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UPCOMING & ONGOING ■ INNOVATION INC. North Carolina State University's Poole College of Management in Raleigh has created the Consumer Innovation Consortium (CIC), an academic-corporate research collaboration focused on creating effective consumer-centric approaches to marketing. The founding CIC partner companies are AmerisourceBergen, a global pharmaceutical services provider; Bayer CropScience, the subsidiary of Bayer AG responsible for its agricultural business; Burt's Bees, a manufacturer of natural beauty products; and Cotton Incorporated, which focuses on the use and promotion of cotton. Each partner firm will work with faculty and graduate students at the CIC on a research project customized to its industry. ■ ON Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership (IEL) at Rutgers Business School of Newark and New Brunswick, New Jersey, has received a US$2.6 million donation from Prudential Financial and The Prudential Foundation. The donation includes an $850,000 threeyear challenge grant—each dollar that IEL raises will be matched with two dollars from The Prudential Foundation. IEL will use the funding to continue its coursework, research, and work with nonprofit organizations. ■ WOMEN ■ EU ETHICAL BASIS AT WORK Carleton University's Sprott TREK TO MOUNT EVEREST From the beginning of April to the end of May, a team of researchers from the Umeå School of Business and Economics in Sweden studied a group of climbers at the Mount Everest base camp in Nepal. Through observation, interviews, helmet cameras, video, and radio transmissions, the researchers aimed to learn how the climbers plan projects and pursue goals in hazardous environments. "Hazardous environments are ideal to get an understanding of how groups and individuals make decisions and organize themselves," says Markus Hällgren, senior lecturer and leader of the team. "Making the wrong decision during an expedition may lead to someone's injury or death." The Umeå research team is part of TripleED (Extreme Environments–Everyday Decisions), a project that is focused on studying decision making in extreme environments from an organizational perspective. HUMAN RIGHTS New York University's Stern School of Business is planning to establish a center for business and human rights. Michael Posner, who recently served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, joined the school's faculty in March to lead the effort. "Global businesses are confronting complex human rights challenges that demand approaches that go beyond 'corporate social responsibility,'" says Posner, who also will begin teaching in NYU Stern's Business and Society Program this fall. "The center will seek to answer the hard questions 21st-century companies face: What can companies do to respect human rights? What should they be doing?" ■ DAVI D KEATON /G LOW I MAG ES School of Business in Ottawa, Ontario, has announced a CAN$1 million, ten-year commitment from the Royal Bank of Canada to support the school's Centre for Research and Education on Women and Work (CREWW). The funds will support new research into workplace diversity and the factors that prevent employees from reaching their full potential, as well as a distance education program for women managers and a speakers series on women in management. ■ JOBS WATCH The University of Strathclyde Business School in the U.K. will spearhead a four-year, £4 million research project on the employment challenges facing European Union countries. Eight other European universities will take part in the project, including Central European University, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Evry-Paris, University of Gothenburg, University of Leuven, London Metropolitan University, University of Oviedo, and University of Wrocław. The European Trade Union Institute, Consultingeuropa, the Inter- national Labour Organization, Neuroedukacja, and Volvo are among the corporate participants. ■ BANK ON RETAIL PNC Financial Services Group will support the creation of the PNC Center for Financial Services Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The center will focus on research, curricula, and executive education related to retail banking, particularly on the effective use of new technology to promote innovation in banking services. BizEd July/August 2013 53