Building a sustainable future for football

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is an exciting opportunity for research and academia to solve real problems for businesses and provide innovative solutions to drive innovation. By hiring a KTP Associate alongside Heriot-Watt University, you are opening your organisation to forward thinking, unique change-making expertise.

Partnerships for long-term impact

Football clubs sit at the heart of their communities. While they are often defined by results on the pitch, long-term success is increasingly shaped by what happens around it through sustainable ownership and governance, meaningful community engagement and strong commercial foundations.

For Falkirk Football Club, this partnership’s aim is to increase commercial revenue through enhanced supporter engagement, helping transform the Club into a financially sustainable model within Scottish football. By embedding inclusive governance, digital innovation and community value into its operations, the project aims to build resilience beyond short-term sporting results. Academic best practice in social science research, including data collection, surveys, interviews and advanced analysis, will be integrated within the club to support ethical growth and diversification of its supporter base.

Overall, this partnership represents a strategic investment in the club’s future, combining academic research with real-world delivery to build long-term resilience and sustainable growth. The Club will address critical gaps that will strengthen its supporter base locally and internationally, provide new opportunities for commercial growth and will adopt new ways of working to deliver long-term sustainable change.

A shared ambition for sustainable growth

The long-term ambition of the partnership is to create a sustainable, community-focused football club supported by data-driven decision-making and strong supporter engagement.

Falkirk Football Club's future strategic aim is to build long-term financial sustainability and consolidate its position as a top flight club through inclusive governance, digital innovation, and community value. Football club finances typically rise and fall with on-field performance. This KTP offers an opportunity for the Club to transform its financial position by increasing stable commercial revenues through accessing new markets, particularly amongst its local community.

Upskilling Falkirk Football Club in social science research and data-driven approaches, will strengthen its ability to capture and use data to better engage supporters. Through workshops and practical implementation, best-practice methods will be embedded to modernise fan engagement using digital technologies, personalise supporter experiences and enhance services, ultimately supporting revenue growth. By reinforcing fan ownership as a permanent and active model, the partnership will also strengthen the relationship between the club and its supporters, promoting accountability and transparency.

Bringing expertise to the heart of the club

Major innovations will come from applying research-driven insights to unlock new markets and strengthen outreach, particularly among international audiences and underrepresented communities. This approach will help develop a unique framework for long-term financial resilience among supporter-owned clubs.

The partnership will bring together expertise from across Heriot-Watt University, including sport management, digital marketing and community engagement. Working alongside Falkirk Football Club’s leadership team, the academics will support a KTP Associate embedded within the club, ensuring knowledge is transferred directly into day-to-day operations.

This embedded approach is central to the KTP model ensuring expertise is not just delivered but adopted and sustained long-term. Through workshops, implementation pathways and strategic support, the project will build internal capabilities that continue beyond the partnership.

Reaching new audiences, driving sustainable growth

With a potential local market of around 160,000 people, alongside millions of people with Scottish heritage worldwide, Falkirk Football Club has a significant opportunity to grow its supporter base and strengthen its long-term sustainability.

Learning how to conduct cross-sectional surveys and semi-structured interviews, the Club will be better positioned to gather meaningful insights into current and potential supporters. These insights will help develop supporter typologies and inform more effective marketing strategies, including premium membership offerings, improved retail experiences and enhanced digital content such as Falkirk TV. Alongside this, knowledge transfer from sport management theory and football governance will create new models and succession planning frameworks, equipping the club with the tools needed to expand into new markets and support future growth.

Positioning Falkirk Football Club as both a social institution and community asset will provide new funding and partnership opportunities, helping to establish the club as a national leader in sustainable, fan-owned football.

Strengthening fan ownership is central to this partnership; supporting a sustainable ownership and governance model that promotes accountability and deepens the relationship between Falkirk Football Club and its supporters. New governance approaches and inclusive engagement strategies will be introduced in collaboration with supporter groups, local organisations and new audiences. A strong focus on diversity and inclusion will help increase female representation within supporter ownership and engage underrepresented groups, ensuring the club reflects the community it serves.

