High-quality research is essential for all organisations.
Collaboration with academics supports innovation, raises the credibility factor of organisations, and generates funding. In fact, recent government reports suggest that business-university collaboration benefits the economy as a whole.
Interested in working with world-class academic researchers?
Learn more below…
For Organisations
What is a placement?
Placements involve a CHASE funded doctoral researcher collaborating with an organisation for up to six months. Placements are flexible, and you can host a researcher full-time or part time for a period that suits you. We provide full funding to support the researcher during their time with an organisation, and also offer additional funding to cover their travel and subsistence costs.
This is a great opportunity to benefit from the skills and insight of world-class researchers who are specialists in their field. Projects undertaken as part of a placement are mutually beneficial to your organisation, and to a researcher’s work. Projects are usually developed in collaboration between researchers and partner organisations. All organisations are welcome to host a CHASE researcher, including (but not limited to) the public and cultural sectors. You can also host a CHASE doctoral researcher internationally.
What is a CDA?
Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) are doctoral studentship projects which are developed by a university based academic working in collaboration with an organisation outside of higher education. They are intended as a way of facilitating collaboration with a diverse range of partners including smaller, regional partners.
CDAs are mutually beneficial; they provide important opportunities for doctoral researchers to gain first-hand experience of work outside a university environment and enhance employment-related skills. CDA projects also encourage and establish links that have long-term benefits for both collaborating partners, such as access to resources and materials, knowledge and expertise that may not otherwise be available and providing social, cultural and economic benefits to wider society.
What Participants Say
John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre Archives
CDA Project: BBC & University of East Anglia
“All research is collaborative in some sense; the structure of the CHASE CDA programme makes that collaboration formal, and the access and insight provided create better returns which, in turn, delivers better access and scholarship”
— Sandy Balfour, CDA student (University of East Anglia)
CDA Project: John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre & University of Essex
“[The CDA scholar offered] a fresh pair of eyes combined with academic rigour [for] a piece of work which we did not have the resources to undertake internally but which has high resonance within business. I would recommend this to those looking to build a relationship with academia.”
— Judy Faraday, CDA supervisor (John Lewis Partnership)
CDA Project: University of Essex & John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre
“CDAs are a fantastic vehicle for collaboration. They add capacity to the partner organisation: a student working closely on a topic of interest and relevance, backed by the expertise of academic supervisors. They create a working relationship of mutual trust from which all kinds of other projects can emerge.”
— Dr Alix Green, CDA supervisor (University of Essex)
What Participants Say
CDA Project: John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre & University of Essex
“[The CDA scholar offered] a fresh pair of eyes combined with academic rigour [for] a piece of work which we did not have the resources to undertake internally but which has high resonance within business. I would recommend this to those looking to build a relationship with academia.”
— Judy Faraday, CDA supervisor (John Lewis Partnership)
CDA Project: BBC & University of East Anglia
“All research is collaborative in some sense; the structure of the CHASE CDA programme makes that collaboration formal, and the access and insight provided create better returns which, in turn, delivers better access and scholarship”
— Sandy Balfour, CDA student (University of East Anglia)
CDA Project: University of Essex & John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre
“CDAs are a fantastic vehicle for collaboration. They add capacity to the partner organisation: a student working closely on a topic of interest and relevance, backed by the expertise of academic supervisors. They create a working relationship of mutual trust from which all kinds of other projects can emerge.”