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Place-name research supports local investment and community initiatives

Summary of the impact

The University of Glasgow has a strong research base in place-names. Our research has supported local organisations develop and make funding bids to Heritage Landscape Partnerships in Scotland for funds in excess of £4 million. These and related projects included a variety of research-led educational activities around place-names, which gave communities a sense of ownership of their landscape and created local history resources that are widely available both to academics and the general public.

Submitting Institution

University of Glasgow

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

The BBC ‘Voices’ Projects: Transforming the public and professional understanding of the nation’s speech

Summary of the impact

This case study describes a unique collaboration between Professor Clive Upton and researchers at the University of Leeds, the BBC and the British Library (BL), examining language variation. As a result of a programme assembling and researching the largest recorded archive of dialects and speech patterns assembled in the UK, two major interlinked forms of impact were generated:

i. Informing public understanding of dialect and English language use, thereby validating diverse regional and national identities.

ii. Contributing to the professional practice and goals of the BBC and the BL through policy enhancement, training, and developing broadcast and exhibition content.

Submitting Institution

University of Leeds

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Linguistics
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Creating infrastructure for linguistic theory and endangered languages

Summary of the impact

Global linguistic diversity is under threat; the theoretical and descriptive work of the Surrey Morphology Group (SMG) raises public awareness of linguistic diversity and produces traditional and digital resources used and valued by communities where endangered languages are spoken.

There is growing recognition of the many reasons, scientific and social, why the loss of linguistic diversity matters. Here we report on our impact on different communities, focussing in particular on Archi, an endangered language of the highlands of Daghestan (Russia). Our Dictionary of Archi, with pictures of cultural artefacts, has changed perceptions of the cultural and social value of this small language, both for the speakers of Archi and for those of surrounding larger languages. In its digital version, our dictionary has brought Archi into global awareness.

Submitting Institution

University of Surrey

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

The Enchanted Palace: developing audiences and bringing history to life with a site-specific co-created installation.

Summary of the impact

The Enchanted Palace was a collaborative project between theatre company WildWorks and Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). It transformed the State Apartments at Kensington Palace into an interactive exhibition (26 March 2010 — 1 June 2012) which brought the stories and the palace to life.

The Enchanted Palace enabled Kensington Palace to remain open during a two-year £12 million refurbishment. The project brought in income, safeguarded jobs and drew in new audiences. Thirteen community groups, schools and colleges were involved in its creation while 10 high-profile designers were invited to create work in response to the stories of the palace. The Enchanted Palace increased the numbers of Palace visitors (even during this refurbishment period) and was widely covered in the press featuring on the International Council of Museums website www.clothestellstories.com as an example of good practice.

Submitting Institution

Falmouth University

Unit of Assessment

Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

The Open-air Laboratories Project

Summary of the impact

The Open-Air Laboratories (OPAL) project was funded by a £14.4 million grant from The Big Lottery Fund and represented one of the largest public participation initiatives in environmental research projects ever. The Grenfell-Baines School of Architecture, Construction and Environment (the unit of assessment, UoA) was one of nine academic partners to benefit from this funding (see REF 5a). OPAL was led at the UoA by Toogood (Principal Investigator) from 2007 to 2013. This project has positively impacted society's awareness of the natural environment and inspired over half a million people to explore their environment through active engagement. OPAL has also positively changed the way environmental teachers, scientists and other professionals, view and discharge their duties.

Submitting Institution

University of Central Lancashire

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

1) SRDG Gaelic Language Network

Summary of the impact

There are three stages to the impact. First, key advice was provided to the Scottish Government on its 2005 Gaelic Language Act by Dr Rob Dunbar, then reader at the University of Aberdeen, and a world expert on language legislation. This helped shape both the nature of the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament and the plan for its implementation.

Second, a bid was made, in which Aberdeen was again a lead organisation, for funding to strengthen the infrastructure for Gaelic-language research, so making it possible for the Scottish Government's policy to be properly informed by a sufficient body of Gaelic-language researchers. This resulted in the SOILLSE project (`A Research Strategy for the Maintenance and Revitalisation of Gaelic Language and Culture'), which secured £5.28m in funding from the Scottish Funding Council's `Societal and Public Priority' scheme, Bòrd na Gàidhlig (the agency charged with carrying through the Government's policy), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the four universities involved — Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), whose establishment as a research institution was one of the outcomes of the funding.

Third, specific research contracts were undertaken by Macleod and MacLeod to provide non-governmental agencies with information about the effectiveness of their implementation of government policy. SOILLSE is now at the half-way point in its overall trajectory, but the research being produced is already influencing the government and community agencies (Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Comunn na Gàidhlig) involved in delivering Gaelic language policy, while the fees paid for commissioned research have been used to fund additional PhDs in Gaelic.

Submitting Institution

University of Aberdeen

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Child Protection in a Digital World: Reducing Direct and Indirect Risk

Summary of the impact

Lancaster's innovative and interdisciplinary child protection research programme addresses emergent risks to children and young people; directly in online environments and indirectly through the application of IT systems in safeguarding social work. Impact is evidenced through:

  • Changing user community practices in both internet governance and child protection with direct benefits to the organisation of frontline services, education and children and young people themselves;
  • The adoption of new child protection tools by law enforcement agencies — providing sophisticated methods to deal with massive quantities of social network data (used nationally and internationally);
  • Economic impact — through the creation of a spin-out company, Isis Forensics;
  • Contributions to policy formation and debate.

Submitting Institution

Lancaster University

Unit of Assessment

Sociology

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Strengthening community participation and resilience in Bradford through global south-north learning and participatory research

Summary of the impact

Since the Bradford Riots in 2001, research at Bradford has helped to defuse underlying tensions between deprived, multiethnic communities and between them and the local state thus strengthening community resilience in the city. Building on global research, particularly in Latin America, we have introduced participatory and peace-building methodologies into the locality, but with implications beyond it. The Programme for a Peaceful City enhances our impact through academic-practitioner reflection spaces. Our research with rather than on communities fosters their voice in policy, contributing to a non-confrontational response to the EDL in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and bringing community activists from Bradford's diverse communities together to co-create the ESRC-funded Community University (Comm-Uni-ty) in May 2013.

Submitting Institution

University of Bradford

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

Informing Approaches to Endangered Language Protection and Revitalisation in the Channel Islands (Julia Sallabank)

Summary of the impact

Dr Julia Sallabank's research into Guernsey's little-studied indigenous language, Guernesiais, has greatly informed language planning and policy on the island, particularly with regard to teaching methods and raising awareness of the language among the population. Moreover, her documentation of Guernesiais, specifically the recording of audio samples, constitutes a significant contribution to the preservation of Guernsey's identity and cultural heritage. Sallabank's broader expertise on the revitalisation of endangered languages has also been solicited by language officials elsewhere, notably Jersey, the Isle of Man and New Caledonia, and resulted in her participation in UNESCO's Panel of Experts on language diversity.

Submitting Institution

School of Oriental & African Studies

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Promoting recognition and status of the Romani language

Summary of the impact

This research by Professor Yaron Matras produced tools to promote awareness of the Romani language through popular websites, online documentation, learning resources and audio-visual educational materials. It also produced policy papers which prompted the launch of a European Language Curriculum Framework for Romani. This led to the consistent monitoring and reporting by governments on policy to promote Romani through the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Professor Matras was responsible for establishing the first-ever online multi-dialectal dictionary in any language. `Romlex currently offers an online lexical database of 25 Romani dialects with search and translation facilities in 14 different target languages.

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology
Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

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