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Local authorities, the UK government and the European Commission have benefitted from the widespread application of new molecular methodologies, developed in 2005 and applied by the University of Reading's Vertebrate Pests Unit (VPU) to identify and quantify anticoagulant rodenticide resistance in rodent populations. Rodents are a major global pest that consumes our food, causes contamination with urine and faeces, damages structures through gnawing, transmits diseases, and impacts on species of conservation concern. Due to historical success and recent regulatory restrictions, anticoagulant rodenticides are the most common control method for these pests. However, physiological resistance to anticoagulants is now widespread and the VPU has been involved in mapping this resistance and identifying the genetic basis for the resistance. Their research has led to new methodologies to identify anticoagulant resistance that have been adopted by the global plant science industry and to new guidance in treating resistant populations that has been adopted by the European biocides industry.
By ensuring the durability of notable concrete structures in China, such as the Bird's Nest National Stadium Beijing, Dayawan Nuclear Power Station, Harbin-Dalian Railway Bridges, Qingdao Bay Bridge and Beijing-Tianjin Railway Bridges using Autoclam Permeability System and Permit Ion Migration test, developed by Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and sold by a QUB spin-out Amphora Non-destructive Testing Ltd., the savings in future repair costs are estimated to be hundreds of millions of Chinese Yuan (RMB) (the repair expenditure for the three-year period 2009-'11 was RMB 10.2 billion).
Research on permeability and diffusivity testing of concrete on site since 1993 has led to the incorporation of both the Autoclam and the Permit in a corporation standard issued by the Central Research Institute of Building and Construction (CRIBC), China and the test protocol of Permit in a Chinese railway standard.
The training of construction professionals (including more than 200 senior managers from the Chinese construction industry) since 2008 has impacted on improved sales of Autoclam Permeability System and Permit Ion Migration Test, securing around £500k commercial income, and generating new employment in the UK. Since 2008 these test instruments have been sold to 12 countries.
This project, which commenced in 2000 and continues to this day, has addressed the settlement of conflicts within states. The project has yielded important findings in the areas of complex power-sharing, autonomy and self-governance, political participation mechanisms for non-dominant groups, peace-making and transitional arrangements in peace agreements. These findings have flowed into the policies and practices of major international actors (United Nations, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), and have been implemented in a number of sensitive contexts. The project findings were also applied directly in a significant number of international negotiations and settlements. This includes the independence of Kosovo and South Sudan, the peace negotiations on Darfur, UN planning for the transition in Libya, the United Nations-led negotiations on a settlement for the conflict in Syria, and the peace agreement and transitional arrangements addressing the deep crisis in Yemen.
The UoA research enabled a step increase in the technical and commercial capabilities of Atlantic Geomatics (UK) Ltd (AGUK, Cumbria) and the development of a postal addressing solution for the Government of Gibraltar (GoG). The beneficiaries and benefits included: AGUK who secured a contract safeguarding jobs and opening new international markets. Moreover, the GoG now have a definitive solution for legislation to replace their manual, multiple and inconsistent address lists by a spatially-based official address register (OAR) incorporating geographical information thereby enabling the people of Gibraltar to receive enhanced services (e.g. postal, emergency, utilities) from a centrally managed OAR.
Trachoma, caused by ocular infection with Chlamydia trachomatis, is the leading infectious cause of blindness. Research by Professors David Mabey and Robin Bailey, LSHTM, has shown that a single oral dose of azithromycin is an effective, feasible mass treatment and could eliminate trachoma from affected communities. As a result, the manufacturer Pfizer agreed to donate azithromycin to trachoma control programmes for as long as necessary and WHO established an Alliance for the Global Elimination of Blinding Trachoma by 2020. Since 2008, 205m azithromycin doses have been donated, and WHO elimination targets have been achieved in nine countries.
Research based on unique marine-geophysical, bathymetric and geological data from the previously little-known polar shelf seas, collected and analysed by Dowdeswell and colleagues, has had significant impacts on the work of British and international charting agencies and on the activities of multi-national hydrocarbons companies. In terms of hazards in polar seas, these high-resolution water-depth data from offshore of Greenland and Antarctica have proved invaluable for use by the UK Hydrographic Office and international sea-floor mapping agencies in formal navigational charts that have wide international reach. Industry has also used Dowdeswell's satellite-derived measurements of iceberg dimensions and drift tracks, together with evidence on iceberg-keel ploughing of the sea floor, to assess hazards of operating ships and sea-floor structures in Arctic waters. Dowdeswell and colleagues' interpretation of seismic data has generated understanding of Quaternary sedimentary geometry and architecture on glacier-influenced shelves. This has been used in collaborative projects with hydrocarbons companies in applications to identify sorted sandy sediments (significant as oil and gas traps) in hydrocarbon-bearing ancient glacial rocks, for example in North Africa.
The impact of Professor Dominik Zaum's research is a model of how to bring novel and imaginative scholarship into the practical world of policymaking. The research, which was conducted within the UoA, examined the role of corruption in the political economy of statebuilding and stabilisation efforts. Its impact has derived from two achievements: it has shown that some forms of corruption can, in some circumstances, have stabilising effects; and it has produced a rigorous assessment of what works — and what does not work — in donor-funded anti-corruption efforts. It has thus influenced and informed the debates of policy-makers in the Department for International Development (DFID) and the inter-departmental Stabilisation Unit (SU: the UK government's centre for expertise and best practice in stabilisation). The impact of Zaum's work has been both recognised and amplified by fellowships with DFID and the SU. This has enabled Zaum himself to accentuate the impact through formal presentations, informal internal discussion, and implementation-oriented publications, thus influencing the perspectives of a policymaking community both inside and beyond these institutions. The impact can be evidenced through such measures as downloads of his policy papers, the use of these papers in training and as resources, and through the testimony of officials.
This research in Libya has had several significant impacts with wide reach for a range of different groups, both national and international. It has made fundamental contributions to the archaeological mapping of Libya (a country of extraordinary archaeological richness but still poorly recorded), to the development of typologies of sites and artefacts, and to dating frameworks. This has delivered major related impacts for management of cultural heritage by the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA), and for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and archaeological mitigation work by oil companies in the Libyan desert. There have been additional benefits through dissemination of new historical models, as well as protection of heritage sites during the 2011 conflict.
Research conducted within Birkbeck's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences led to the development of remote sensing and geophysical/geochronological methods to determine the movements of sand dunes. These techniques are now used by engineering and petroleum companies to plan pipeline routes and infrastructure in deserts, where migrating sand dunes are a problem because they can bury or damage infrastructure. For example, ARUP Consulting have already used the new methods to inform recommended alignments of pipelines in two multi-million pound engineering projects, and have changed their business practice to include the techniques in their tender documents for infrastructure projects in desert regions.
Professor Richard Overy's research on key issues of air power history and theory has influenced how both UK and International air forces consider key areas of air power history and their application to current issues of air power doctrine and development. This has been achieved by contributing to the air forces continuing professional development through seminars and lectures to service audiences, participation in RAF history teaching evaluation, publication of key texts on air power issues used in service academies and regular engagement with academic and non-academic audiences on air power history.