Similar case studies

REF impact found 22 Case Studies

Currently displayed text from case study:

Community Engagement: ICTs and Empowerment

Summary of the impact

This impact case study focuses on the effects of digital technologies on rural communities, including networks of inter-tribal relationships in Kenya. It emanates from a social model of user needs that, having transcultural applications, enabled rural communities across Kenya to document their suppressed histories, identify their community needs and become empowered agents in a process of peace and reconciliation. Parallel research on digital activism in rural and urban communities has helped citizens to understand their democratic place in a wider society in order to enhance their political participation. International policy-makers and campaigners in voluntary associations and NGOs have adopted the model.

Submitting Institution

University of Brighton

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

Interventions improving the wider determinants of health and wellbeing

Summary of the impact

Research conducted within the University of East London's Institute of Health and Human Development (IHHD) is reshaping the development, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of interventions to address the wider determinants of health and health-inequalities, and has had impacts on public policy, service design and, ultimately, public health and wellbeing. Grounded in close relationships with policy-makers and end users, UEL's primary research into community development and co-production has informed the design of health improvement interventions, delivered through the cross-institutional, community-based Well London project. Research findings have driven Big Lottery funding priorities, contributed to parliamentary debates on health, informed NICE and Local Government guidance, shaped Marmot Review Team and NESTA policy, and led health authorities to commission new services and adopt new approaches to service delivery.

Submitting Institution

University of East London

Unit of Assessment

Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Sociology

Sustainability, Biodiversity Conservation and Indigenous Peoples: Community-Owned Solutions to Future Challenges in the Guiana Shield, South America

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns the development, adoption and dissemination of innovative `community-owned' approaches to the sustainable management of social-ecological systems (SES) within the Guiana Shield region of South America. Spanning the countries of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and areas of Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, this region is of recognized global significance for carbon storage, fresh water resources and biodiversity. Its indigenous, Amerindian communities have a potentially crucial role to play in sustainable conservation policy and practice. However, local economic and cultural changes, extractive industries, and global dynamics such as climate change are bringing profound challenges to these local communities and their SES. Research at Royal Holloway has responded to these challenges by involving indigenous peoples in both biodiversity science and sustainability policy. The work allows indigenous communities to identify, through participatory research methods, the most effective practices they have for surviving and thriving sustainably.

The impacts of the research are of four main types:

  • The use of research data and approaches in shaping local, national and transnational policy initiatives;
  • The production of `community-owned' solutions to the socio-ecological challenges faced by indigenous communities;
  • Intensive `capacity building' via training of local researchers, the promotion of local `champions' of successful best practices, and the support of autonomous action research by communities;
  • Enhancing public understanding of conservation in the region, especially via primary education.

Submitting Institution

Royal Holloway, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management
Studies In Human Society: Other Studies In Human Society

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

Managing complexity in practice: A viable system model (VSM) intervention in an Irish eco-community

Summary of the impact

Using her self-transformation methodology [5], Dr Angela Espinosa worked with an Irish eco-community, which had previously tried to self-organise with little success, to help community members identify and develop new structures, systems and mechanisms that improved performance and contributed to dealing with key viability threats. They acquired skills in community self-transformation, allowing them to: a) improve the community organisation; b) enhance connectivity and communications; c) complete the expansion of the ecovillage, d) sell and build more eco-houses, overcoming financial threats; and e) design and develop several new green businesses.

Submitting Institution

University of Hull

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Information Systems
Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

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

Research advances in Participatory Cyber-physical Computing resulting in innovative applications in Monitoring Biodiversity, Healthcare, Urban Development, Transportation and Art

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken between 2002 and 2012 at Birkbeck has helped establish a participatory approach to cyber-physical computing as the predominant methodology for the construction of mobile and pervasive computing systems. Cyber-physical systems intimately interlink material entities and their information representations as existing on the Internet. Our specific research contributions in systems architecture, privacy protection and human dynamics have demonstrated how the user's activity can be exploited as the core ingredient in building such systems. Our research has resulted in the implementation of applications that are used to monitor biodiversity across the globe, to assess and support Parkinson's disease patients in the UK, to improve the well-being of office workers in London, to engage the public in a debate about the costs and benefits of pervasive computing, and to inform legislatures in the UK and the US.

Submitting Institution

Birkbeck College

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Distributed Computing, Information Systems

Facet analysis and its influence on the major systems of library classification

Summary of the impact

Research on the theory and design of faceted classifications as exemplified in the Bliss Bibliographic Classification 2nd edition (BC2) has influenced the recent development of two out of the three internationally important library classification schemes, the Universal Decimal Classification, and the Dewey Decimal Classification. Collectively these are used in over 350,000 libraries worldwide, and thousands of new publications in the relevant subject classes are now classified using systems based on research undertaken in UCL Information Studies.

Submitting Institution

University College London

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, Information Systems
Education: Specialist Studies In Education

Rural e-Services

Summary of the impact

Working with a farming co-operative in India, this project developed new software design and deployment methodologies to create a mobile phone system, Kheti, (Ref 4) for providing on-the-spot, and locally relevant agricultural advice.

In trials, Kheti handled queries from over 100 different farmers, helping to avoid critical threats to their crops and livelihoods.

Software companies employed the methodologies: Safal Solutions applied them to microfinance IT projects in India, generating savings for over one million people; SAP Research used methods evolving from this project to create technologies for supply chain management by thousands of small-scale Cashew and Shea Nut farmers in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Submitting Institution

Sheffield Hallam University

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Information Systems
Studies In Human Society: Sociology

Mapping the Underworld: A research initiative to change the way we work in the streets

Summary of the impact

Many utility services are distributed using buried infrastructure beneath roads; inaccurate location leads to wasteful excavations and additional costs for service providers, businesses and the public. The Mapping the Underworld (MTU) project developed a proof-of-concept device to locate buried assets which can overcome problems of inaccurate mapping. This programme has acted as a crucial catalyst for the sector, leading to a series of significant actions by the industry informed by the MTU project. For instance, JK Guest, a major private sector contractor, invested £2m to establish the first vocational training centre for underground utility mapping in the UK to a specification developed by the Birmingham researchers; this centre opened in 2012 and more than 600 people had been trained there by July 2013. MTU and the industry promoted the development of an industry-standard for underground utility surveying, leading to the agreement of the British Standards Institute to develop a new standard which is being developed with sponsorship by the Institute of Civil Engineers. These, and the other impacts described in the case study, demonstrate the impact made to date on practitioners and professionals in the sector; these are the building blocks for the realisation of extensive economic impact from reduced disruption and the pro-active condition management of buried utilities.

Submitting Institution

University of Birmingham

Unit of Assessment

Civil and Construction Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Information Systems
Engineering: Geomatic Engineering

Filter Impact Case Studies

Download Impact Case Studies