Creating impact beyond the pitch

For Heriot-Watt University, this collaboration will also provide future benefits; new research outputs, student engagement opportunities and new partnerships with football organisations and governing bodies.

Ultimately demonstrating how universities and industry partners can work together to deliver meaningful real-world impact.

By bringing together academic expertise, community insight and sporting ambition, the Heriot-Watt University and Falkirk Football Club partnership is helping to shape a more sustainable future for football, both on and off the pitch.

Expertise in action

This partnership draws on a cross-disciplinary team from Heriot-Watt University each contributing specialist knowledge.

Edinburgh Business School

Associate Professor April Henning

Associate Professor April Henning is a Sociologist specialising in substance use in sport and exercise, anti-doping policy and gender dynamics in sport and fitness contexts. Her research has underpinned sport policy decisions, teaching, and public engagement activity.

Within this partnership April is the First Academic Support from Heriot-Watt University.

Assistant Professor Andreea Oniga

Andreea Oniga is an Assistant Professor in Digital Marketing and has worked at Heriot-Watt University since 2024. In this partnership, Andreea is the Second Academic Support.

She completed a PhD and an MLitt in Marketing at the University of St Andrews. Prior to joining Heriot-Watt University, Andreea was a Lecturer in Marketing at Abertay University, Dundee.

Professor Stephen Morrow

Professor Stephen Morrow is the Knowledge Base Supervisor through this partnership. His research focuses on financial and governance issues in sport, with a particular focus on professional football. Stephen is interested in the intersection between sport organisations as businesses and sport organisations as social institutions and exploring the implications of this dual identity.

Oriam

Professor Chris Easton

Professor Chris Easton’s role through this partnership is the Knowledge Base Lead. Chris’ primary research focus is to establish the impact of modulating nitric oxide bioavailability, via the diet and exposure to sunlight, on parameters of cardiovascular health and exercise performance in different populations. His recent work has demonstrated the importance of the oral microbiome in the regulation of nitric oxide production and sheds further light on the interplay between oral health and cardiovascular homeostasis.

Falkirk Football Club

Jamie Swinney

Jamie Swinney is Chief Executive Officer of Falkirk FC, a role he has held since the 2021–22 season. He leads the club’s day-to-day operations and works closely with the board to shape and deliver its long-term strategy, ensuring alignment with the objectives of the KTP. Under his leadership, Falkirk FC has achieved back-to-back promotions, including a League 1 Invincible title, and returned to the Scottish Premiership for the first time in 15 years, alongside delivering the club’s strongest commercial performance in a decade.

Jamie brings extensive experience in sport management and community engagement. A graduate in Sport Management from the University of Stirling, he has previously held senior roles including Head of Sport at Larbert High School, Head of Youth Development and Operations at Forth Valley Academy, CEO of Stenhousemuir FC, and has over 16 years’ coaching experience across community and academy football. Through the partnership, Jamie will support project delivery and knowledge exchange as the Senior Business Employee.

Sean Skelley

Mr Skelly is Commercial Manager at Falkirk FC, leading the club’s non-football income streams and contributing to strategic planning as part of the Senior Leadership Team. His role aligns closely with the aims of the KTP, giving him oversight of the systems, data and operational processes the project will develop, and positioning him to support effective delivery across the organisation. His role through this partnership as Business Partner Supervisor will guide the KTP Associate and support the adoption of data-driven approaches to grow Falkirk FC’s commercial performance.

With more than 13 years’ experience in sport, including six in senior management, Mr Skelly previously served as General Manager of the Caledonia Gladiators, where he led commercial growth, staff recruitment and community engagement. Earlier roles with the Glasgow Clan and Glasgow City further strengthened his experience in marketing and fan development. A graduate in International Marketing from the University of the West of Scotland.

Are you ready to unlock the potential of your organisation through innovation? Heriot-Watt University works with organisations across sectors to turn ideas into real-world impact, offering access to cutting-edge research, specialist expertise and collaborative support. Whether through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships or other forms of collaboration, we help organisations innovate, grow and create lasting change.