professor Monder Ram OBE
Centre Director of CREME
Who we are
CREME was established in 2004 as a joint venture between a regional development agency (East Midlands Development Agency) passionate about promoting enterprise amongst all communities and a group of researchers committed to making a difference at the ground level.
We deliver leading expertise on business support for ethnic minority entrepreneurs, and have transformed perceptions by working with business policy-makers and influential organisations to engage collaboratively with overlooked or disregarded business communities. Headed by Professor Monder Ram OBE, we have built up an enviable reputation regionally, nationally and internationally for our pioneering research and business engagement activities, promoting diversity and enterprise. We are a leading contributor to academic and policy debates on ethnic minority entrepreneurship, and we are committed to the production and promotion of knowledge that is useful to academic and practitioner communities. Our collaborative approach is highly effective in developing activities that are impactful for our wide range of stakeholders, and we are fortunate to work closely with fantastic key partners to apply current academic thinking to the real world of business practice. This fusion of research and practice is a key feature of CREME’s varied range of activities.
CREME’s Guiding Principles
The Centre operates on the following guiding principles:
1. Engaged Scholarship
Applying the insights and findings from our high quality ‘internationally recognised’ research to ‘real’ business issues, such as capital and finance, supplier diversity, wages, migration policies, technology, and social inclusion.
2. Transforming Practice
Working with a host of stakeholders to influence policy and practice, including the private sector (large corporate, trade and professional), local and national government funded agencies.
3. Outstanding Engagement and Dissemination
Organising events to bring together local entrepreneurs, business policymakers and academics, to encourage networks and disseminate valuable information. CREME delivers workshops, seminars, and briefings throughout the year.
Our core team
The people behind the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME)
Professor Monder Ram, OBE DL
Centre Director
Professor Monder Ram OBE DL is the Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) at Aston University and a renowned expert on ethnic minority entrepreneurship. He has over 30 years of experience in this field, producing numerous publications and securing significant research grants from prestigious sources such as ESRC, NERC and Low Pay Commission. Professor Ram founded and leads CREME, a pioneering research centre that engages with diverse and marginalised communities. He is twice winner of the ESRC Impact prize for business (2017 and 2021), and his commitment to engaged scholarship has resulted in several practical research-based initiatives that have benefited diverse and overlooked communities. Professor Ram’s work influences policy and practice at national and regional levels. He advises the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ethnic Minority Business Owners and serves as a member of the Ethnic Minority Business Group at the Department of Business and Trade. Prof. Ram has held visiting Professorships at Lund University and Turku University in Finland. Outside of CREME, Professor Monder Ram enjoys sports and reading.
Professor Richard Roberts
Professorial Research Fellow
Professor Richard Roberts has worked with CREME on a part-time basis since he retired after a thirty-year career with Barclays Bank as Head of SME Research and Chief UK Economist. At Barclays he set-up and led the bank's internal research function looking at all aspects of small business in the UK. Richard's own area of research interest mainly includes long-term business demography, firm growth and development, UK small firm policy and access to finance issue.Presently, Professor Robert's main work at CREME concerns a long term review of the evaluation of small business policy for ethnic minority owners. In 2019, he led an audit of ethnic minority business data in the UK. This was followed up in 2020 when he was the lead author and project coordinator on a project for the Federation of Small Businesses, which resulted in the Unlocking Opportunity report released in July 2020.
Gurdeep Chima
Centre Manager
Gurdeep Chima is the Centre Manager of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) at Aston University. Gurdeep has been at CREME since September 2020 and supports the Centre to achieve its mission of ‘making diversity and enterprise everyone’s business’ through stakeholder engagement, leading, and delivering events and collaborating with practitioner partners on innovative business support interventions. In 2022 Gurdeep won the award for the Future Face of Education and Public Sector and in 2023 won the Outstanding Young Achiever of the Year at the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce awards. She serves as a board member for Punch Records, the UK’s leading Music and Arts agency committed to working with Black Music, Arts and Culture. Outside of CREME, Gurdeep enjoys walking, reading, and binge-watching good Netflix shows!
