We bring together the leading international research strengths and researchers across Leicester Castle Business School in the Faculty of Business and Law.

The world is changing rapidly bringing complex challenges that need collective and rapid responses. The Institute for Responsible Business and Social Justice aims to provide the leadership and cultural change to support businesses and stakeholders in tackling these challenges. Our research will help organisations drive sustainable growth that not only benefits the business, but its staff, local communities and wider society.

The proposition to provide the leadership and cultural change needed to redefine businesses and stakeholders for a sustainable future, places people at the heart of change, and works towards an equitable, sustainable and inclusive society.

  • Our strategic vision is to empower organisations by being inclusive, building business voice and transformation, and supporting place-based interventions to help businesses realise their full potential. Our approach is to enrich organisations - creating wealth for people, businesses, and places. 
  • Our role as a United Nations’ global hub chair for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 11 reflects our commitment to building Sustainable Cities and Communities, as a basis for lasting change.
  • Our approach is to build partnerships with purpose, and to build and learn from collaborations between organisations that inspire change, add value and create synergy with communities. 

Component Hubs

Our programme of work

We develop people who can analyse complex problems, devise active solutions, and have the ability to work with others to solve at speed. Our leadership approach is underpinned by our core values to build for a more equitable, sustainable, and inclusive society. We engage with global and national stakeholders, communities of civic and business leaders, policymakers, researchers and innovators and our international partners to conduct impactful projects and studies, across Britain and globally, in Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia.

 

  1. Economic Growth and Productivity

    Our research teams are working on sector growth plans, post-covid recovery, and innovation in advanced and high-growth industries. We specialise in creative business scale-up and innovation, artificial intelligence, banking and finance, and inclusive entrepreneurship, and have emerging expertise in advanced manufacturing and green innovation. We supported the development of Leicestershire’s MIT REAP innovation strategy. We recognise the growing importance of AI in all aspects of our society and the way it is transforming research across a range of business disciplines. We are working closely with engineers, with national leaders such as the Turing Institute, and with business to advance world-class research on AI in business, and to understand the evolving applications and implications for business and society.

  2. Responsible Business Practice

    We work closely with industry to build responsible business practice, and to develop new business models, underpinned with social equity through supply chains. We have worked closely with Leicester’s Textiles industry to build ethical standards and new models of technology-driven growth, and have established expertise in forensic accounting, HRM, industrial corruption, and corporate social responsibility.

  3. Social Value

    We work with diverse stakeholders to ensure our research has a truly, transformative effect on people’s lives, their wellbeing, and in driving business change. We work closely with local government, with third sector organisations, and with regional and sector groups, to ensure that our research and insights are translated into practical and policy actions that have impact. We work to develop alternative regional intelligence systems, have supported work on tackling low pay and youth unemployment, debt and place prosperity, and have worked to drive initiatives as part of the Leicestershire Civic University Agreement.

  4. The Grand Challenges

    We recognise the importance of tackling Grand Challenges. We have teams specialising in: Climate Action; Transport and Mobility especially aviation; Food Security, working closely with food manufacturing and regional agri-food sectors to drive sustainability; and Health and Wellbeing including work on growing regional digital health sectors.

 

Professor-Rachel-Granger

Businesses need to operate in a way that benefits society. Responsible growth with sound organisational practices and achievable sustainability is the only way to generate value and impact over time.

Professor Rachel Granger - Research and Innovation Director (Institute for Responsible Business)

Funded opportunities

Dean's Award JUSTICE – Interrogative Coercion Elimination

29 June 2026

This studentship will support the delivery of the European Research Council Synergy programme, JUSTICE, a six-year international research programme that began on 1 June 2025. 

Find out more about Dean's Award JUSTICE – Interrogative Coercion Elimination

Dean's Award - Responsible Business and Social Justice

29 June 2026

De Montfort University’s Faculty of Business and Law is inviting applications for a Doctoral Studentship on a fee waiver basis, available to both home and international students starting in September 2026.

Find out more about the Dean's Award - Responsible Business and Social Justice

Research in the spotlight

Events

November 2026
19 NOV

Creative and Participatory Inquiry in Practice 2026

Georgian Rooms

Thursday 19 November 9:00 AM to Friday 20 November, 6:00 PM

Advancing creating and collaborative approaches to socially engaged research

Open to all

Research

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Research Degrees

Join our community of individual thinkers who are re-writing the rules. Engage with our Doctoral College where research students are nurtured and recognised by scholars and research leaders.

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