Dr Carolyn Downs is a senior lecturer in Lancaster University Management School, visiting research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and the director of several EU-funded research projects. Within Lancaster University, she is a member of two research centres; the Centre for Consumption Insights and Lancaster Intelligent, Robotics and Autonomous Systems Centre. Her research interests include work-based learning (WBL), with an active research group sharing practice and knowledge across HE and industry, enterprise education, innovation, the uses (consumption) of technology,  sociology of consumption (particularly of risky leisure) and business history. She is a leading media commentator on gambling issues

Sociological and business-based approaches to gambling, entrepreneurship and enterprise education, organisation and management of healthcare services, business history.