The 2023-24 ABP Biz Psych Cup – And The Winner Is. . . .!
Fourteen weeks of intense work have now culminated in the virtual presentation of posters by the five shortlisted student teams participating in the final judging session of the 2023-24 ABP Biz Psych Cup.
Following great work by our fantastic judging panel, we are excited to announce that the winner of this year’s competition is The University of Sussex. In second place was Arden University. The finalist teams included Coventry, Leicester, and UEA. The judges praised the high quality of the submissions from all five teams.
This year, 15 student teams participated in the competition, with high quality submissions also coming from the Universities of Birkbeck, City, Essex, Hertfordshire, James Cook University (Singapore), Kent, Kingston, UEL, UWE and The Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
About the 2023-24 Biz Psych Cup
Designed and run by Dr Dawn H Nicholson, ABP Board member, Vice Chair and Head of University Accreditation, the Biz Psych Cup competition represents one of the truly unique selling points of the ABP – combining business and academia, alongside the skills of our talented members. It gives students exposure to real clients and experience of applying their psychology and team-working skills to provide evidence-based solutions to real business challenges.
Five ABP corporate members (Meta-LUCID + Subsea 7, SHL, Morgan Philips, Lumina Learning and NatWest Group) provided the teams with fantastic challenges. The winning poster responded to the challenge set by SHL, focusing on common perceptions of psychometric tests and how psychometric providers could better support candidates with feeling comfortable and empowered to complete the psychometric test stage of an application process. The challenge required the teams to provide insights and recommendations from an inclusion and intersectionality perspective.
Judges and Angels
Judging was undertaken by representatives from the five corporate challengers, alongside Clodagh O’Reilly, ABP Chair; Dr Debbie Stevens-Gill, quality control for the ABP’s certification team; Nick Hayter and Louise Lennon. The teams prepared an APA-style ‘poster’ in response to the challenge and the shortlisted teams presented their posters in a virtual judging event.
The teams were mentored by senior ABP members, acting as ‘Pro Coach Angels’. Sophie Turner, Anne-Marie Rowson, Dr Susan Kahn, Pavlo Kanellakis, Larry Mayers, Deborah Barleggs, Dr Hayley Lewis, Christine Stobbs, Heather De Cruz-Cornaire, Katie Clinton, Hannah Courtney-Bennet, Claire Lish, Pauline Bowe, Julie Verdon and Sue Colton worked with the 15 teams to keep them focused on the client outcomes and recommendations.
Commenting on the result, Dr Dawn H Nicholson said
“We are super proud of all of the teams and everyone who came together to support the 2023-24 Biz Psych Cup and contribute to its ongoing success. This is a brilliant opportunity for all the student teams involved to research and solve real business problems. All of the teams did a really great job, but the winning team stood out for their approach, the quality of their poster and their excellent client presentation. The Biz Psych Cup is growing. After three successful years, I am already thinking about next year’s event and increasing the number of teams and challenges”.
This year’s entries
All 15 posters can be viewed below and will be displayed at the ABP Conference in June.
The posters from prior years can be viewed here.
What is the Biz Psych Cup?
The Biz Psych Cup is a new student team competition the ABP launched in 2022.
Each university team is made up of 4 members – typically a mix of BSc and MSc students – who work together to provide business psychology research, advice and recommendations for action to resolve business challenges set by our corporate members
The Biz Psych Cup is a student team event the ABP launched in 2022.
University teams of 4 – typically a mix of MSc & BSc students- will work together to provide business psychology research, advice and evidence based recommendations for action to resolve business challenges set by our corporate members.
The competition runs for 12 – 14 weeks.
Shortlisted teams prepare a psychology ‘poster’ in the format of the American Psychological Association and present their findings (virtually) at a judging event.
The poster includes background to the challenge, review of existing psychological literature and application to the challenge, with clear evidence based recommendations for action.
How can your university get involved with this event?
A team to represent your University is created and you can apply to participate.
If your team is accepted, you work on a corporate challenge and provide the solution to the corporate client in the form of an APA poster.
Applications for the 2024-25 ABP Biz Psych Cup will open later this year. In the meantime, please direct any questions to dawn.nicholson@theabp.org.uk
Benefits of Participation
Your team get the opportunity to work on solving a real-world business challenge.
The solution will take the form of a psychology APA-formatted poster prepared and submitted by your team.
This provides research insights and clear evidence-based recommendations to resolve the business challenge.
Shortlisted teams present these to the corporate ‘client’ and the ABP judging panel.