The Loughborough University Cooperative Organisation Development Programme (LUCOOP)

Broadly defined, a cooperative is an economic entity where its members have a direct democratic say in how it is run.

• There are more than 7,000 cooperatives in the UK.
• Cooperatives employ over 250,000 people and contribute over £39billion to the UK economy.

Project outline

LUCOOP is working with organisations involved in supporting cooperatives (such as CASE, Platform 6 and the Cooperative College) to strengthen the sector through deeper engagement with the research and innovation happening in universities.

Phase 1: January to September 2022

The first phase of the project has involved producing resources for cooperative development training to equip practitioners with cutting-edge knowledge on a range of business practices.

Phase 2: October 2022 onwards

The second phase will focus on facilitating cooperative ways of organising economic activity within enterprise, innovation, careers and commercialisation frameworks at the University.

The project will also provide support to academics wanting to incorporate cooperatives into their teaching and work to expand cooperative-higher education knowledge exchange across the Midlands.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Dr Dan Sage by email.