Dr Judy Scully
Visiting Fellow
Dr Judy Scully's primary focus is on societal resilience and supporting PhD students in CREME and WON, and volunteering in academia to support research that informs policy and practice. Her goal for 2025 is to develop resilient systems for both society and individuals.
Dr Susan Lanz
Impact Fellow
Dr Susan Lanz is the Impact Fellow working in the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) at Aston University. She is part of a collaborative team, working closely with NatWest Bank, to progress the implementation of the Time to Change report recommendations, a blueprint for improving the support ecosystem for ethnic minority businesses (EMBs), to create the conditions for them to achieve their potential, thereby boosting their annual economic contribution to the UK to £100bn. She completed her thesis at Aston University in 2020, which employed qualitative research, and focused on how family life course events, unrelated to business leadership, shape intra-family ownership transfers. Her research interests include, impact generation, ethnic minority entrepreneurship, building inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and business-owning families and their ownership and wealth transfer choices. Outside of CREME, Dr Susan Lanz has an allotment and loves growing fruit, vegetables and more recently an obsession with growing herbs.
Dr Eva Kasperova
Research Fellow
Dr Eva Kasperova is a Research Fellow at CREME. Over the past decade, she has contributed to more than twenty research projects on entrepreneurship and small business management issues – from small firm resilience to crises, impact of regulation, to policies that promote inclusive entrepreneurship. Eva has a particular interest in under-represented and disadvantaged groups of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as a route into work. She completed her PhD on the experiences of disabled entrepreneurs and those with long-term health conditions at the Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University. Since joining CREME in 2020, Eva has led on several projects in collaboration with local, national and international partners. She co-authored CREME’s flagship report Time to Change: A Blueprint for Advancing the UK’s Ethnic Minority Businesses (2022) and coordinated research side of the European Union-funded MILE project (2022-23) – an international initiative to support migrant inclusion in local policy making. Since 2024, she is leading on an ESRC-funded impact escalator project to strengthen the local capacity of organisations in Birmingham to support migrant participation in civic, political and public life. Outside of CREME, Eva enjoys walking, gardening, spending time with friends and travelling.
Nicolle Mudzongo
PhD Researcher
Nicolle Mudzongo is a dedicated and passionate PhD Candidate at CREME. Currently, her research project focuses on the indispensable role of social enterprises in supporting the integration of refugees (and migrants) in the UK. Nicolle’s project aims to create a lasting impact that will help to advance the efforts of civil society in facilitating sustainable livelihoods for refugee populations in the UK. Outside of CREME, Nicolle enjoys shopping and considers it a hobby.
Dr Shuai Qin
Impact Research Fellow
Dr. Shuai Qin is currently an Impact Research Fellow of CREME at Aston Business School. Dr. Qin completed his PhD in February 2024, with his monograph entitled "Facilitating Refugee Entrepreneurship Through Capability Approach Based Business Support: An Action Research." His doctoral research, conducted in partnership with a leading refugee integration service provider in England, was designed to develop, implement, and evaluate support interventions for refugee-owned startups and entrepreneurial endeavours among refugees. This longitudinal action research leverages the refugee integration model and has significantly contributed to the theoretical discourse on inclusive entrepreneurship across national contexts and has directly impacted the development and delivery of practitioners' services to marginalised entrepreneurs. His innovative conceptual approaches have been pivotal in facilitating and assessing the impact of support services on the holistic life journey of refugees. During his PhD, he also served as Impact Research Associate on CREME's "Pathway to Enterprising Futures" project. He helped to refine research-based support strategies that have enriched practitioner partners' service portfolio. Commencing his early career researcher journey in 2024, Dr. Qin now leads a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project with a practitioner partner. This project explores an effective model for capturing the impact of services on refugee socio-economic integration and investigates the commercialisation model of these integration support services. Additionally, he is involved in three other trans-regional projects investigating management and marketing innovations for ethnic minority businesses. His research interests span inclusive entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, inclusive technology, small business management and marketing, and action-based engaged scholarship. Outside of CREME, Dr. Qin enjoys folk and metal music, suspense thriller movies and sitcom, and detective novels. He also likes travelling, playing badminton, and cooking.
