How can business schools prepare students and researchers to engage seriously with responsible and sustainable futures? And how can this work become a central part of the organisation rather than depending on individual enthusiasm?

This question shaped the Responsible Futures Skills Lab, organised by Professor Noemi Sinkovics, Associate Dean Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability at Newcastle University Business School, in May 2026.

Bringing voices together

The two-day Skills Lab brought together Business School colleagues, cross-disciplinary collaborators, external partners, journal editors, pedagogical innovators and professional communities to explore how responsible futures can be embedded into teaching and research practice.

New reports share practical insights

Following the event, two open-access reports from the Skills Lab have been published via Zenodo.

The first report, Teaching for Responsible Futures, focuses on how students can be supported to engage with complexity, uncertainty, responsibility and action. It captures discussions on experiential pedagogies including EN-ROADS, LEGO® Serious Play®, SDG-based reflection, the Better Business Scan, simulation, scenarios and poster-based assignments.

A central message is that responsible futures education cannot be reduced to adding more sustainability content. It requires carefully designed learning experiences, structured reflection, assessment that captures shifts in thinking, and institutional systems that value this pedagogical work. The report highlights the need to move from isolated examples of good practice to approaches that can be embedded, assessed, supported and scaled across programmes.

The second report, Research for Responsible Futures, turns to the challenge of designing, publishing and sustaining cross-disciplinary research. It examines why responsible futures problems rarely sit within one discipline, and why collaboration requires more than bringing different people into the same room. The report highlights the need to surface disciplinary assumptions early, design for translation, clarify authorship and outputs, build policy and stakeholder relevance into projects from the start, and recognise the career risks faced by researchers working between established fields.

The reports also capture substantial contributions from Newcastle University Business School colleagues across education, research, leadership, engagement, equality, diversity and inclusion, and disciplinary areas. They offer practical insights for educators, programme teams, doctoral supervisors, research leaders and professional communities interested in how responsible futures work can be designed, recognised and sustained.

Reflecting on the event, Professor Noemi Sinkovics said: "There is nothing more energising than bringing people together. People who have a lot in common but may not know it yet. People who can help shape or shift agendas once they understand the challenges others face. People who are talking about similar things but may use different terminology.

"This event was about making connections, enabling cross-disciplinary translation, and going beyond highlighting what needs to be done to show how it can be done. In recognition of the collaborative nature of the Skills Lab, the two reports list every contributor as a co-author."