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Economic prosperity in the UK is very unevenly distributed across space. Tackling these persistent disparities by improving local economic performance is a key policy objective. Research conducted by LSE staff has made direct contributions to government thinking and to specific policies both at central and local levels. First, the research has influenced the Government's shift from regional to city policy-making: abolishing Regional Development Agencies; establishing Local Enterprise Partnerships [LEPs] and bespoke `City Deals'. Second, researchers from LSE have directly influenced the development of economic strategies in Birmingham, Cambridge, the North East LEP area and Manchester.
Many governments have pledged to better manage and protect vital natural resources in order to ensure that existing economic wealth and opportunities remain available to future generations. They have been hampered in doing so by the significant challenges involved in accounting for this 'natural capital'. LSE research has helped to address these challenges and in so doing has contributed to better stewardship of natural resources for a sustainable future. This has occurred at two levels — national and international. In the UK this research has had a direct impact on the shaping of the Government's environmental policy. At the international level it has contributed to World Bank guidance to its 188 member countries and informed the development and implementation of a City Biodiversity Index, which is being applied in over 400 cities worldwide.
Millions of cases of multi-drug resistance bacterial infection occur each year. Yet the pharmaceutical industry has all but ceased investing in antibiotic development due to a combination of low profits and lack of appropriate incentives. In her 2011 Annual Report, the Chief Medical Officer called for more attention to be given to an antimicrobial resistance strategy for the UK and worldwide. The Unit's work analysed the nature of the incentives necessary to get antibiotic R&D going again. In particular it served as the basis for an urgent request by the EU Council for action and sparked the formation of the critical `transatlantic taskforce' (TATFAR): the first major international collaboration to tackle antibiotic resistance. Recommendations from the work served as the foundation for an EU-level public/private partnership and for US regulatory reform.
LSE research has formed the basis for a new assessment framework which helps healthcare planners set priorities within fixed budgets. Since 2005, a group of scholars at LSE has been developing a programme of applied research that is enabling organisations responsible for commissioning health services to make better use of their limited resources to improve value for their populations. It has led to: (a) new health spending strategies in the Isle of Wight in 2007, 2008 and 2009 that delivered a 50% reduction in emergency asthma admissions; (b) 15% savings on the spend on eating disorder services in Sheffield from 2009; (c) new guidelines for commissioning cost-effective care in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; (d) a user-friendly Excel decision support tool, user-guidance and instructions for facilitators available for free download, as well as training modules for potential users; and (e) the evaluation of alternative strategies for the allocation of US$10 million per year to fight tuberculosis in Sudan in 2013-15, this being the first of a series of pilots to adapt the LSE assessment framework to the new funding model of the Global Fund.
Professor Patrick Dunleavy and Dr Joachim Wehner have led research on improving public budgeting and performance auditing. This research has transformed the quality and coverage of OECD data, with a direct impact on processes of peer learning across 34 OECD member states as well as specific reforms. Later work for the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) created the first dataset on government budgeting practices across Africa, which is a valuable tool for guiding budgetary reform on the continent. In addition, the research into performance audit practice has underpinned work with the European Court of Auditors to develop research methods in `value for money' (VFM) studies. This work has improved financial reporting to the European Parliament and wider professional and public audiences.
In February 2010, the Dutch government and parliament were rocked by a serious factual mis- reporting from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the danger of flooding in the Netherlands. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, faced with the immense task of checking that there were no more errors in the report, came to LSE researchers for advice. Academics working on LSE's How Well Do Facts Travel? project helped the Agency to establish a process to ensure the integrity of climate-science facts in an efficient and effective manner. That Agency has now extended the method to ensure the integrity of the facts reported in the next generation of IPCC reports (one completed, others forthcoming).
Thus the LSE research, which investigated the histories of how, why and when facts travel with integrity, has been used to improve the quality of scientific evidence in public policy formation about one of the major challenges facing society, that of climate change.
Professor Patrick Dunleavy, as Director of the LSE Public Policy Group (PPG), has led a research programme on digital era governance. The results of this programme, through published research, evidence to Parliament and direct consulting to government agencies (including the National Audit Office), have had a significant impact on the UK government's approach to the delivery of government services online. Specifically, the research has allowed the government to develop policies that have facilitated speedier and more effective digital changes, and increased the breadth and quality of public service delivery online.