Fahmida Choudhury
PhD Researcher
Fahmida is a final year PhD student at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). Her research sheds light on the often overlooked role of small, ethnic minority businesses in advancing the concept of positive social change within the creative industries. Through an in-depth exploration of a not-for-profit music and arts organisation, she seeks to provide valuable insights into the strategies, challenges, and impacts of these organisations on broader societal and economic dynamics. Fahmida's study not only enriches our understanding of ethnic minority businesses but also underscores the importance of diverse perspectives in driving transformations conducive to positive social change. Her research interests include critical approaches to understanding ethnic entrepreneurship, race and representation, and the creative economy. Outside of CREME, her hobbies include getting her rent's worth relaxing at home, and looking forward to a holiday whenever possible.
Daniel Mafulul
PhD Researcher
Daniel's research focuses on improving sustainability among ethnic minority microbusinesses within the UK’s curry food supply chain. His work, conducted in partnership with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC), specifically examines Bangladeshi caterers in Birmingham, West Midlands. This exemplifies CRÈME’s commitment to the translational impacts of research through engaged scholarship. In his first year, Daniel was part of an interdisciplinary research team across five UK universities that was awarded a UKRI scoping study grant of £50,000. Through stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange, the project, ‘Changing Agri-chicken for Net Zero,’ aimed to advance behavior change research in furtherance of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy for the Agri-food sector. Outside of CREME, Daniel enjoys football and adventure.
Jason Jones
PhD Researcher
Jason is interested in research that aims to improve inclusivity and diversity in the cultural and creative sector, explores the life experiences of creative entrepreneurs, and investigates cultural policy interventions for disregarded communities. The PhD project I'm researching will investigate the experiences, barriers, and support needs of refugees and asylum seekers engaged with creative entrepreneurship in Birmingham's cultural sector to understand how arts organisations can help foster inclusive and diverse cultural politics whilst supporting refugees in the process of creative entrepreneurship. Outside of CREME, Jason enjoys running, reading, and listening to music in his spare time!
Ananya Yadav
PhD Researcher
Ananya is a PhD researcher funded by a fully funded studentship at Aston University, exploring how digitalisation can drive the internationalisation and growth of ethnic minority businesses in the West Midlands. My research sits at the intersection of small business digitalisation, SME internationalisation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems, aiming to contribute both to academic theory and practical policymaking. Outside of CREME, Ananya is a fan of Dota 2 (stressful but totally worth it), loves getting lost in old classic movies and anime, and can talk philosophy for hours if you’re brave enough to ask. He also enjoys reading, hiking, football and exploring local cultural events.
Jocelyne Fleming
Senior Teaching Fellow
Jocelyne has worked within HE for the past 21 years and prior to this, the NHS and the voluntary sector. She has co-authored the text: Organisational Change (Senior and Fleming 2006) and has a variety of journal publications in the field of International HRM. Her areas of interest lay in Entrepreneurship, strategic change, leadership and international business. Outside of work, she enjoys travel, baking, and reading.
Chantel Thompson
Content Marketing And Engagement Manager
With over a decade of experience in marketing and event management, primarily within the B2B sector, Chantel is passionate about empowering small businesses to achieve growth and success. She holds a BA (Hons) in Marketing and Event Management, a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Professional Diploma in Strategic Marketing, and has completed various professional development courses to continually enhance her expertise. Chantel focuses on amplifying the impact and visibility of the landmark Time to Change Report: A Blueprint for Advancing the UK’s Ethnic Minority Businesses. Commissioned by NatWest Group and prepared by CREME at Aston University, it is the most comprehensive report of its kind. The report outlines ten evidence-based recommendations designed to unlock the growth potential of ethnic minority businesses (EMBs), with an ambitious goal of increasing their GVA contribution from £25 billion to £100 billion annually. Chantel is part of the implementation team, working alongside key partners and stakeholders to bring these recommendations to life.Outside of CREME, she enjoys embracing the beautiful chaos of being a wife and mother of two.
Farnum Taruvinga
Marketing Coordinator
Farnum is the Marketing Coordinator at CREME. He assists the Centre with various marketing activities, such as social media management and coordinating online social campaigns to promote our research projects and publications. In addition to contributing to digital content creation, he writes engaging copy and communication, among other responsibilities. Furthermore, outside work, he enjoys going to the gym, boxing, playing golf, and trying new foods and cuisines.
