Funding success for research exploring the impact of Covid-19 in the Liverpool City-Region
Dr Benito Giordano, together with Professor Rob Blackburn and Dr Alan Southern, were recently awarded £12k funding from the University of Liverpool’s Covid-19 Strategic Funding.
Focusing on small business in the Liverpool City-Region (LCR), the research will analyse the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting how the unfolding economic crisis is affecting small businesses, self-employment and social enterprise. In particular, the research will critically examine the impact of the pandemic and explore whether different opportunities will open-up in new ways to include those often hard to reach groups, including young people, women, the BAME community and areas with a majority of low income households.
The research to be carried out is timely as it will provide an in-depth quantitative analysis combined with a rich dataset of qualitative ‘narratives’. This will reveal the impact of the pandemic on ‘real’ people, their small firms and livelihoods.
Researchers will work closely with local policy makers and senior University colleagues involved in supporting ongoing policy interventions to drive LCR’s economic recovery.
Dr Giordano, the Project Lead said:
"We are pleased to have been awarded the funding for this impactful research project. The LCR economy is being disproportionately affected by Covid-19 and a rigorous academic assessment of its impact on small business within broader processes of economic restructuring taking place, is urgently needed."