Fergus Lyon

Biography

Fergus Lyon currently is the head of the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) at Middlesex University and Deputy Director of the ESRC Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

His research interests include social and sustainable enterprises, provision of public services by social enterprises, clustering and networks of enterprises, ethnic minority enterprise, and enterprise support policy. Recent funders include the Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Office of Civil Society, Research England, Department of Business Energy, Industry and Strategy, European Commission, International Labour Organisation, and a number of charities.

In 2007 he was seconded to the Prime Ministers’ Strategy Unit (Health team) in the Cabinet Office. He was the social enterprise lead on the £10m Third Sector Research Centre funded over five years by ESRC and Office for Civil Society. Previously he has carried out research in Ghana, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Nepal. He has been a trustee/director of a number social enterprises related to preschool education, conservation and farming.

Fergus has over 150 publications including 50 substantial reports for policymakers funded by UK and international donors, 30 papers in established international journals, 25 book chapters, a number of shorter policy briefings and two books on social research methodologies.

He holds a PhD from the Department of Geography at the University of Durham, where he researched trade systems, partnerships and rural development in Ghana, a MSc (Distinction) from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, and a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.