Research

The research within BISA relating to Accounting and Accountability focuses primarily on the issues of Corporate Governance and Accountability. The governance and accountability of financial institutions represents an important research area with staff investigating pension fund governance and accounting, socially responsible investment, and institutional investor engagement and dialogue. An important theme running through the critical accounting research involves sustainability issues, with staff focusing on stakeholder engagement, climate change reporting and biodiversity. Members of the group are aiming to explore the governance framework of banks across the European Union. The group has an growing PhD programme with PhD students with a broad range of interests in the area of:

• International studies of corporate governance development
• Sustainability reporting and assurance
• Corporate governance evaluations by market intermediaries (analysts, rating firms)
• Corporate governance, risk and ethics
• Pension funds and climate change
• Public sector governance/accountability

Our Research Centre

Informatics Research Centre (IRC)

Setup in 2004 as a interdisciplinary centre of excellence in collaborative research, knowledge transfer and teaching in the field of Informatics.

Associated Research Centres

The Futures Forum Research Group (FFR). The FFR group is a partnership between clients of Capgemini, enterprise architects and delivery solutions specialists from within Capgemini, and researchers at the University of Reading. Its work is co-ordinated by a management team representing Capgemini and the IRC.

The Intelligent Buildings Laboratory (IBL) aims to embrace the areas of intelligent buildings, multi-agent systems, wireless sensor networks and building access in both academic research and industrial solutions.

The Applied Informatics with Semiotics Laboratory (AIS), within the Informatics Research Centre (IRC), is built on research strengths in the areas of computing, information systems, IT for strategic purposes. We view a human organisation as an information system in which information is created, processed and used to achieve the organisation's objectives.

The has the aims to research, teach, and develop the knowledge base for IBs nationally and internationally. In collaboration with industry, the MSc Intelligent Buildings course is to provide the skills necessary to meet changing environmental, business and human needs.

The Bio-diversity Informatics Lab (BDI) website is currently under construction. Please come back later for more details.

Publications

For an up to date list of publications from BISA then please access our CentAUR page. Our institutional repository, CentAUR, is a searchable electronic archive showcasing our recent research publications and outputs. The main period of coverage is from 2003 onwards, although earlier publications are also included.

Business Informatics, Systems & Accounting CentAUR

Current Research Projects

TSBE (Technologies for a Sustainable Built Environment):

BISA was a key partner in setting up the TSBE, and is still involved in the supervision of multiple EngD students - for more information, see http://www.reading.ac.uk/tsbe/

Research in Informatics

Informatics is 'the study of the creation, management and utilisation of information in scientific and economic activities.' BISA research covers a wide range of research themes from information management to information processing within the information lifecycle. The key aim of our all informatics research is to help organisations to maximise their added-value, and enhance their business competitiveness by the effective management of information resources.

Informatics research activities can be found in domains of business and management, IT for strategic management, enterprise information systems, financial modelling and prognostics, bio-computing, construction management, intelligent buildings, pervasive intelligent spaces, and IT supported collaborative work. The Informatics Research Centre, within BISA, attracts researchers and students from around the world. Our current research outcomes are actively disseminated to the research communities and industries.

Informatics Research themes and topics

The following themes reflect the research expertise and focus of current Informatic's esearchers. There are common issues and methods that span across these themes. IRC maintains a close-knit community of researchers working together as a team to carry out research in one or more of the research themes.

Pervasive Informatics - Pervasive Informatics is an emerging discipline for the effective use of information through embedded sensors and distributed processing to form contiguous intelligent environments for working and living.

Social Informatics - Social informatics relates to the interdisciplinary consideration of design, use and consequences of information and communication tools in cultural, or institutional contexts.

Health Informatics - Health Informatics relates to the conjunction of information systems, computer science and health care. Information flow is critical to understanding how to maximise recourses, devices and methods in order to provide outstanding care and safety whilst maintaining low cost.

Business Informatics - Business Informatics supports decision making by intersecting IT, informatics methods and management concepts, to allow identification of business problems, development of relevant solutions, and appreciation of their impact.