Our Research Focus
CREME’s research is centred around five core themes:
Understanding Barriers to Enterprise
Ethnic minority, migrant and refugee communities are highly entrepreneurial and innovative, yet they often face particular challenges in starting and running a sustainable business that generates stable income and creates jobs over time. Much of our research focuses on understanding the barriers faced by these entrepreneurs in accessing the resources and support needed to develop at different stages on their entrepreneurial journey, and across diverse sectors of the economy, including catering, creative industries and arts. Entrepreneurs operating in these sectors have been hit particularly hard by austerity, Covid-19 pandemic and the hostile environment to immigration.
Building Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
Enterprise policies have traditionally failed to recognise the unique needs of ethnic minority, migrant and refugee entrepreneurs, limiting their uptake of formal support and the potential to grow. These entrepreneurs experience long-standing difficulties in accessing finance, wider product markets, and appropriate support. Our research in this area explores innovative social and technological solutions, such as novel ways to co-design more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems, partnership development to strengthen support networks, capacity building to empower disenfranchised groups, or the application of Generative AI to support integration.
Measuring Economic and Social Contribution
Misconceptions about the ambitions and contributions of ethnic minority, migrant and refugee-led businesses can influence whether and how policymakers prioritise these businesses. Our research on this topic explores wider social and cultural as well as economic contributions of these entrepreneurs, including our understanding of how creative industries can generate positive social change, how social enterprises supporting refugee integration can scale up their impact, and how comprehensive impact evaluation frameworks can support the assessment of socio-economic contributions of refugee-led integration services.
Improving Management Practices
Despite their entrepreneurialism and innovative tendencies, ethnic minority, migrant and refugee entrepreneurs often struggle to develop their businesses into mature firms, and many face closure. Our research focus on management practices explores how micro firms led by people of minority backgrounds can innovate their business models to boost productivity, how to minimise entrepreneurs’ risk to personal finances whilst building financial resilience when starting and growing a business, or how entrepreneurs can leverage digital tools to scale their businesses and access global markets.
Enhancing Business Sustainability
Ethnic minority businesses have significant presence in traditional sectors such as food catering and hospitality, making a vital contribution to the wider economy. Despite their significance, these businesses face unique challenges in achieving social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Our research in this area seeks to understand these sustainability challenges, identify current practices, and explore improvement strategies aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with a specific focus on ‘curry houses’ – a celebrated part of British heritage.
Our Impact
CREME takes a relational approach to research impact, built on long-lasting collaboration and co-production with our partners, ethnic minority businesses and communities. Working closely with organisations from across sectors, we help to change practices to better support minority-led firms. This sustained engagement promotes meaningful change and structural shifts in entrepreneurial ecosystems and policy landscapes, contributing to a more equitable and inclusive UK society.
Advancing the growth potential of ethnic minority businesses
The Problem (Why?)
Ethnic minority businesses (EMBs) face multiple interconnected challenges in accessing finance, markets, and quality business support. Traditional support systems often fail to recognise the unique needs and potential of these entrepreneurs, limiting their growth opportunities and contribution to the UK economy. A fundamental issue is the lack of trust-based relationships between EMBs and mainstream support providers. This disconnect results in lower uptake of formal services and missed opportunities for business development.
The Solution (What?)
Building on the publication of our landmark Time to Change report in 2022, CREME has been leading on a transformative initiative to implement its 10 evidence-based recommendations to integrate EMBs into the UK’s business support ecosystem.
The People (Who?)
This work has gained significant traction with Metro Mayors and business support organisations nationwide. CREME is collaborating with its key partners, including NatWest Bank, West Midlands Combined Authority, Be the Business, and Inclusive Entrepreneurship Northern Ireland, a voluntary alliance of organisations aiming to implement Time to Change recommendations.
We are acting in the capacity of catalyst, convener and critical friend, working with existing partners and advocating for change with potential future partners. Working alongside our partners, we help them scope, support, track, embed and evaluate the outcomes and impact of their activities.
