In this introductory episode, Professor Helen Hughes and Emma Findlay explain the purpose of the Surgical Care Observatory and why successful surgical innovation is about far more than the tech itself. They discuss system readiness, and how sociotechnical frameworks can help the NHS implement new technologies safely, effectively, and sustainably.

This episode was recorded on 24th November 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Visit the project webpage.

This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

About the speakers: Dr Helen Hughes is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School and Director of the Behaviour Lab. Helen in an interdisciplinary researcher, whose research spans aerospace to healthcare sectors. Helen is currently an Associate Editor at Ergonomics journal, and a Co-Investigator within the NIHR-funded Surgical Health-Tech Research Centre, where she leads the ‘Surgical Observatory’ workstream.

Emma Findlay is a Research Officer at Leeds University Business School, working in the Surgical Care Observatory theme of the HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care. Her research explores the underpinning psychology of complex systems; including medtech implementation, surgical sustainability and multiteam system functioning.

Articles mentioned in this episode and related reading:

• “Organisational psychologists – essential to saving the NHS”, The Psychologist, 31 October 2025, Helen Hughes and Emma Findlay
• “The Principles of Sociotechnical Design”, Human Relations, Albert Cherns, 1976
• “Sociotechnical principles for system design”, Applied Ergonomics, Chris Clegg, 2000
• “Leveraging socio-technical systems to tackle grand challenges: Reflections on human-robot teams, hybrid workplaces, med-tech, and digital transformation”, Ergonomics, Matthew Davis, Helen Hughes, Mark Robinson, Jeffery Scales, Shankar Sankaran, Dikai Liu, Emma Findlay and Emma Gritt, 2025

In this episode, Professor Magda Osman and Dr Sarah Jenkins discuss risk communication, exploring what role the social sciences play in risk communications, whether it can ever be objective, how people perceive and tolerate risk differently, and how trade-offs and context shape the risk decisions people make.

This episode was recorded on 4th August 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Magda Osman holds a Visiting Professor of Impact Position at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, and is a Research Professor at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She is a psychologist by training, with a specific interest in decision-making under risk and uncertainty, risk analysis and causal analysis, folk beliefs in the manipulation of the unconscious, as well as an interest in examining effectiveness of methods of behavioural change.

Dr Sarah Jenkins is a Lecturer in Applied Decision-Making and a cognitive psychologist, with extensive experience of conducting applied research focusing on how people understand, communicate and make decisions concerning risk and uncertainty. She holds a joint post between the Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School, and the Met Office, where she is applying social science techniques to deliver high-impact decision research in areas related to weather and climate.

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professors Shima Amini and Abdul Mohamed about their recent research on how climate change risk affects the performance of newly listed firms in the US. The discussion highlights how drought exposure, investor sentiment, and mandatory climate disclosures influence Initial Public Offerings (IPO) outcomes. With implications for investors, policy makers, and company leaders, the findings position climate risk as a financial concern, not just an environmental one.

This episode was recorded in July 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the journal article: “Climate change risk, investor sentiment, and the performance of new entrant firms”, Small Business Economics.

About the speakers:

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.

Professor Shima Amini is Chair in Entrepreneurial Finance. Her research is focused on entrepreneurial finance, initial public offering, venture capital, private equity, corporate finance, behavioural finance, and market microstructure.

Professor Abdul Mohamed is Chair in Accounting and Finance. His research interests are in the area of corporate finance, venture capital, bankruptcy, and market-based accounting research.

After delivering insightful presentations at the Legal Tech in Leeds 2025 conference, Dr Virág Blazsek and Professor Danat Valizade have come together on our podcast to share some of the key themes they discussed at the event. In this episode, they talk about how legal tech growth is shaped by two main areas - workforce change and energy policy.

This episode was recorded on 24th June 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Virág Blazsek is a Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) at the University of Leeds School of Law. Her recent research, supported by the Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, examines FinTech hub development and financial sector transformation in secondary financial centres, focusing on Leeds, the US, and Singapore. The project highlighted the vital role of regional legal and tech clusters - like Leeds - in strengthening the UK’s LegalTech sector, largely due to their strong underlying real economies.

Danat Valizade is Professor of Quantitative Employment Research at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on labour market inequalities and the future of work; job quality; advanced econometrics, and machine learning.

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professor Steve Toms about his latest book - “Systems of Deceit – Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdon, 1700-2010.” Professor Toms explains the historical roots and systemic causes of financial crime in the UK, revealing how economic structures, deregulation, and shifting sectoral dominance have shaped fraud over the past 300 years.

This episode was recorded in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the book: “Systems of Deceit - Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdom, 1700–2010”, Steven Toms

About the speakers:

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.

Professor Steve Toms is Chair in Accounting. His research interests cover the role of accounting (including forensic accounting), accountability, and corporate governance in the development of organisations, particularly from a historical perspective.

Dr Alexander Beresford speaks to Dr Temitayo Odeyemi about Temitayo’s research, exploring the key complexities and challenges of just transition in Nigeria. They discuss the involvement of Nigeria’s labour unions and sector-specific unions in shaping government policies around just transitions, and the different conversations that are happening at a national and subnational level when it comes to just transitions and the concept of decent work.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Alexander Beresford is an Associate Professor in African Politics, and Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. His research provides a multi-layered insight into how global normative order is mediated and contested within and between two interwoven spaces - political struggles over inequality, power and corruption from everyday sites of politics through to the highest tables of power in South Africa; and the global diplomatic contestation of vaccine access, conflict resolution and climate change led by South Africa as an emerging power.

Dr Temitayo Odeyemi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Parliamentary Research, Berlin, Germany. His PhD research at the University of Leeds (2024) explored the public engagement repertoires of the Nigerian national and subnational Lagos State legislatures. This built on his wider interest in how key democratic institutions drive resilience and sustainability through connections with non-state actors and everyday citizens, particularly in Sub-Saharan African contexts.

Dr Felix Schulz speaks to Professor Melanie Laroche and Jonathan Michaud from the University of Montreal about how the concept of just transitions is understood and implemented in Quebec, Canada. In the episode, they cover the province's unique industrial relations system, proactive and reactive union strategies for addressing the climate crisis, and challenges in equipping union representatives with climate expertise.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2. Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast episode or the project, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.

A transcript of this episode is available.

You can listen to the rest of the episodes in this series.

About the speakers:

Felix Schulz is an interdisciplinary researcher at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS). Prior to joining LUCSUS, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), the Digital Futures at Work (digit) Research Centre and the Hans-Böckler-Foundation funded Competence Centre on social-ecological transformations at the University of Leeds, where he remains as Visiting Research Fellow

Melanie Laroche is a professor at the Université de Montréal's...

Professor Nick Williams speaks to Dr Lee Wainwright about Lee’s research on how restorative entrepreneurship can empower marginalised individuals to reclaim social and economic standing. They discuss ableist workplace norms, the parallels between societal treatment of disabled individuals and other marginalised groups, and recommendations for creating a more inclusive workplace.

This episode was recorded on 5th March 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the book: The Routledge Companion to Disability and Work, Edited by Oana Branzei, Anica Zeyen. Lee Wainwright’s chapter: Disability and Restoration Work.

About the speakers: Nick Williams is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Leeds University Business School. His research mainly focuses on entrepreneurship in challenging contexts, and he has particular interests in the role of entrepreneurial activity in crises. Lee Wainwright is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship Studies at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on how entrepreneurship can act as a process to take people out of restrictive or oppressive contexts.