Of the ten categories, UCD Smurfit School entries have been shortlisted in three:

• Best Business School Partnership
• Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion
• Best Innovation Strategy

In the Best Business School Partnership 2022 (in association with Wharton Research Data Services-WRDS), UCD Smurfit School’s entry is Their Lives Matter – Tumaini La Maisha (TLM).

The UCD Smurfit School and TLM Innovation Social Enterprise Cooperation is a compelling initiative highlighting the positive impacts of humanitarian aid supported by business strategy.

Through this project, a donor-dependent charity organization from Tanzania, was able to access comprehensive, market model consultancy for rolling out its innovations to low-income markets, whilst keeping with its desire to remain a social enterprise.

Students were led by senior faculty mentors to develop strategies to support TLM to scale two IT clinical innovations, ‘CleverChart’ and ‘CleverChemo’ to enhance the treatment effectiveness of paediatric oncology. ‘CleverChart’ is an Electronic Medical Records System (EMR) that has a reliable, accurate and nationwide data source to understand the impact of the treatments and identify areas of urgent Paediatric Oncology need. ‘CleverChemo’ is a novel platform to automate protocol-based chemotherapy prescriptions/treatments in paediatric oncology to ensure the administration of an accurate and safe dose of chemotherapy for babies and children. Our students advised Dr Trish and the TLM team around market entry, access, pricing, marketing, and sustainability.

The Best Business School Partnership award recognises organisations that have adopted a proactive, innovative approach to strategic collaboration.

All shortlisted entries in this category can be viewed below:

• Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal) with Veolia
• Dongwu Business School, Soochow University (China) with Soochow Securities
• Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria (South Africa) with JP Morgan
• International Management Institute (MIM-Kyiv) (Ukraine) with BookChef Publishing House
• Thammasat Business School, Thammasat University (Thailand) with Government Savings Bank
• UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) with Their Lives Matter – Tumaini La Maisha (TLM)

In the Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative 2022 (in association with McGraw Hill Education), UCD Smurfit School’s entry is Intercultural Development Programme (ICD).

The first and only programme of its kind in Ireland, UCD Smurfit School’s Intercultural Development Programme (ICD) offers a unique research-driven approach to systematically develop students’ key 21st-century skills, particularly intercultural competence.

In high demand since its introduction, ICD has seen an explosion in popularity with participation numbers increasing from 128 to 1,573 in 2021—98.6% of the School’s total student population representing over 50 nationalities.

Inclusive business leaders with a global mindset and deep cultural awareness are what’s needed for our future, and UCD Smurfit School is proud to be spearheading initiatives that develop this critical skill set in our students.

The Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative award recognises Business Schools and the work they have been doing to create, incorporate and develop culture, diversity and inclusion practices into their Business School, while balancing and involving fair working environments.

All shortlisted entries in this category can be viewed below:

• Centrum PUCP Business School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru) for ‘Word of Women Academy (Academia Palabra de Mujer)’
• Escuela de Negocios, Universidad del CEMA (UCEMA) (Argentina) for ‘Advancing gender equity by promoting women in leadership’
• Mannheim Business School, University of Mannheim (Germany) for ‘MBS Diversity Day’ School of Business and Management
• Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) (China) for ‘Embedding Management Talent Cultivation in Multiculturalism’
• UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) for ‘Intercultural Development Programme (ICD)’.

In the Best Innovation Strategy 2022 (in association with Barco), UCD Smurfit School’s entry is UCD Business Alumni Challenge – Around the Globe in 30 Days.

When Covid-19 arrived the UCD College of Business Alumni Team considered how they might turn challenge into opportunity and actually deepen engagement with our Alumni virtually. And so, the UCD Business Alumni Challenge ‘Around the Globe in 30 Days’ was born.

This was a virtual challenge held in February 2021 over 30 days with participants walking, running, jogging, rowing, swimming or cycling distances of 100, 200 or 300KM. The objective was to collectively transverse the globe. The impact was immediate with over 1,000 alumni, located in 40+ countries participating and clocking an incredible 88,000+km as well as raising funds for scholarships.

The Best Innovation Strategy award is a celebration of innovation and radical thinking in business education delivery across all areas of the Business School and has been developed to recognise and reward game-changing new practices, risks, and creativity. This year, the judges are especially interested to find out how Business Schools have innovated and adapted considering the Covid-19 pandemic.

All shortlisted entries in this category can be viewed below:

• MBA Centre, Shanghai University (China) for ‘Launch of New Global Industry MBA Specialisations’
• NEOMA Business School (France) for ‘NEOMA Business School Virtual Campus’
• School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University (SCNU) (China) for ‘Optimal Integrated Innovation Strategy’
• School of Economics and Management, Southwest Jiaotong University (China) for ‘The “Quaternity” Tactic’
• UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin (Ireland) for ‘UCD Business Alumni Challenge – Around the Globe in 30 Days’
• Wrexham Glyndŵr University (UK) for ‘Active Learning Framework: Reflections’

The winners of the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards 2022 will be announced at a hybrid-format gala dinner on 21 January 2022. Please visit the website here to learn more about the awards ceremony.

This content was originally posted to the AMBA website on November 3, 2021.