The Impact (Outcome)
We have estimated that the Time to Change report recommendations, if implemented, will help increase EMBs’ annual contribution to the UK’s economy from £25bn to £100bn in GVA. Since 2022, CREME has been delivering a programme of impact acceleration activities, including:
o Leading a series of events and activities to raise awareness and engage organisations to take forward the recommendations.
o Advising on several government advisory committees.
o Working with the Inclusive Growth Team at the Department of Business & Trade to scope out how our recommendations can inform its activities.
o Working with Be the Business to pilot a mentoring support programme for EMBs. This involved training and matching 50+ mentors.
For more information on our impact, check out our impact case study videos here.In the next phase of this initiative, we envisage to further our collaborations to set out and implement a UK-wide inclusive enterprise policy that will:
o Establish clear evidence-based targets for inclusive entrepreneurship
o Ensure EMBs can access quality business support for growth
o Create stronger cross-sector partnerships
Evaluating the contribution of social enterprise-led refugee integration services
The Problem (Why?)
Refugee and migrant integration support services in England are increasingly developed and delivered bottom-up, often by migrant-led social enterprises like ACH. A key challenge for these enterprises is to generate new income streams to sustain or scale their services while balancing commercial and societal goals. Robust evaluation is vital to evidence the impact of integration services on the lives of refugees. This, in turn, can facilitate future income generation.
The Solution (What?)
Working in partnership with ACH – a leading provider of supported housing and integration services for refugees in England – CREME is developing a comprehensive impact evaluation framework to assess the socio-economic contributions of ACH’s integration services.
Through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, we seek to develop innovative multidimensional metrics that capture both economic and societal impacts of ACH’s support programmes, utilising CREME’s and Aston Business School’s expertise in measuring the impact of integration services, business model innovation, and service operations management.
The People (Who?)
ACH provides refugees and migrants with the tools they need to lead self-sufficient and ambitious lives by delivering training, education and business development programmes. It operates across Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry and Wolverhampton.
The Impact (Outcome)
This novel initiative started in 2024, with a number of expected impacts and outcomes:
o Developing a new impact evaluation framework will provide more holistic evaluation metrics that help ACH capture and evidence the impact of its programmes on refugees and migrants.
o Incorporating more robust evidence of impact in external funding applications will give ACH competitive edge in an increasingly crowded sector and boost its income generation success.
o The new evaluation framework will help ACH develop a new business model for commercial training, further boosting its income streams.
o By generating new income streams, ACH will increase its capacity to develop services that are better tailored to the needs of its clients and to invest in freehold properties to sustain its future as a housing provider.
o There is a potential for the new impact evaluation framework to be replicated in similar organisations, bringing value to the wider sector.
Supporting migrant participation and inclusion in decision-making
The Problem (Why?)
The UK’s ethnic minorities and migrants are under-represented in politics and public life. This hinders their ability to shape decisions on the issues that affect them. The lack of migrant voice has implications across policy areas, including access to quality enterprise support, with wider impacts on the economy and society.
The Solution (What?)
CREME is working in partnership with migrant community groups, support providers and participation experts in Birmingham and UK-wide to address this problem in two ways.
o Raising awareness about civic, political and public sector participation opportunities among ‘new’ migrant communities and migrant support practitioners.
o Co-designing educational resources on participation to develop knowledge and competencies of migrants and migrant-led support organisations in this area.
The People (Who?)
We are working with pioneering organisations like Social Equity Centre, Migrant Democracy Project, The Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK, and our local partners ACH, Birmingham City Council and Migration Policy and Practice, to strengthen the local capacity to promote and support migrant participation, recognising the diversity of migrants and different routes to engagement.
The Impact (Outcome)
While this initiative is underway, we have strengthened our network of partners and collaborators by forming a working group on migrant participation in 2024. We have since organised a UK-wide conference on migrant participation, held at Aston University in February 2025, attracting over 100 delegates.
Our objective in the short term is to pilot and evaluate an online introductory course and a digital guide, engaging with at least 50 support providers and 100 migrant individuals. We will also be co-designing a training for participation champions. In the medium term, we hope to improve local knowledge and competencies to promote participation opportunities and to create a self-sustaining network of participation champions. Our longer-term goal is to foster more confident and resilient migrant communities and to facilitate migrant inclusion in decision-making across policy areas.
