Two University of Bath academics have been named among the UK’s most promising science and research leaders.
Dr Vivek Soundararajan from the university’s School of Management and Dr Daniel Loughran from the Department of Mathematical Sciences have also secured Future Leader Fellowships from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Some 97 researchers in total are receiving funding of £113m to help them take their innovative ideas from lab to market and provide solutions to tackle major global issues ranging from climate change to chronic disease.
The Future Leader Fellowships scheme aims to establish the careers of the next generation of world-class scientists in the UK, enabling researchers at universities and businesses to progress their studies quickly by funding research expenses, paying for researcher wages and supporting the researcher’s team.
The scheme also allows universities and businesses to develop their most talented early career researchers and innovators or to attract new people to their organisations. Each fellowship lasts four to seven years.
Dr Soundararajan will lead a project to put workplace dignity at the heart of a new framework for sustainable supply chain management. Overwork, bullying, abuse, humiliation and poor conditions are a collective experience for millions of workers in UK companies’ global and domestic supply chains.
Current mechanisms for measuring this psychological benchmark rely on ‘one-size-fits-all’ labour standards and human rights conventions without taking into account the highly personal experience of workplace dignity.
To counter this, the project will use novel research techniques, including interviews, drawings, surveys and field experiments, to develop interventions for improving workplace dignity in supply chains.
The research will take place across two sectors - Information Technology products and services and textile and garments – in the UK and India.
Dr Soundararajan said: “Besides the devastating impact on the lives of workers in supply chains, violation of workplace dignity has serious and direct implications for UK companies’ productivity.
“It can cause significant negative impacts on workers’ commitment, health and wellbeing with a consequent decrease in supplier performance.
“So, this ambitious project will not only improve the lives of vulnerable workers, but help to address the productivity challenges facing the economy.
“For me personally it’s a very exciting opportunity to develop a skill set, network and team that I hope in time will help to put me at the forefront of sustainable supply chain management.”
Dr Loughran will use tools from geometry and number theory to tackle important open problems in the field of Diophantine equations.
Originally viewed as a curiosity from antiquity, these equations have found spectacular applications to modern society and underlie much of internet security.
Dr Loughran described being awarded the Future Leaders Fellowship as “a bit like winning the lottery”.
He added: “The fellowship will allow me to realise my ambitious research programme and full potential as a leader, and create a new world-leading centre for number theory.
The funding forms part of the government’s commitment to increase public spending in research and development by £22bn by 2024/2025, putting the UK on track to reach 2.4% of GDP spent on R&D across the UK economy by 2027.
The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading research universities. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment some 87% of its research was defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.
