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Professor Michael Keating has worked on various aspects of public policy-making in Scotland and abroad, supported primarily by the ESRC and Leverhulme Trust. Impact has taken the form of a series of collaborative academic-practitioner engagements, involving civil servants, politicians, and civil society actors. These events have focused on establishing a common vocabulary and core concepts, while exploring difficult issues in public policy and facilitating mutual learning between academics and practitioners. Insights from these encounters have been institutionalised in the Scottish Policy Innovation Forum, as well as ongoing seminars, public lectures, innovative training courses for civil servants, and informal discussions.
Research on the management and implementation of EU Cohesion policy has informed the legislative proposals made in 2011 by the European Commission for the reform of Cohesion policy. It has also influenced some organisational changes within the Commission introduced in early 2013. EU Cohesion policy is the second largest area of expenditure in the EU budget, currently worth c. €347bn for the 2007-13 period, and provides funding for regional socio-economic development programmes in all EU Member States. The legislative proposals influenced by the Strathclyde research affect every national, regional and local authority in the EU benefiting from EU Structural and Cohesion Funds.
Economic models with adaptive learning developed in Mitra's research are increasingly being adopted by policy authorities and in the training of graduate students. The usual paradigm in economics, rational expectations (RE), unrealistically assumes complete knowledge on the part of policymakers and households. Mitra's work has emphasised informational limitations faced by policymakers and provides guidance for policies in these situations. Monetary policy is an area where different types of models are heavily used and their results are one input to the policy decisions. The impact of this case study should be seen by virtue of pioneering an approach that has come to be accepted by the economics profession as the realistic one to analyse macroeconomic policy changes under bounded rationality; this approach has led to a large outgrowth of applied models used in policy making in recent times. These policy oriented works have provided support for the aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus packages that have been adopted in the wake of the financial crisis in 2007. They have been disseminated widely through presentations at numerous conferences sponsored by central banks in the presence of senior policymakers. The research has also influenced the teaching of macro and monetary economics; it is part of reading lists of leading MPhil/PhD programmes and has in part contributed to PhD students specialising in this broad area of research.
The Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model (SAPM) makes a major contribution to national and international debate on public policy and services, focusing on policies aimed at reducing alcohol misuse in society.
SAPM provides the core evidence underpinning Scottish Government plans to implement a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol and is cited in the Prime Minister's foreword to the 2012 UK Alcohol Strategy. The model's findings have influenced health policy debate in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the European Commission.
SAPM findings for the cost-effectiveness of a programme of identification and brief advice (IBA) in primary care underpin the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence guidance on this topic.
This research has had impact on two linked areas of illicit drug policy. Firstly, pioneering research on the effects of drug decriminalisation in Portugal has shifted the debate on this issue in the UK, US and elsewhere towards an acceptance that decriminalisation is a viable and not harmful approach. Secondly, research on alternatives to imprisonment for drug-dependent offenders has moved debate towards supporting the expansion of treatment for such offenders in the UK and US. These impacts are evidenced in the citation of the research by policy-makers and NGOs (including the British Sentencing Advisory Panel; The All Party Parliamentary Group on Drugs; the Home Affairs Select Committee; UK NGOs, Release and Transform; the US Drug Policy Alliance and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), demonstrating a significant influence on policy-making as well as public debate.
The demise of Lehman Brothers in 2008 marked the start of the current financial crisis and illustrated some of the adverse consequences of linkages between banks. The prospect of systemic crises has concerned bank regulators and monetary policy authorities for many years. Research by Professor Altunbaş at Bangor Business School, in close collaboration with the European Central Bank (ECB), has had substantial impact over 2008-2013 by influencing priorities in the international policy debate on how bank innovation can influence the conduct of monetary policy. It shows that the effectiveness of traditional monetary policy transmission mechanisms (such as the bank lending channel) is reduced by securitization activity and this also exacerbates the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. Evidence of the impact and overall scope of Professor Altunbaş' research is reflected in reference to his research at the highest monetary policy levels in Europe as well as widespread recognition in official central bank and international organization publications.
This case study refers to research on British drinking cultures and alcohol policy carried out by James Nicholls, Reader in Media and Social Policy, Department of Film and Media Production/HCI (2004-September 2012). In this role, Nicholl's research and his public engagement contributed to shaping the UoA's research reference frame of cultural behaviour, cultural practice and public policy (see Ref5). Following the publication of his book, The Politics of Alcohol (2009) Nicholls developed as a specialist advisor involved in the analysis and planning of alcohol policy at national and regional levels. His work and influence has been cited in key policy documents (including the House of Commons Health Select Committee Report, Alcohol: First Report of Session 2009-10 HC151-1) in 2010. This work has subsequently helped to shape regional and national alcohol policy in both England and Scotland. This case study provides evidence of this impact in regard to the following areas:
The Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model (SAPM) has made a major contribution to national and international debate on public policy and services focusing on reducing alcohol misuse in society.
SAPM provides the core evidence underpinning Scottish Government plans to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) and is cited in the UK Prime Minister's foreword to the 2012 UK Alcohol Strategy. Findings have influenced health policy debate in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the European Commission.
SAPM estimates for the cost-effectiveness of brief intervention programmes in primary care underpin the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence guidance on this topic.
The three impacts outlined here derive from research by Professors Ivor Gaber and Jon Silverman into the relationship between the media and the formation and development of policy in the fields of child protection, drugs policy and mental health. Gaber and Silverman were members of the Munro Review of Child Protection (2010/11), and their input led to recommendations about the management of media relations during child protection crises. Silverman's research into the media and drugs policy contributed to the final report of the influential UK Drug Policy Commission (October 2012). Gaber was a member of the Independent Inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Michael Stone (2006) and worked with the Mental Health Alliance, both of which played significant roles in the policy debates that led to the reform of the Mental Health Act.
Working in complementary areas of language policy and planning, the research of Oakes (French) and Pfalzgraf (German) has had three main non-academic beneficiaries. It has been of use to a wide range of policy makers in Canada and Germany, by informing debates on language policy at the official level. It has enhanced understanding of language-policy issues amongst the general public, through media interventions and works aimed at lay audiences. It has also benefited teachers and students in higher education in a range of disciplines and countries, by shaping their grasp of language-policy issues in Canada, Germany and more generally.