This initiative builds on CREME’s previous projects seeking to engage with migrant entrepreneurs through community organising and to empower migrants in local policy making.
Current CREME Projects
Time to Change Report – Recommendations Implementation Project
Funder: NatWest Group | Duration: 2023 – 2026
CREME, in partnership with NatWest, published the Time to Change report in 2022, outlining 10 key recommendations to unlock the full potential of ethnic minority businesses and boost their economic contribution from £25bn to £100bn. Drawing on two decades of research, CREME now leads a voluntary network of partners committed to driving this change. Acting as catalyst, convener, and critical friend, CREME supports these partners to implement, track, and embed lasting impact in line with the report’s vision.
Supporting Migrant Participation in Civic, Political and Public Life
Funder: ESRC IAA | Duration: 2024 – 2025
This project addresses under-representation of first-generation migrants in civic, political and public life. Working in partnership with Social Equity Centre, CREME aims to maximise the impact its research, identifying a lack of support for migrant participation in Birmingham and UK-wide. Through co-designed educational tools and awareness events, developed in collaboration with ACH, Birmingham City Council, The Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK, Migrant Democracy Project, and Migration Policy and Practice, the key objective is to build the local capacity to support migrant participation and inclusion in decision-making.
Evaluating Social Enterprise-led Refugee Integration Support
Funder: Innovate UK (KTP) | Duration: 2024 – 2026
CREME has partnered with ACH, a leading provider of supported housing and integration services for refugees in England, to develop a robust impact evaluation framework for measuring both economic and social impacts of ACH’s services. The framework will help this social enterprise to expand income streams and refine its business model. It will enhance ACH’s ability to deliver tailored support, invest in long-term infrastructure, and sustain its future as a housing and integration support provider.
Financial Resilience of Ethnic Minority-Led Small Businesses
Funder: Aviva Foundation | Duration: 2024 – 2026
This consortium project investigates the financial risks faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs. It aims to design and pilot targeted interventions that improve personal and family financial wellbeing during business start-up and growth, strengthening long-term resilience. Find out more here.
Generative AI for Refugee Integration and Social Good
Funder: British Academy | Duration: 2024 – 2026
This collaborative project, led by CREME, explores the power of generative AI to improve refugee integration. Working with ACH, it seeks to co-designs inclusive, AI-driven tools that address system-level barriers to social and economic participation for refugees and migrants.
Digitalisation and International Growth of Ethnic Minority Businesses
Funder: Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands | Duration: 2024 – 2027
This doctoral research project explores how digital technologies can drive internationalisation for ethnic minority businesses in the West Midlands. Using action research, the project will identify barriers and best practices, offering practical insights for regional policy and support.
Refugee Creative Entrepreneurship in Birmingham’s Arts Sector
Funder: ESRC DTP | Duration: 2024 – 2028
This doctoral research project investigates how refugees navigate entrepreneurship through the arts. It examines the resources, barriers, and identities shaping creative ventures, providing actionable insights for cultural inclusion and sectoral change.
Creating Opportunities for Local Innovation Fellowships
Funder: ESRC | Duration: 2025 – 2026
In partnership with Midlands universities, this project maps regional knowledge exchange systems and builds models for hyperlocal community empowerment. It aims to strengthen place-based innovation by deepening university ties with industry, policymakers, and underserved communities.
Building Sustainability of Ethnic Minority Businesses in Agri-Food Supply Chains
Funder: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and Aston Business School | Duration: 2022 - 2025
This academic-industry collaboration with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and the Bangladeshi Caterers Association aims to develop a multi-dimensional framework to better understand the unique sustainability challenges and opportunities facing ethnic minority businesses in the UK’s food supply chains. By integrating economic, social, and environmental dimensions, this doctoral research project offers practical insights to support more sustainable and resilient EMBs.
Scaling the impact of a social enterprise-led integration service provider
Funder: Aston Univeristy | Duration: 2021 - 2025
This doctoral research project, in collaboration with ACH, explores how a social enterprise focused on facilitating the socio-economic integration of migrants in the UK scales its social impact, the strategies it employs to do so, and the conditions that enable or constrain its capacity to scale.
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