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The Zooniverse citizen science projects, including Galaxy Zoo, have engaged over 856,000 members of the public from 100 countries with astronomy and other areas of research such as nature, health and the humanities. The impacts include increased public awareness and understanding of science and research methods, changes in the attitudes of school children and adults, and benefits to teaching and learning. The Zooniverse engages with large numbers of people through the internet; additional benefits are also delivered through adaptations of the projects for interactive museum exhibits and classroom education. Further impacts include benefits to Cancer Research UK and commercial uptake by Microsoft and the BBC.
The Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) runs a successful programme of community engagements with local schools, science centres and tourist attractions to influence public awareness and understanding of the world-class research we perform. In 2012-13, ICG engaged with 4858 people, including 2412 school children. Through our "Cosmology Masterclass", we have inspired hundreds of A-level students from across the region; 60% said we had increased their interest in university. In 2012-13, staff engaged with 50 different schools across the UK. For the last 3 years, we have interacted with thousands of people running BBC Stargazing Live partner events, receiving almost unanimous praise from the public via our feedback.
Euclid is a new M-class satellite selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to study the dark universe, which will exploit fundamental "Baryon Acoustic Oscillations" research originally performed at Portsmouth. The construction of Euclid is underway, overseen by Portsmouth scientists, with several millions of pounds already spent on research and development within UK university laboratories and industry (e2v), already with economic impact. By the time Euclid is launched, 606 million euros will be spent across UK and European industry (Thales, Astrium) providing significant economic impact as well as societal impact.
Impact: Public outreach, education, science engagement, debate and policy development: Inspiring, informing and educating the general public, school children, educators and policy makers by communicating the results of PHYESTA astronomical research through events, movies visits and training. Influencing worldwide policy makers through the stimulation of new debates.
Significance: Improved awareness and knowledge of astronomical discoveries, and the importance of/progress in science in general. Improved teaching, enhanced motivation of school children to pursue science, supported by heightened enthusiasm/knowledge in the wider public.
Beneficiaries: The public, educators and educational organisations, governmental organisations including recreation and tourism, international organisations including the UN.
Reach: Direct interaction with ~100,000 school children and members of the wider UK public over REF period. Engagement with many more worldwide through events, TV programmes, movies, webinars, and press releases/news stories. Direct training of several 100 school teachers, and extended impact through educational resources. Influence on policy development through the UN.
Attribution: PHYESTA astronomers have both led the highly-cited research and have worked directly with outreach staff, educators, and organisations (e.g. Royal Society and STFC) to publicise and promote the impact and relevance of astronomical discoveries.
Large numbers of the public have been inspired and delighted by Sussex research on high-profile fundamental physics, through media coverage and cultural interpretation of this work, but also by participating in the process and contributing directly to further discoveries. Sussex research contributions to high-profile fundamental research include the Higgs boson discovery, which has had a phenomenal impact around the world, and the ESA's missions, XMM-Newton and Herschel, which appeal to an enduring curiosity and wonder about the nature of the universe. Our research underpins the pioneering Galaxy Zoo Project, which has enabled unprecedented engagement, providing a direct benefit to >200,000 participants who are directly contributing to active research, through one of the most high-profile examples of `citizen science'. The cultural landscape has been enriched through, for example, a sell-out West-End theatre play and a music/art/science collaboration at a regional Arts Festival.
Cosmologists at UCL — based in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) — conduct research into dark matter and dark energy through their involvement in a number of space missions and ground-based projects. This research has been shared with the public through a large number of talks, blogs, articles in the media, and television and radio programmes, stimulating significant public interest and discussion. Increased public understanding and interaction with the work was further achieved through a competition to improve mapping of dark matter. The research also influenced the creative practice of two artists, inspiring artworks that have been exhibited internationally and viewed by over 1 million people in total.
This case describes the impact of Professor John D. Barrow's research into the value of the cosmological constant and the constants of physics. The impact occurred through extensive engagement with the public via talks and public lectures, online talks and articles, newspaper and magazine articles, books and radio broadcasts. The engagement led to widespread public interest and increased public discourse in the UK and beyond, the impact being especially strong in Italy. The research has inspired young people, teachers and the general public internationally to follow cosmological developments.
The university's Bayfordbury Observatory is a working observatory that engages with the public via six Open Evenings and approximately 50 group visits a year, offering access to a wide range of facilities. Many of the 4,000 visitors annually report that they develop a first or renewed `enthusiasm for astronomy', or become `inspired to learn more' about what they have seen or heard from our researchers; some young people enthuse about `now wanting to be a scientist'. Science teachers taking an RCUK `cutting-edge' CPD astrophysics course also say that they have gained an `increased understanding of the subject', and `increased confidence in its delivery to pupils'.
Published and grant-awarded research in astrophysics and solar physics at UCLAN has underpinned a very large number of public lectures throughout the world (e.g. Edinburgh Science Festival, Harvard, NASA, IAC Tenerife, Perimeter Institute Canada, University of Cape Town, Astrofest London, etc.) during the impact reporting period 2008-2013, delivered by Professors Gibson, Kurtz, Ward-Thompson, Walsh and the rest of the staff in UoA9. The most prestigious of these have been delivered to large (typically several hundred to a few thousand people) sell-out audiences. Our staff have appeared on TV and radio to audiences of millions. In addition, public outreach events led by astrophysics and solar physics staff members at UCLAN have further increased the societal impact of our research.
Our high profile astronomy research discoveries in areas of public interest have allowed us to substantially increase the engagement of the public with science. Media appearances have led to a philanthropic donation of £200k to promote our science, the most successful public event series ever in Northern Ireland (engaging around 2000 people), a strategic partnership with Ireland's award winning science education centre W5 (reaching 26,000 people), and a 49% increase in applications to physics based degrees from NI students to UK HEIs. In 2008 we set three simple targets to substantially increase the public awareness of science and physics. The first was to increase our presence in the mass media (print, radio, TV, internet) to promote scientific research, and we have regularly reached audiences in excess of 295,000. The second was to increase the numbers of people attending science talks and events. The third was to substantially increase the application rate of school students to study physics and mathematics degrees. Through our outreach and engagement programme we have met, and surpassed, all of these targets. The impact of our research and our public outreach programme is a quantifiable societal change. Substantially more NI school students are now studying physics at third level UK HEIs.