Alun Rogers

As a business owner, and former Chair of the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Alun Rogers has seen first-hand how Keele can deliver positive change within organisations.

His IT solutions company, risual, has partnered with Keele on the University’s Research & Innovation Support and Innovation Leadership programmes, as well as a Knowledge Exchange Programme, to enhance their sales process.

By partnering with Keele Neuroscience students and experienced academics from the fields of business and psychology, risual has been researching how physiological and neural signals can provide insights into customers’ motivations, preferences and decisions, which can ultimately help inform creative advertising, product development, pricing and other marketing areas.

Commenting on the impact that Keele University’s business programmes, Alun said: “It’s been great to see that so many of our regional entrepreneurs have been able to take advantage of the varied support offered by Keele.

“For my own company, the support we’ve received from the University has been hugely successful. Thanks to our collaboration with Keele’s neuroscience research, we’ve seen a 178% increase in the number of leads we’ve been able to generate for the business, which has resulted in company growth of around 40% in this year alone.”

The following support programmes at Keele University received funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020:

• Keele University Science & Innovation Park Smart Innovation Hub (Ref: 32R17P01691);
• Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (Ref: 32R16P00706);
• Business Bridge (Ref: 32R18P02530);
• Innovation Centre Seven - IC7 (Ref: 32R19P03785).

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DfLUHC) (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) was the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund.