Entrepreneurship and innovation: Strathclyde Business School’s Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship
The Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship (HCE) at Strathclyde Business School has become Scotland’s leading centre for research, teaching and knowledge exchange in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy. Learn how it draws on world class research to inform the design and delivery of a growing portfol...
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Small Business Charter
The Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship (HCE) at Strathclyde Business School represents two decades of sustained investment, which has resulted in becoming Scotland’s leading centre for research, teaching and knowledge exchange in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy within the context of SMEs and entrepreneurial ventures.

It is endowed by alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sir Tom Hunter and is regarded by him as one of the first and most important social investments made by the Hunter Foundation. Sir Tom’s endowment was based on the simple premise that education changes peoples’ lives in many ways, including: aspirations, sense of purpose, employability, and what they can ultimately achieve.

The HCE has emerged as one of the largest university-based centres for entrepreneurship studies in Europe and is home to a team of over 20 scholars with extensive networks of practitioners, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. It is focused on the study, research and encouragement of entrepreneurship studies within Scotland and beyond. It is committed to engaging in, and drawing from, world class research to inform the design and delivery of a growing portfolio of useful learning experiences offered to the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The pioneering Growth Advantage Programme, now in its eighth year, is unique to Scotland and offers a fresh alternative to more established growth programmes only available in England and overseas. Its proven format is designed to deliver relevant, accessible, and practical learning for the leaders of ambitious growth focused businesses across the UK by combining world class executive education with the power of peer learning.

The University of Strathclyde has a long and successful history of engagement with entrepreneurship research and education, evidenced by an extensive portfolio of entrepreneurship studies, teaching and engagement activities delivered by the HCE since 2000. Strathclyde’s founder Professor John Anderson, a leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, left a bequest for the establishment of a ‘place of useful learning’, which would be open to all, regardless of gender or social class.

Strathclyde remains committed to being a socially progressive institution and is ambitious to become a leading International Technological University – distinctive in the Scottish Higher Education environment, but rooted in the institution’s founding mission. HCE contributes and enhances this core mission and is driving the entrepreneurial ambitions of the University.

Consistent with the University’s founding mission of producing useful learning, the HCE delivers:

High quality research of significance to policymakers, entrepreneurial practitioners and fellow researchers that is disseminated widely and published in high quality academic and practitioner journals.

Educational programmes that are prized by students, alumni and employers for the high quality of the learning experience provided and the readily transferable knowledge and skills of HCE graduates.

Practical understanding and insights that are developed from and communicated to policymakers, professionals and partner organisations through an extensive portfolio of knowledge exchange activities.

Healthy financial performance that generates surplus to support research, teaching and operational excellence.

The HCE also aims to turn useful learning into entrepreneurial actions, and partnerships with a wide range of leading academic institutions are of considerable benefit in achieving this. HCE expertise delivers relevant, applied and policy-oriented research in the areas of: entrepreneurial ambition and growth; entrepreneurial diversity and widening participation; entrepreneurial leadership and the relationship between innovation, exporting and firm growth.

Partners of the HCE include the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Business Gateway, the Federation of Small Business, Young Enterprise Scotland, Entrepreneurial Scotland, Scottish Edge, Scottish Chambers, CBI Scotland and the Prince’s Trust and, beyond Scotland, with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the ScaleUp Institute, Founders for Schools, and Santander. The HCE also maintains its high profile international presence through its prominent role in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), its contributions to EU expert panels, and as a member of MIT REAP Scotland team.

HCE educational programmes are prized by students, alumni, entrepreneurs and employers alike for the high quality of the learning experiences we provide, including our global outlook and the readily transferable knowledge and entrepreneurial skills of our graduates. Permeating all activities in pursuit of these objectives are our University values: people-oriented, bold, innovative, collaborative and ambitious. Examples of the HCE demonstrating these values include:

The introduction of new Master’s programmes in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology (EIT) and Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership (EML)

Successful recruitment and ongoing delivery of the Growth Advantage Programme (GAP)

Successful recruitment and delivery of the Productivity through People (PtP) programme

Successful delivery of the Saltire Fellowship in collaboration with Babson Colleges

Working with Professor Bill Aulet, the Director of the Martin Trust Centre for MIT Entrepreneurship

The Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship continues to be ambitious and growth-oriented with the expansion of its academic and practitioner communities and its undergraduate, postgraduate and entrepreneur programmes.