Alan Eardley is the Director of the MRes Scheme in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and
Technology at Staffordshire University, as well as being Associate Head of Postgraduate Research
Studies. He has considerable commercial experience in management and systems analysis in a variety
of industries, and has worked as an academic for over twenty four years in schools of business and
computing. He has participated in a number of industrial collaborations and consultancy projects and has
co-authored five text books on IS and the use of IT in business. Eardley has a first class honours degree
in Business, a Masters degree in Computer Science and a PhD in Strategic Information Systems. His
current research into knowledge management, research methods and strategic planning in business and
healthcare applications has resulted in a number of publications in international journals and conferences.