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This case study focuses on Angry Planet, an interdisciplinary choral collaboration between Charles Bennett, Associate-Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Northampton (2007 — present) and composer, Bob Chilcott. A blend of lyrics and composition, their investigation into the sounds and rhythms of nature in relation to musical creativity resulted in a performance at the BBC Proms (Angry Planet, The Royal Albert Hall, 5 August 2012), featuring The Bach Choir and its Musical Director, David Hill. The project's innovative methodology included training school children alongside professional singers, contributing to their educational advancement, social and cultural integration and developing their innate creative potential.
This case study focuses on the prison writing of Alan Smith, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (2005-), at the University of Northampton (UN), about his experiences of teaching philosophy and English at Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wellingborough (1998-2012). Beneficiaries have included prisoners and their families, public institutions, charities and media providers. Smith's teaching and research programmes have impacted on individual prisoners' lives and on the general public by informing civic debate and influencing policy makers' thinking. His publications have stimulated an awareness of the importance of education in the prison environment, and encouraged sustained reflection about rehabilitation among prison staff, third sector organisations, and the Ministry of Justice.
The CAMHS team at the University of Northampton have built expertise in CAMHS research that have regional, national and international impact, which has had an influence on regional practice in CAMHS, and through our training initiatives, has had an international reach. A key national priority for mental health service development and delivery for children has been widening access to the service to enable better interaction between specialist and universal services — enabling ease of referral, preventative mental health work, and a smoother experience of service provision for young people entering CAMHS. Expertise at Northampton builds on research evaluating the use of Primary Mental Health Workers (PMHWs) in Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and with LAC (LAC), as well as research on professional training for mental health professionals more broadly. This research highlighted the importance of joined up working at the interface of primary and specialist services, to young people's access to mental health services, and to increase the responsiveness and appropriateness of these services in meeting young people's needs. Impact includes training of CAMHS workers, through both CPD initiatives and a Masters programme in CAMHS which has trained professionals from the UK and EU, as well as professionals from India and several African countries, who have used this expertise in CAMHS and primary care contexts around the world.
There is a strong tradition of qualitative research with children and young people at The University of Northampton. The Centre for Children and Youth (CCY) was constituted in 1997 and has completed fifty research projects funded by RCUK, national agencies and charities, and Local Authorities and service-providers. This case study focuses upon CCY's research on children and young people's participation in decision-making. This work has produced regional, national and international impacts: our evidence-based guidance has been influential and widely-employed within a broad, international shift towards the involvement of children and young people in decision-making in diverse educational, planning and policy contexts. In particular, this case study evidences CCY's transformative impacts upon the design of spaces for children and young people in educational and urban planning settings.
Country houses form a key part of our national heritage. As accumulations of goods and windows onto past lives, they are popular visitor attractions. Yet only recently have they begun to be seen as sites of consumption as well as artistic treasure houses. Research by Jon Stobart and Mark Rothery into the consumption practices and material culture in a number of country houses in the English midlands has: (a) heightened awareness amongst curators and the public of the country house as a site of consumption; (b) enhanced the role of academic research in the interpretation of the study houses, and has thus (c) enriched public understanding of historic owners and their houses.
The University of Northampton's (UoN) social enterprise research has created new knowledge in the field of social entrepreneurship, which has informed the definitional debate, as well as identifying the added-value that social enterprises deliver to their beneficiaries. This has provided the evidence-base for the launch of a whole-institution strategy at the University to become the leading HEI for social enterprise in the UK. The research has also led to the University supporting external social enterprises and assisting them to deliver organisational growth and change. The University's research has also led to it becoming a leading evidential contributor to policy-makers in the UK.
This case study describes the impact of research in Design Management and Product Design carried out by the Design Research Group at the University of Northampton in embedding design competencies in a number of British companies, particularly in the Northampton region through inter-related, collaborative Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). This case study demonstrates how the research in Product Design and Design Management has benefited companies economically in adding value to the UK economy, and as a consequence of one particular KTP, significantly improving quality of life.
Wastes management represents a major global environmental challenge. In the early 2000s Defra recognised that the UK's emphasis needed to change from managing waste to preventing it arising, and that Local Authorities must be equipped to produce cost-effective waste reduction plans. To this end, WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) financed a major Local Authority training programme involving the Centre for Sustainable Wastes Management (CSWM) due to its track record of research expertise. Evaluation of this training demonstrated that over 90% of 204 delegates (from 33% of Local Authorities) developed a deeper understanding of waste prevention and 41% consequently upgraded their plans, embedding sustainable practice into their organisations and reducing arisings. The ultimate impact of this has been to save Local Authorities money and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Research evaluating a pilot service for people who had had a stroke showed that there was a lack of support to help them return to work, insufficient attention to individual needs and that their ability to reintegrate into the community was poor. Post-stroke conditions cost the UK economy £7 billion annually. The research findings have made a distinct and material contribution to refocusing services in Wales and England towards helping patients fit back into society after a stroke. Three out of ten services established in 2005/2006 in Wales and the original service continue, and have informed the development of further services in England. These services support patients to return to work and make other lasting improvements to their lives.
The leather industry is globally significant: the supply chain, from leather production to leather goods manufacture is currently worth in the order of $1 trillion per annum. Although written records show that leather production is at least 5,000 years old, an understanding of the chemical principles underpinning the reactions involved only began at the turn of the 19th century, roughly corresponding to the development of modern chemistry and, coincidentally, with the revolutionary introduction of chrome tanning. At that time, the basis of the stabilising reaction was assumed to be crosslinking, whereby the component strands of protein are linked like stitches by the tanning chemical and this was the accepted view thereafter. Furthermore, it was also accepted that the ability of tanning reactions to confer high hydrothermal stability is a property of a few unrelated chemistries, of which chromium(III) tanning is the best known example.
Link-lock theory is revolutionary, insofar as it is the first new thinking in the chemical stabilisation of collagen in over half a century. This view of tanning was the outcome of examining the reaction with modern analytical instrumentation and applying a weight of evidence from the literature. The consequence has been the rejection of the accepted view of tanning mechanism, in favour of a simpler but more powerful theory. The principles of the theory can explain the effects of all known tanning processes. In an applied technology, its use is most powerful as it can predict the outcome of all, even as yet unknown reactions. Moreover, it is a major part of the way in which practitioners can predict details of the processes required to make leather and other biomaterials with desired properties and performance.
The fundamental importance of the theory is that it allows the subject to move on as it is more powerful than the alternative view and there is much evidence to support it. By combining this thinking with other new thinking into wider aspects of the heterogeneous chemistry, modifying collagen is now placed on a firm basis of leather science, which means that the outcomes of reactions can be predictable. The primary impact of this new view of protein stabilisation lies in the ways in which the thinking has and is informing developments of collagenic biomaterials and applications in the global leather and associated industries.