Academics secure major ESRC grant
19 January 2017
A team consisting of several Cardiff Business School academics has won a prestigious grant, worth £330,000, from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and 2 million RMB from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
In early 2016, the ESRC and the NSFC issued a call for collaborative projects which would ‘contribute to the economic development and welfare of China’. This call was made in support of the ESRC’s Newton Fund, which is committed to developing ‘bilateral research partnerships and enhance the global research community’.
Professor Kent Matthews, from Cardiff Business School’s Economics section, who is the principle investigator for the new research project, was invited to Shanghai to attend a networking event in June 2016. This was an opportunity for prospective bidders to consult with potential Chinese research partners before preparing final bids for submission by end of July 2016.
In November 2016, the grant was awarded for the project, titled Shadow Banking and the Chinese Economy: A Micro to Macro Modelling Framework. Cardiff Business School’s Chinese partner for the project is the Fudan Management School, Fudan University (Shanghai), which is currently 43rd in the QS World University Rankings for the research project.
The grant is worth £330,000 over three years (with £265,000 provided by the ESRC) while the NSFC awarded a matched sum of 2 million RMB (approx. £230,000) to the co-researcher at Fudan, Dr Zhiguo Xiao.
Professor Matthews said of the project: “The support of the ESRC and the NSFC, one of the most prestigious funding bodies in China, is gratefully acknowledged. They have recognised the value and potential impact of this new research project which will investigate the Chinese financial systems.
“Cardiff Business School and Cardiff University have warm and established relationships across China and we are pleased to partner with the Fudan Management School on this occasion. Collaborative projects such as this one are important, and we look forward to combining the expertise and experience of our investigators in the UK and China.”
The UK team consists of Professor Matthews and co-investigators from Cardiff Business School, Dr David Meenagh, Professor Kul Luintel and Professor Patrick Minford alongside Dr Tianshu Zhao (University of Birmingham) and Professor Akos Valentinyi (The University of Manchester). The project commenced on 1 January 2017.
