As one of the founding members of the Societal Impact and Global Management Alliance (SIGMA), Singapore Management University (SMU) is happy to announce that SMU Provost, Professor Timothy Clark will be leading the Alliance as its President for a two-year term with effect from May 2023. Professor Clark was elected President at the recent SIGMA Annual meeting at Hitotsubashi University. He takes over from WU President Prof. Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger.

Established in 2015, SIGMA is an alliance of like-minded universities which seeks to address current and future societal challenges through cooperation in research, teaching innovation, and knowledge dissemination in management and social sciences. The network comprises nine leading specialist universities from Asia, Europe and Latin America. They are Copenhagen Business School, ESADE Business and Law School, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Hitotsubashi University, Renmin University of China, SMU, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, University of St. Gallen and Vienna University of Economics and Business. 

SMU’s participation in the Alliance has seen various outcomes such as our involvement in the SIGMA Global Virtual Course, an undergraduate inter-university virtual course – the first of which was focused on managing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which has been championed by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation since the inception of the course in 2018.

Last October, SMU’s Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) joined the Alliance’s second Global Virtual Course on Responsible Digital Transformation which examines from various perspectives how processes of Digital Transformation can be implemented in a responsible way to address economic, societal, and environmental challenges. Open to Masters and final year undergraduates, the course was attended by some 73 students across participating SIGMA members.

There had also been collaborations in ageing research, championed by SMU’s Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). More recently, the inaugural SIGMA Annual Research Symposium on 11 to 12 May 2023 was co-organised by SMU’s ROSA and Hitotsubashi University and held in conjunction with the 19th International Conference on Pensions, Insurance and Savings, which was organised by Université Paris Dauphine-PSL. The Symposium’s theme “Ageing and Well-being over the Life Course” showcased 35 presentations by researchers from over 25 institutions across the world covering topics related to economic, mental, physical and social well-being.

As SIGMA gears up towards its tenth anniversary in 2025, the network is working towards developing new initiatives such as a joint PhD seminar and leadership roundtables on topics including programme portfolio development and andragogy, while expanding the impact and reach of current activities.

SMU Provost Professor Clark remarked, “SIGMA is a group of leading universities in management and the social sciences, embedded in important cities around the world. It is a privilege to be President of this network of like-minded Universities. There is much we can learn from each other and tremendous potential for deeper collaborations in education and research in the key areas facing many societies, whether it be in the digital and AI revolutions, or in sustainable living.  We can harness the existing strength of the relationships between members and leverage each other’s perspectives and expertise to grow and develop the alliance to help address pressing societal challenges.”