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Research at Bradford has focused on the Biological Non-Proliferation work of the Bradford Disarmament Research Centre (BDRC). The research-informed impact of this work is two-fold. Firstly BDRC has influenced, and continues to influence, decision- and policy-making involving 170 States on how to strengthen global governance through improvements to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). As a consequence of this influence BDRC has changed the practices of institutions and individual researchers and thus has, through novel training and curriculum development, helped foster a culture of biosecurity to reduce the risk of inadvertent or deliberate misuse of life and associated science research.
Stefan Collini's research on the character of universities and their relations to their host societies has had a major impact on public discourse in Britain. Grounded in historical evidence concerning the growth of institutions and disciplines, and on the ways public debate about the functions of universities has evolved since the mid-nineteenth century, it has influenced political argument about legislation, the content of reporting on higher education, and public understanding of universities more generally. There is extensive evidence for the uptake of these ideas in documents produced by public bodies, citations in the media, and other published reports on policy debates.
In early 2013, a policy review across the DfE created five new `policy tests' which govern policymaking and which asked civil servants to include historical perspectives and sources in how they frame and evaluate policy making. The five tests were summarised in the October 2013 report of the Policy Profession Board, Twelve Actions to Professionalise Policy Making, and are currently recommended as good practice for all departments. Their development was informed by the experience of working with Prof. Pat Thane and the History and Policy unit at King's. Following the publication of Thane's Happy Families? History and Family Policy in 2010, History and Policy was invited by the Director of Children's Services and Departmental Strategy Directorate at the Department for Education to lead a series of history seminars designed to provide DfE civil servants with a deeper knowledge of up-to-date historical research relevant to their policy areas. This case study documents the direct impact of Happy Families in informing the work of the DfE and on the thinking of NGOs including the national childcare charity, the Daycare Trust. At the same time, it shows how Happy Families has contributed to a demonstrable change in policy-making culture at the highest levels, through the institutionalisation of historical thinking amongst civil servants.
Reducing the humanitarian suffering associated with conflict is a vital but demanding task, not least because continuing developments in science and technology enable ever more destructive capabilities. Brian Rappert's research has benefited international efforts to limit the consequences of the use of force. It has done this by challenging conventional wisdom, identifying poorly recognized issues; evaluating emerging policy initiatives by governments, international agencies, science academies and non-government agencies; establishing new practitioner networks; facilitating international debate; shaping international diplomatic agendas; influencing professional standards and training through the development of resources; and successfully advocating a strategy for negotiating a major disarmament treaty.
Nick Hopwood's Embryos in Wax (2002) has impacted on museum practice by enabling curators of many local and national collections to catalogue the most important embryological models and display them informatively in permanent and major temporary exhibitions. Especially the online exhibition Making Visible Embryos (2008) and a 2006 article in Isis have greatly stimulated discussion and use of historic embryo images, providing evidence and interpretation to debates over abortion, developmental biology, evolution and creationism. The research has impacted on undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at other HEIs by opening up new topics and enabling new kinds of collections-based project and class.
Tim Lewens' research into risk, trust and bioethics can be shown to have informed and influenced policy debate. This work has shaped reports of the Business Innovation and Skills working group on Science and Trust, and also reports from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Lewens' key contributions to the latter's Human Bodies Report have resulted in invitations to give evidence to the Welsh National Assembly, thus helping to shape the Assembly's drafting of its new bill on human transplantation. His work on the Council's report on Mitochondrial Disorders has been echoed in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (HFEA's) recent advice to UK Ministers, which aims to inform forthcoming debate to alter existing legislation on experimental mitochondrial therapies. Lewens' research has also led to his being asked to take on consulting roles to industry, most recently with AstraZeneca.
Research conducted by John Turnpenny shaped the recommendations of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC). In 2010, the EAC addressed the need to embed sustainable development across government policy-making. This followed the closure of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) and the end of funding for the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). The EAC determined to change how it engaged with experts, while reaffirming and expanding its role in the overall scrutiny of government sustainability policy. Turnpenny's findings formed the basis of two of the thirteen headline recommendations in the EAC's 2011 report Embedding Sustainable Development Across Government. In addition his suggestions helped influence significant changes in the way that the EAC operates, and contributed to its wider impact among other policy actors.
This case study documents the research and impact of Sussex members of the Harvard Sussex Program (HSP) on chemical and biological weapons (CBW). Since 2008, HSP has provided a wide range of benefits to CBW expert and policy communities, through information gathering and dissemination, advisory work, outreach events, and briefings and reviews, as well as single-issue advocacy and policy innovation. At the same time, HSP has contributed to changes in national and international CBW policies through its research on such issues as yellow rain, incapacitating agents, and processes of Science and Technology review.
Twenty First Century Science (OCR Science A) is a research evidence-informed suite of GCSE courses developed by the Science Education Group at York from 2001-6. Following pilot trials and evaluation in 2003-6, it was adopted and continues to be used by over 1200 centres (schools and colleges) in England, thus having significant impact on the day-to-day practice of several thousand teachers and on over 120,000 students annually from 2006 to date. A survey of centres in 2008 (Millar, 2010), after the first post-pilot cohort completed their GCSE courses, indicated increases of between 25 and 38 percent in uptake of the three main sciences at AS-level, over three times the national increase observed that year. The core GCSE Science course is unique internationally in addressing explicitly the widely accepted policy objective of improving `scientific literacy'. As a result, Twenty First Century Science has influenced science curriculum policy discussions and debates in the UK and internationally.
This case study demonstrates how a concern with the significance of place in the history of science, technology and medicine, as addressed in research carried out by Graeme Gooday, Jonathan Topham and Gregory Radick since 1998, forms the basis of three initiatives over the period 1/1/2008 to 31/7/2013: first, a reappraisal of scientific, medical and technological collections held in Leeds-area museums, in collaboration with curators; secondly, the use of the University's own collections to promote understanding of science and its history among local citizens and schoolchildren, and thirdly the application and transmission of this approach at the national level and beyond.