Co-ops Out There: Your Contribution Matters!

Figure 1. Co-ops Out There: Your Contribution Matters! (Designer, 2025)

The Department for the Economy has commissioned a couple of research projects relevant to the local co-operative movement.

Dr Amanda Slevin, a Lecturer in Climate Policy, Politics and Sustainability and Director of the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action, in the School of HAPP in Queen’s University is leading a research project on community energy to help influence future policy on community energy. The title of the research project is Community Energy: Principles, Practices and Policies for a Net Zero Northern Ireland and if you are interested in contributing to the research, please get in touch directly with Amanda on communityaction@qub.ac.uk or a.slevin@qub.ac.uk .

Christopher Baird, PhD, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, in the Queen’s Business School was also commissioned by DfE to research social enterprises in NI 2025.  The objective of this research is to develop a reliable evidence base of the current state of the social enterprise sector inclusive of co-ops in NI. The findings will inform policy development, support key decision-making, guide delivery options for social enterprise and co-ops growth, and enable comparisons with sectors in other jurisdictions (e.g., Scotland, Republic of Ireland, England).

The large-scale survey of social enterprises and co-ops in Northern Ireland is now open and you can access it here: soseni2025.co.uk . For more info,  email directly c.baird@qub.ac.uk .