- Research Centre on Peripheral Populations
- Homelands
About me
Maria is a Reader in Social Innovation, a researcher, a knowledge manager and a social enterprise consultant with a wealth of experience in the private, social economy, and academic sectors. She began her career as a knowledge management practitioner and also consulted with private sector and social economy organizations in Colombia. She then moved to the UK and started her academic career as a researcher in social enterprises, social innovation, knowledge management, informal entrepreneurship, marginalised social groups, and sustainability.
Education
- PhD Business Information Management and Operations, University of Westminster, UK
- MEng Industrial Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
- BEng Industrial Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Teaching
Maria is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has taught business-related topics on undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including innovation, knowledge management, sustainable business and global strategic management. She is currentlythe 'Strategic Innovation in the digital world' module, and co-lead the 'Designing value' module in our MBA programme.
Research
Maria is a social impact and community-engaged scholar who believes in conducting research that makes a difference by driving forward businesses and societal transformation. Her research is focused on social innovation, social enterprises/entrepreneurship, and barefoot entrepreneurship. Maria aims to promote innovative entrepreneurial inclusion of marginalized and peripheral communities through her work.
Maria co-leads the Research Centre on Peripheral Populations and has projects in Brazil, Colombia, and the UK. Her research explores social enterprises, social innovations, community-based enterprises, barefoot and informal entrepreneurship, waste pickers, economically marginalized migrants, and circular/spiral economy and society.
Grants awarded:
2024: Lilian Miles, Maria Granados, Dipanker Sengupta, Teddy Seyoum, Manal Mohammed and Petros Karatsareas, (£160,000) “Developing data driven health intervention models to reduce UK urban refugee health inequality” The Institute of Healthy Urban Living, University of Westminster.
2022: Maria Granados, Lilian Miles, Anastasia Alexeeva, Vincent Rich, (£4,926) "Developing a Gender Empowerment guide for Social Enterprises in the UK through participatory research". Research England, Participatory Research Fund, UoW. The guide is available here: Gender Empowerment Guide for Social Enterprises in the UK
2022: Lilian Miles, Maria Granados and Tim Freeman (£8148) "Improving local government resettlement planning to support the social integration of Syrian refugees in London" University of Westminster, Strategic Priorities Fund.
2020: Maria Granados (£3,195) "What about the migrants: impact of COVID in Venezuelan migrants in Colombia". UoW Research Communities COVID-19 Funding Call.
2019: Maria Granados, Ainurul Rosli and Mato Gots, (£9,287) "Barefoot entrepreneurs: Struggles of waste pickers in the Colombian informal economy". British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grants.
2019: Maria Granados (£5,540) "Effective Entrepreneurship amongst the waste pickers in Cali, Colombia". Global Challenges Research Fund – UoW.
Recently, Maria received certification in SDG Impact Standards for Enterprise Training and Social Value and SROI Practitioner Training.
PhD supervision interest:
Maria welcomes the opportunity to work with PhD students from various backgrounds and disciplines who want to embark on a PhD. She would especially encourage applicants to use a critical theoretical framework and innovative research approaches.
- Social entrepreneurial and social innovation practices
- Informal and collective entrepreneurship
- Barefoot, marginalised entrepreneurs, innovations and their challenges
- Entrepreneurship as a poverty reduction strategy
- Social impact management / social value
PhD Supervision Completions:
- Dr Marco Cuvero 'The Effects of Knowledge Spillovers, Incubators and Accelerator Programmes on the Product Innovation of High-Tech Start-Ups: A Mixed Methods Approach' Awarded 2020 (Director of studies - First supervisor)
- Dr Irma Mäkäräinen-Suni 'Innovative digital start-ups and their venture creation process with enabling digital platforms' Awarded 2021 (Second supervisor)
- Dr Louis Spring 'Practical application of the Information Seeking and Communication Model (ISCM) in Higher Education - Westminster Business School Module Leader practice - DProf' Awarded 2023 (Second supervisor)
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.