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Aston University has developed systems thinking, specifically soft systems thinking, into a new approach known as the Process Orientated Holonic (PrOH) Modelling Methodology which has been used to model, debate and implement changes to strategy and operational processes in service and manufacturing organisations. Through PrOH Modelling our research has changed the awareness, use, and long term legacy effect in a variety of organisations as exemplified here by 4 cases in which considerable operational and financial impacts have accrued. These impacts have been achieved by (i) increasing awareness of systems thinking, particularly soft systems thinking, by management (ii) implementing use of soft systems thinking (as PrOH modelling) to give demonstrable organisational improvement in specific change projects, and (iii) ensuring a legacy effect of systems thinking practice, as managers' use of systems thinking is more effective after an initial Aston University led project has been completed.
Many of the millions of people worldwide with disfigurement face significant psychological challenges. Research at UWE's Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) has made a substantial contribution to the interventions and healthcare provision available for patients with the most common congenital disfigurement — cleft lip and palate — in the UK and internationally. Specifically, our research has underpinned: (1) The inclusion of psychologists as key members of all UK cleft teams; (2) The development of effective forms of psychological support and interventions currently in use by psychologists and charities across the UK and abroad; (3) The development of evidence-based training packages currently being used by practitioners across Europe.
The Fire Safety Engineering Groups (FSEG's) research related to human behaviour associated with evacuation and evacuation modelling is saving lives because it is used to design safer aircraft, ships and buildings. Its Economic impact stems from licensing the EXODUS software to 250 organisations in 32 countries and commercial applications of the software which enable the realisation of cutting-edge designs and enabling the continual safe use of heritage structures such as the Statue of Liberty. Public Policy impact stems from FSEG aviation research influencing Australian government aviation safety policy while impact on Practitioners is a result of changes to international maritime guidelines based in FSEG research and the wide scale use of the EXODUS software by engineers around the world. Society impact results from its research featuring in a number of popular documentary programmes attracting audiences measured in the millions.
Research by the The Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) has encompassed fire dynamics, fire modelling, human behaviour and evacuation modelling, and this has been applied through software engineering research and development in the creation of state-of-the-art software packages in SMARTFIRE and EXODUS. This research is saving lives worldwide because it is used to design safer aircraft, ships and buildings, and this results in social, commercial, industrial and health impacts. Economic impact stems from licensing the SMARTFIRE and EXODUS software to over 300 organisations in 32 countries and commercial applications of the software which enable the realisation of cutting-edge designs and enabling the continual safe use of heritage structures such as the Statue of Liberty. Impact on Practitioners is a result of changes to international maritime guidelines arising from FSEG research, used to inform the development of the software tools, and the wide scale use of the SMARTFIRE and EXODUS software by engineers around the world. Society impact, over and above the design of safer environments, results from FSEG research featuring in a number of popular documentary programmes attracting audiences measured in the millions.
Femtocells provide short-range (e.g. 10m) wireless coverage which enables a conventional cellular communication system to be accessed indoors. Their widespread and growing use has been aided by the work in UoA11 by the University of Bedfordshire (UoB).
In 2008, while the femtocell concept was still in its infancy, researchers at UoB with expertise in wireless networks recognised that coverage prediction and interference reduction techniques would be essential if the benefits of that concept were to be realised.
Collaboration with two industrial partners (an international organisation and a regional SME) resulted in tools that enable operators to simulate typical femtocell deployment scenarios, such as urban, dense apartments, terraced house and small offices, before femtocells can be reliably deployed by users without affecting the rest of the network (a benefit of the technology). These tools have been deployed by those partners to support their businesses. A widely-cited textbook, written for network engineers, researchers and final year students, has brought knowledge of femtocell operation to a wider audience.
The Fire Safety Engineering Groups (FSEG's) research related to fire dynamics, fire modelling, human behaviour and evacuation modelling is saving lives because it is used to design safer aircraft, ships and buildings. Its Economic impact stems from licensing the SMARTFIRE and EXODUS software to over 300 organisations in 32 countries and commercial applications of the software which enable the realisation of cutting-edge designs and enabling the continual safe use of heritage structures such as the Statue of Liberty. Impact on Practitioners is a result of changes to international maritime guidelines based in FSEG research and the wide scale use of the SMARTFIRE and EXODUS software by engineers around the world. Society impact results from its research featuring in a number of popular documentary programmes attracting audiences measured in the millions.
Research at LU carried out from 2003 to 2011 has made a significant impact on the practical realisation of Open Access (OA) to scholarly publications at an international level. Research into publisher's Copyright Transfer Agreements underpinned the development of the SHERPA/RoMEO service, widely used by repository managers across Europe [impact 4.1]; a cost-benefit model of scholarly publishing in relation to the main routes to OA influenced the publishing industry, and research strategy amongst UK funding agencies [impact 4.2]; further research influenced Research Councils UK (RCUK) policy in relation to mandates [impact 4.3], and the work of the European Commission in the development of its digital agenda [impact 4.4].
Research by staff of the Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) at Strathclyde has resulted in advances in the state-of-the-art in dynamic building energy modelling as encapsulated within the Open Source ESP-r program. This new capability enabled practitioners to analyse phenomena and technologies hitherto not capable of being modelled in building simulation tools. The impact stems from the embedding of ESP-r within companies resulting in service improvement and job creation, and applications of ESP-r resulting in energy demand reduction, low carbon energy systems integration and environmental impact mitigation.
Reducing vehicle noise and vibration is a key quality objective in the automotive industry. Historically, the approach has been costly palliation late in the manufacturing process; now a new approach applied earlier in the vehicle development cycle has been devised by Loughborough University and Ford and implemented at Ford that has led to savings of $7 per vehicle with respect to clutch in-cycle vibration (whoop). Ford has reported savings of $10M over 5 years, whilst reductions in transmission rattle have led to 5% fuel efficiency gains [5.1]. Ford has made an investment of £240M in its engine and transmission work at Bridgend, which includes aspects of work reported here and has created 600 new jobs [5.2].