Dr Iain Cairns

Personal statement

Iain is a Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde’s Business School, in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship. 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.