Dr Iain Cairns
Lecturer
Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation
Personal statement
Iain is the Head of Reseach and Impact at the Strathclyde Institute for Sustainable Communities and Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde’s Business School, in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation. His research is primarily focused on democratic businesses (e.g. cooperative and community enterprises) and the financial arrangements to support their establishment and development.
Iain has a PhD in Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, which focused on community organisations and how they might own and manage assets to drive community development. Prior to PhD study, during his MRes in Human Geography at the University of Glasgow, Iain focused on financial geography and conducted research into the potential of alternative currencies to advance community organisations.
Iain has also published work on investment, banking and industrial strategy with the Common Weal think tank. His work on a Scottish National Investment Bank has been particularly impactful. His 2013 position paper on a Scottish National Investment Bank has been recognised by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) as the first major work on the subject. Subsequently, Iain worked in partnership with Common Weal, Friends of the Earth and NEF to develop the idea, a campaign which culminated in the adoption of the SNIB policy by the Scottish Government.
More recently, Iain has worked on a number of United Kingdom Energy Research Council (UKERC) projects. The ‘Financing Community Energy: lessons learned and innovations for the future’ project, was undertaken jointly by the University of Manchester, University of Strathclyde and Imperial College London. In this project Iain led the data collection and analysis of community energy case studies. He also worked on the 'Whole Person Whole Place Energy Solutions’ project with colleagues from the universities of Sussex and Leeds. This project produced a better understanding of how social relationships of community and place shape the prospects for energy efficiency retrofit.
Publications
- Factoring in Tenement Retrofit : A Toolkit
- Miller Emma, Cairns Iain
- (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00092221
- Rethinking retrofit : relational insights for the design of residential energy efficiency policy
- Brown Donal, Middlemiss Lucie, Davis Mark, Bookbinder Ruth, Cairns Iain, Hannon Matthew, Mininni Giulia, Brisbois Marie Claire, Owen Anne, Hall Stephen
- Energy Research and Social Science Vol 120 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103863
- Landlords' accounts of retrofit : a relational approach in the private rented sector in England
- Mininni Giulia, Brown Donal, Brisbois Marie Claire, Middlemiss Lucie, Davis Mark, Cairns Iain, Hannon Matthew, Bookbinder Ruth, Owen Anne
- Energy Research and Social Science Vol 118 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103742
- Towards a relational sociology of retrofit
- Davis Mark, Middlemiss Lucie, Brown Donal, Hall Stephen, Bookbinder Ruth, Owen Anne, Cairns Iain, Hannon Matthew, Brisbois Marie Claire, Mininni Giulia
- Sociology (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385241298177
- Under one roof : the social relations and relational work of energy retrofit for the occupants of multi-owned properties
- Cairns Iain, Hannon M, Owen A, Bookbinder R, Brisbois M-C, Brown D, Davis M, Middlemiss L, Mininni GM, Combe M
- Energy Policy Vol 190 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114166
- Community Participation for Community Benefits From Natural Capital Projects : A Review for the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland Programme
- Hannon Matthew, Gowens Rebecca, Roberts Jennifer J, Major Laura, Cairns Iain
- (2024)
Teaching
Iain holds a PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.
Iain brings interdisciplinary knowledge and an interdisciplinary approach to his teaching work. He has degrees in politics and history, human geography and management and he has taught English, modern studies, history, sociology, psychology, anthropology and social entrepreneurship.
At the Hunter centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation Iain teaches a range of subjects focused on new venture creation, strategy and growth. His classes emphasise the collective processes behind entrepreneurship, the importance of the value created by enterprise being captured for the benefit of society and the importance of firms acting with environmental sustainability goals at their core.
Professional Activities
- Energy Security and Net Zero Committee call for evidence on ‘Unlocking community energy at scale’: UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) Response
- Recipient
- 1/2025
- Strategic Themes: Increasing Policymaker Engagement with Research Funding Workshop
- Participant
- 20/2/2024
Projects
- Foundation Scotland Community Benefit Fund Review
- Hannon, Matthew (Principal Investigator) Cairns, Iain (Co-investigator) Major, Laura (Co-investigator) Roberts, Jen (Co-investigator)
- 02-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2024
- ESRC IAA 2023 / R220785-144
- Cairns, Iain (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2028
- The Role of Owners’ Associations in Retrofit in Multi-owned Properties: Spreading Best Practice in Building Governance for Energy Efficiency
- Cairns, Iain (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2028
- Energy efficiency in tenements: co-developing a path forward to overcome relational barriers to energy efficiency in multi-owned properties
- Hannon, Matthew (Academic) Cairns, Iain (Co-investigator) Hannon, Matthew (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2028
Contact
Dr
Iain
Cairns
Lecturer
Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation
Email: iain.cairns@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3620