Research in social sciences at Heriot-Watt University spans a broad range of areas of culture, communities, social interactions and learning, health and wellbeing, the urban environments, business and management, and economics and finance. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach and engage regularly with policy makers to provide advice. Heriot-Watt University is a partner in the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE) and Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) research pools.
School of Social Sciences (SoSS)
The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is an integrated, research-driven community, delivering cutting edge theoretical understandings in conjunction with practical and policy-oriented insight with increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary endeavour. Our research centres provide insight, knowledge and expertise across a range of disciplines alongside strong academic leadership in research. The School hosts a number of research centres, in
Psychology and
Languages and Intercultural studiesEdinburgh Business School (EBS)
Founded in 1997, the
Edinburgh Business School is a wholly owned company of Heriot-Watt University providing MBA, MSc and DBA programmes globally. It is one of the largest distance learning MBA programmes in the world. Research is conducted via the DBA programme.
School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (MACS)
Combining the research concentration in actuarial and financial mathematics within the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences with the strength in accountancy, finance and investment within the Edinburgh Business School brings together a large critical mass of experts in finance. Heriot-Watt University works closely with the financial sector offering considerable expertise and wide experience. Heriot-Watt University hosts the
Scottish Financial Risk Academy (SFRA), the Centre for Finance and Investment, and the Genetics and Insurance Research Centre.
School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society (EGIS)
Planning and urban design are fundamental to shaping our cities and towns and have a pivotal role in achieving important development objectives, such as a wealthier and fairer, healthier and safer society. The mission of the
Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design is to achieve greater use of design quality assessment tools relevant to buildings, infrastructure, public spaces and places by advancing scientific understanding in architectural engineering, construction management and planning. The
Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) conducts research into social and urban policy dealing issues such as real estate, mobility, communities, homelessness, and travel.
Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE)
SIRE is the outcome of a substantial investment in Economics Research in Scotland by the Scottish Funding Council and ten participating universities. It builds on the distinguished tradition of Economics in Scotland, with eminent contributions from, among others, Adam Smith and David Hume, and the more recent history of successful collaboration in the Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics, founded in 1989.
Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport
The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF) brings together a unique team of researchers in logistics, vehicle technologies and policy to address decarbonisation of road freight transport. The SRF includes 22 industrial consortium members who provide guidance and a rapid route to implementation and dissemination of the results.
SRF is principally funded by a 5-year EPSRC grant of £6.4 million, with the team in Heriot-Watt working alongside partner teams in Cambridge. In addition, we have secured funding from industrial sponsors, InnovateUK and ETI, accelerating the route to implementation of our research.
SRF has a track record of research in sustainable road freight, with an innovative programme encompassing the following objectives:
- to discover new fundamental insights into reducing fuel usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from UK road freight;
- to provide a rich, open source of logistics data for the research community;
- to create and maintain a comprehensive roadmap for decarbonising UK road freight;
- to reduce barriers to implementation of the most effective decarbonisation measures;
- to create decision-support tools for decarbonising road freight and promote their implementation;
- to translate research findings into recommendations for corporate strategy and government policy.
For more information, please contact:
Jürgen A Munz
SoSS REF Support & Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport
School of Social Sciences
Room EF3 (Esmee Fairbairn Building)
Heriot-Watt University
+44 (0)131 451 4207
juergen.munz@hw.ac.uk