Work on special economic zones for refugee employment by Paul Collier and Alexander Betts was highly commended in the ‘Inspiring Leadership’ category of the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Awards.

Paul Collier is professor of economics and public policy at the Blavatnik School and Alexander Betts is Leopold Muller Professor of forced migration and international affairs at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Relations.

Professor Betts and Professor Collier developed a new model as an alternative to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, which aimed to attract firms to Jordan’s economic zones, generating jobs that could be shared between refugees and Jordanians. This has resulted in over 80,000 work permits for Syrian refugees in a country that previously denied them the right to work. The model is now going global; Ethiopia has adopted the approach and the World Bank has created a new $2bn fund to support refugee haven countries.