Stefan Scholtes of Cambridge Judge Business School wins Collaboration Award in the Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Research Impact and Engagement for work on the COVID pandemic. Khaled Soufani of Cambridge Judge is runner-up in Established Academic Award for work in circular economy.
Professor Stefan Scholtes of Cambridge Judge Business School has been honoured with the Collaboration Award in the University of Cambridge’s Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Research Impact and Engagement 2022 for his work in rapid COVID-19 (Coronavirus) modelling support for regional healthcare management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stefan is the Dennis Gillings Professor of Health Management and Director of the Centre for Health Leadership & Enterprise (CCHLE) at Cambridge Judge.
Health centre at Cambridge Judge played ‘pivotal’ role during pandemic
As announced by the University of Cambridge, the CCHLE “played a pivotal part in enabling evidence-informed healthcare decision making during the COVID-19 crisis through their work in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) and the NHS in the East of England.
“CCHLE provided modelling and forecasts based on complex and rapidly developing data on regional COVID-19 cases and hospital bed usage, which enabled PHE to effectively manage regional healthcare operations and make decisions based on evidence-based scenario generation to save lives.”
The announcement by the University of Cambridge cited an article posted about the collaboration on the Cambridge Judge Business School website, noting the participation of several other Cambridge Judge faculty and PhD students.
Stefan and his collaborators at Cambridge Judge and elsewhere have posted a working paper about the COVID-19 project on the SSRN website.
The judges said: “An extremely timely and highly impactful collaboration with public health officials, and clinical decision-makers to help address acute challenges during the pandemic. The development of these pivotal partnerships clearly enabled vital decisions to be taken around weekly case rates and bed occupancy and the researchers responded swiftly to changing situations and demands.”
‘Outstanding achievement, innovation and creativity’
The Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Research Impact and Engagement, now in their seventh year, were announced on 6 October in a special ceremony in the Old Divinity School in St John’s College.
The awards recognise “outstanding achievement, innovation and creativity in devising and implementing ambitious engagement and impact plans that have the potential to create significant economic, social and cultural impact from and engagement with and for research”.
In addition to the Collaboration Award won by Stefan, there were awards for Early Career Researcher, Established Academic, and Professional Services.
Khaled Soufani cited for ‘financially sustainable business models’
Khaled (Khal) Soufani of Cambridge Judge Business School was honoured as a Runner-Up in the Established Academic Award category for his work on “The Circular Economy: developing environmentally, economically and financially sustainable business models”.
Khal is Management Practice Professor of Financial Economics & Policy, Director of the Cambridge Executive MBA Programme and Director of the Circular Economy Centre at Cambridge Judge.
The circular economy model presents an alternative to our linear economy. Khal has worked with organisations in the UK and abroad on sustainability-related projects including the interplay between the circular economy and the Internet of Things, and leading research analysing plastic flows through the UK economy to improve the recovery of plastics.
Vice-Chancellor: awards reflect ‘real difference to people’s lives’
Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Dr Anthony Freeling said:
“Impact is at the heart of the University’s mission. For over 800 years, we have contributed to society. Our world-leading research, recognised so strongly in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, underpins a huge range of innovations that create prosperity, improve our quality of life, protect the environment and enrich culture.”
“Across the board, the nominations received were of an extremely high calibre. Moreover, they reflect the huge efforts and strong commitment of each of you to make a real difference to people’s lives locally, nationally and across the world.”
“Thank you all for your efforts, and the efforts of our panel of judges, who I am sure had a fascinating but challenging time deciding the outcomes.”