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Dr. David Horan

Assistant Professor (School Office Trinity Business School)
      
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Dr. David Horan

Assistant Professor (School Office Trinity Business School)

 horand3@tcd.ie

 3531896 8052


Dr. David Horan is an Assistant Professor in Business at Trinity Business School specialized in governance for sustainable development with a focus on United Nations (UN) sustainable development agendas and multi-stakeholder approaches to their implementation. His main research interests are concerned with how to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular, ways to enhance the effectiveness of cross-sector partnerships and business as a partner for the SDGs. At Trinity, David teaches courses in business and the SDGs to undergraduate, MSc and MBA students. His teaching and research seek to draw on and integrate insights from multiple disciplinary areas, in particular, management/business, economics, political science/international relations, and policy. As an engaged researcher and thought leader, David actively participates in national and international SDG policy processes, including discussions of SDG implementation at events of major UN conferences on sustainable development. Prior to joining the School in Autumn 2022, David was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship by the Irish Research Council and the European Commission to undertake research and engagement for the SDGs including a two-year secondment at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in New York. Since 2021, he is involved as a Fellow at Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, an international non profit in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that has for more than 25 years acted as a bridge between stakeholders of all kinds and the international intergovernmental forums where sustainable development, its governance, is debated and strategies mapped out. Dr. Horan is author of "A New Approach to Partnerships for SDG Transformations" and has been invited to speak on transformative partnerships and approaches to SDGs implementation at events of the Summit of the Future 2024, the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development 2024, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Regional Development Forum 2024, the UN ECOSOC Partnership Forum 2023, the International Mayors Forum 2023 and the UN Sustainable Development Transformation Forum 2022. His most recent publications appear in Sustainability Science, Global Policy, and Technological Forecasting & Social Change. Dr. Horan has a keen interest in the role that business schools and management education/research can play in charting a path to a more sustainable future. During 2022-24, he served as Associate Director of Undergraduate (UG) Teaching and Learning. In this role, he had responsibility for conducting an annual review of the UG curriculum to assess progress on the School's (embedding) sustainability strategy. Currently, David is Assistant Director for Research Development at Trinity Center for Social Innovation (CSI), where he helps to organize the weekly CSI Hour seminar. During 2023-24, he served on the School's Research Impact sub-committee and currently, he sits on its Research Committee representing Assistant Professors. David supervises two PhD students in areas of business and the SDGs and is interested in supervising Ph.D. and M.Sc. students in areas such as business SDG strategy, cross-sector partnerships, shared leadership/stakeholder engagement, engaged/action research for the SDGs, SDG impact and SDG reporting. An economist by background, David holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, for a dissertation in R&D policy. David has lectured widely in Economics. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer in Economics at Oxford Brookes University Business School. He then branched out from Economics, holding a three year research position at UCD School of Politics and International Relations (Marie-Curie fellow). He has also been a visiting researcher at the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy and Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Details Date
Research Fellow, Earth System Governance
Fellow, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future 2023-
Associate, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future 2021-2023
Visiting Researcher, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network 2018
Representative to the UN, University College Dublin 2018
Member, UN Friends of Governance for Sustainable Development 2018
Details Date From Date To
Earth System Governance 2025
Cross Sector Social Interactions 2025
Academy of International Business 2024
Academy of Management 2022
European Consortium for Political Research 2020
Political Studies Association of Ireland 2020
Horan, D., Multistakeholder Partnerships Potential to Govern Climate-SDG Interactions: Evidence from the SIDS Action Platform, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2026, Journal Article, IN_PRESS  DOI
Wang, E., and Horan, D., Review of Principles of sustainable business: Frameworks for corporate action on the SDGs, by Rob van Tulder and Eveline van Mil , Journal of International Business Studies, 57, (1), 2026, p120-123 , Review, PUBLISHED  DOI
Horan, D., Lahie, L. J., Sayer, M. J., How undergraduate students collaborate to address societal Grand Challenges: Evidence from a group assessment module on business and the Sustainable Development Goals, The International Journal of Management Education, 23, (3), 2025, p101260-, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Sayer, M. J., Horan, D., Lahie, L. J., Preparing Faculty to Teach Grand Challenges: The Intersection of Pedagogical Experience and Reflexivity, a Public Narrative Theory Approach, Journal of Management Education, 2025, Journal Article, IN_PRESS  DOI
Horan D., A framework to harness effective partnerships for the sustainable development goals, Sustainability Science, 17, (4), 2022, p1573 - 1587, p1573-1587 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Horan D., Towards a Portfolio Approach: Partnerships for Sustainable Transformations, Global Policy, 13, (1), 2022, p160 - 170, p160-170 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Horan D., Enabling integrated policymaking with the sustainable development goals: An application to Ireland, Sustainability (Switzerland), 12, (18), 2020, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Horan D., National baselines for integrated implementation of an environmental sustainable development goal assessed in a new integrated SDG index, Sustainability (Switzerland), 12, (17), 2020, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Walsh P.P., Murphy E., Horan D., The role of science, technology and innovation in the UN 2030 agenda, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 154, 2020, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
The UN high-level political forum and parliamentary governance for sustainable development in, editor(s)Felix Dodds, Akinremi Bolaji, Yeongmoo Cho, Verena Klinger-Dering, Cristina Popescu, David Banisar, Quinn McKew , Governance for sustainable development Volume 3, Preparing for the Heads of State review of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, New Frontiers, 2019, [P Walsh, E Murphy, D Horan, A Banerjee], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

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Award Date
Trinity Business School Research Impact Excellence Award 2025
Trinity Sustainability Leadership Award 2025
Marie-Curie Fellowship, European Commission 2018
Young Scholars Award, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Global Governance for Sustainable Development, UN's 2030 Agenda/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation, cross-sector/multi-stakeholder partnerships, SDGs indicators, business and the SDGs, education for sustainable development (ESD), sustainability transformations, engaged research.