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The Old Bailey Online gives access to 197,745 trial reports (1674-1913), and constitutes the largest body of accurately transcribed and tagged historical text currently available. It contributes to the infrastructure of a `history from below' and, according to the AHRC, `highlights the direct relationship that arts and humanities research can have with the public'. Used by over 3 million people since 2008, it has formed the inspiration for radio and television series, stimulated debate, enriched genealogical research and formed a rich resource for lexicographers. Most importantly, it has made the stuff of social history freely available to everyone.
The Newton Project transforms public understanding of one of the most significant intellectual figures in history. A pioneering initiative that has set international standards for the digital humanities, it provides an open access online scholarly edition of Sir Isaac Newton's complete writings, making available previously unseen material relating to his ideas about science, mathematics and theology. Under the directorship of Rob Iliffe, the Project has reached a wide variety of benefactors, including secondary schools, broadcasters and the performing arts. Through these creative collaborations, it serves as an outstanding resource for the popularisation of scientific thought.
Research at Sheffield has led to international cultural and conservation impact, as well as commercial impact in the UK. Two free international exhibitions designed to attract visitors of all ages and nationalities (Royal Armouries 2007/08, 20,000 visitors; and Musée national de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris (2010, 80,000 visitors) were underpinned by research on illuminated manuscripts of Jehan Froissart's Chronicles of the Hundred Years' War (covering the years 1325-1404). The exhibitions were inspired by the desire to raise awareness, regionally and nationally, of the culture of the Book and of Franco-English relations in the later Middle Ages. Miniatures from the manuscripts depicting key events were displayed alongside items selected from each country's national collection of arms and armour; interactive displays showed how the manuscripts were copied and illustrated. The research enabled an SME to be launched and opened up new access to major aspects of French cultural heritage whilst enabling the preservation of the originals' integrity, part of the intellectual and artistic patrimony of Western Europe.
Mass Observation has encouraged public participation in the creation of knowledge since 1937 and pioneered the dissemination of social research to a mass audience. Active collaboration between Sussex historians and the Mass Observation Archive continues to shape popular understandings of modern British social history, specifically through work with the media. This partnership has also created an Open Educational Resource through which the public can gain a hands-on understanding of the very recent past. Working with the Mass Observations Project, Sussex academics encourage `ordinary' people to write directly about their lives within a structured environment, creating historical sources for the future.
Contributing to the preservation of literary materials through innovative use of technology, DMU's Centre for Technology and the Arts (CTA) — subsequently renamed the Centre for Textual Studies (CTS) — pioneered new digital techniques for analysing, editing and presenting literary-historical manuscripts of international significance. These techniques revolutionized the scholarly task of capturing data about manuscripts, permitting new kinds of analyses, editing and dissemination, now widely practised to facilitate public access and cultural enrichment. In particular, the CTA/CTS invented a manuscript description standard taken up by major libraries across the world, the International Standards Organization (ISO) via the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and by commercial publishers.
Of the 200,000 offenders supervised in the community by Probation Area Trusts (PATs) in England and Wales, around half are reconvicted of another offence within two years. University of Sheffield research into why people stop offending (`desistance'), funded by the ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust, has provided evidence to senior staff in PATs, government departments, and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) enabling the development of initiatives aimed at supporting service users in their efforts to desist. The research has increased awareness and understanding on the part of professionals of the factors associated with desistance. Through the medium of a film about how people desist, the research has helped both to reinvigorate probation services' professional practice and to develop training programmes with an emphasis on helping people to stop offending in place of the hitherto dominant focus on enforcement.
This case study relates to cultural life and education. Kenneth Fincham is an internationally renowned scholar in the field of British Early Modern History, and the impact arose from a major research programme funded by the AHRC to create:
The database is an online resource launched in 2005 and available free to all users. It provides a relational database and supporting website containing key information on clergy, schoolteachers and ecclesiastical patrons which has brought together for the first time a comprehensive range of sources. From the start CCEd was designed to serve constituencies outside as well as within academia, and it has proved an invaluable resource for genealogists across the globe seeking information on clerical ancestors, local historians researching parish histories, independent researchers interested in the clergy, and hard-pressed archivists responsible for managing and interpreting major diocesan collections. It has received in excess of 9.9m hits since 2010 and highly positive feedback from its many different types of user.
Regional and national audiences have benefited from enhanced perceptions of the linguistic and literary heritage of the West Midlands. Cultural capital has been created by engaging members of the public in the discovery of their linguistic and literary past through their unprecedented access to and understanding of a manuscript written in the dialect of the medieval West Midlands. Increased national interest in the region's cultural heritage has been generated.
The Wars of the Roses and Richard III remain engrossing and controversial after 500 years throughout the Anglophone world and beyond. Hicks and Holford have made a significant impact on public knowledge and understanding of the period's politics and society. Their publications, printed and online, are valuable resources for professional and amateur historians, students and the general public, nationally and internationally. Hicks' Anne Neville underpinned Philippa Gregory's novel, The Kingmaker's Daughter and hence the BBC series The White Queen. The website, blog and twitter, Mapping the Medieval Countryside, are making the inquisitions post mortem (IPMs) much more widely accessible and useful than hitherto.
This case study describes the impact that has arisen from an extended research project carried out by Professor Shute, since 2009, on inspection of the main criminal justice agencies — police, prosecution, courts, prisons and probation — in the United Kingdom. The impact of the research has been at a number of levels: the development by ministers and senior civil servants of high- level strategy concerning criminal justice inspection; the translation of that strategy into inspection policy; and the conversion of inspection policy into inspection practice. Specific changes include: developing a risk-based approach; inspecting the use of the person escort record; and inspecting corruption in prisons.