Summary of the impact

The microscopy facilities in the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute of the University of Ulster have been vastly improved through our collaboration with FEI, the largest European EM manufacturer, which has led them to manufacture a cryostage dual-beam instrument of our design with unique capabilities, and to set up their European reference laboratory here. This has generated two further sets of impacts: collaboration and consultancy with various firms wishing to use our advanced imaging facilities, and advice to national, EU and global bodies on the novel cytotoxic hazards of nanoparticles, a major but optically invisible by-product of modern industry, and consequent public health risks.

Summary of the impact

The provision of professional analysis and advice has created an economic impact of $0.6M with AVX Ltd, a leading supplier of electronic components within the Kyocera Group. This information was pivotal to AVX Ltd retaining a major contract, for multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC's) supply through to the automotive manufacturer Volkswagen Group. Our intervention addressed a reliability issue in the MLCCs and allowed them to improve processes and revise manufacture protocols. The impact drew on previous collaborative research with AVX Ltd and innovative methodologies for preparation of micro and nanoscale samples of materials in capacitors in academic research.

Summary of the impact

Research on the life of Sophie Scholl as a model of civil courage and its subsequent impact in the UK and beyond has led to:

1. Enhanced public knowledge awareness and understanding in the UK of Sophie Scholl and the hitherto neglected subject of German resistance in World War II.
2. Contribution to public educational activities, including public lectures for Unite against Fascism and the use of his biography on Sophie Scholl in adult education in Germany.

Summary of the impact

Research from the Digital arts strand of the CMR has had an impact in two related areas.

• It has fed into and impacted on policy and planning for the development of the creative industries in Northern Ireland
• It has helped cultural institutions and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) to develop mobile phone apps and interactive gaming solutions to the problems of maximising audience participation and increasing footfall across key cultural sectors.

Summary of the impact

The research:

• Has considerably enhanced understanding of the forces at play in a society coming out of conflict;
• Has especially enhanced understanding of the role that the media, both in their formal structures and in their more diverse forms, have played and can play in promoting reconciliation and understanding;
• Has devised means and strategies to include previously excluded communities in the process of reconciliation;
• Has helped communities deeply affected by the conflict to tell their own stories and to share their own experiences of trauma, loss and reconciliation through use of the media;
• Has had an impact on post-conflict research internationally and has influenced approaches in other conflict cultures.

Summary of the impact

Investigation of archaeological sites associated with the 16-17th-century imposition of English control over Gaelic Ireland reveals surprising evidence for shared practices by natives and newcomers that has encouraged cross-community dialogue about a shared future in post-Troubles Northern Ireland. Impacts are threefold: changing public understandings of the actualities of past encounter; influence on non-HEI practice; and facilitation of community partners in capacity building for cross-community projects. Beneficiaries include community groups, local authorities, schools, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). Queen's University Belfast School of Geography Archaeology and Palaeoecology's (GAP) approach to peace and reconciliation demonstrates that place-based local initiatives work by embedding engagement and conflict resolution in the practices of archaeological fieldwork and material interpretation.