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This case study draws on work undertaken by the Centre for Social Action (CSA) to improve publicly funded services through service-user engagement in both research processes and service delivery. The centre combines applied social research with service and policy evaluation, consultancy, training and information services to the fields of youth work, community development and social and health care. The social action methodology for practice and research undertaken using this participatory approach has had an impact on services and policy internationally (e.g. classroom teaching in the US and the development of social work services in Eastern Europe), nationally (e.g. evaluations of national youth participation projects such as Participation Works and U R Boss for the Howard League) and locally (e.g. work with Leicester City Council). Impacts have been wide ranging, and include methodological innovation, development of training curricula and materials for practitioners, and policy changes which have a profound impact on people's lives.
This case study describes the impact of the FORMAT International Festival of Photography which is a collaboration between the QUAD Independent Cinema & Media Arts Centre and the University of Derby. The Festival has developed from high-level creative practice, which advances the development of the photographic medium, creating a legacy resource and contributing to public understanding and engagement. FORMAT confirms Derby as a major centre for photography in the UK with an international reach, and reflects the reputation and heritage of the University of Derby in the area of photographic research and education over five decades.
Advanced practice roles in nursing (APN roles) have been developed widely across a range of healthcare settings and organisational boundaries in response to government policy directives. A programme of research has been undertaken to generate robust evidence of the contribution of APN roles to healthcare. Research outputs include a theoretical framework to evaluate the impact of these roles. This framework has been used to underpin the development of a practical toolkit to assist practitioners to demonstrate their impact on patients, staff and the organisations in which they work. Beneficiaries include policymakers, professional organisations and NHS providers and individual practitioners.
The Centre for Citizenship, Globalisation and Governance (C2G2) at the University of Southampton is at the forefront of increasingly important policy and practice considerations about how to enhance civic behaviour using forms of intervention beyond legislation and taxation. Its research in this field has influenced the UK government's approach to the concept of the Big Society and has helped shape the broader debate on how nudging behaviour change can reshape public service delivery. Through media exposure and engagement in high-level interactions with policymakers, the researchers at Southampton have framed the thinking of governments at all levels, think-tanks and voluntary associations both in the UK and internationally.
The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx) at Nottingham is a world leader in the development and application of experimental and behavioural economics. CeDEx's research is increasingly influential in affecting the way in which experimental methodology is utilised by public sector agencies (e.g. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, DEFRA) and in fashioning the public and policy makers' understanding of how human motivations and decision processes affect individual and group behaviour and, in particular, their responses to different policy tools (e.g. incentives, regulation, information, `nudges' etc). The research of the CeDEx group has had broad and diffuse impacts on public decision-making and public debate; through public events, the provision of advice to government departments and regulators, the delivery of training workshops, commissioned research and an active strategy of engagement in public debate.
Research on the assessment and governance of research, carried out at Oxford since 2004, has contributed to changes in conceptions of quality and impact underpinning research assessment systems in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and substantially influenced strategic action in funding bodies, professional societies, and higher education institutions, nationally and internationally. Oancea and Furlong's work on quality in applied and practice-based research contributed to a more inclusive definition of applied research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and to the Economic and Social Research Council's interpretation of the "excellence with impact" agenda for the social sciences. It has also been used as the basis for assessment criteria for postgraduate programmes, professional development, and practitioner courses in many institutions. Oancea's recent research was used in strategic documents and resources by, for example, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the Strategic Forum for Research in Education (SFRE), and the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET).
World-leading primate research by the `Origins of Mind' group led to the creation of the University's £1.6M `Living Links to Human Evolution' Research Centre, intentionally located in Edinburgh Zoo where it has pioneered unique public engagement and science education using a range of materials and activities. The research has thus impacted on: i) society and culture: since 2008, around 250,000 visitors per year have engaged with live, on-going science and multiple associated legacy resources and activities; ii) educational practitioners and school children, through classes in the Centre and internet teacher packs that integrate with Scottish Highers; and iii) commercial income to the Zoo.
The impact of this research has been achieved through developing evidence-based recommendations for personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus — the UK's one-stop service for administering state benefits and helping claimants into work. By opening the `black box' of adviser- claimant interviews for the first time, the study produced the following key impacts:
Beneficiaries were those claiming state benefits, Jobcentre Plus advisers and managers, and DWP and other Government policymakers.
International collaborations are now core features of higher education and international business, yet their intercultural aspects are frequently overlooked. The roll-out of global initiatives is less easily matched by the development of "global people" — people who can function effectively in culturally diverse contexts. In order to address this challenge, Spencer-Oatey and colleagues have been researching the nature of this competence and applying their insights to the development of training resources. These resources have been accessed by large numbers of professionals and practitioners throughout the world, helping them grow in intercultural understanding, adapt their behaviour, and apply their insights to training others.
As a direct result of methodological research led by Professor Ray Pawson at Leeds, `realist evaluation' has provided a new lens through which to assess and develop social programmes. It has critically changed the apparatus of evidenced-based policy and the way in which policy research is commissioned and utilised. Through advisory work, training package provision, partnership-research and professional exchange, this `realist' perspective has formed a new standard in social programme evaluation, and is used by commissioners in the UK and internationally to frame their interventions across policy domains, including education, environment, criminal justice, and health and social care.