Summary of the impact

Our research explored the ways the emerging Semantic Web can support teaching and learning. It identified case based learning as a key area and outputs were used to enhance the unique research council funded Economic and Social Data Service public collections and pioneers pages. Results informed the thinking of accountancy bodies on e-assessment via the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants/International Association for Accounting Education. An exemplary user case study derived from the research was selected by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The research supported the aggregation and presentation of Open Educational Resources via JISC. Project software and documentation was released as open source. Outcomes provided the `Liverpool, City of Radicals' Project timeline.

Summary of the impact

Research by Martin & Griffiths has had an impact on public and professional understanding of donor-recipient relationships and neo-colonial power structures in global education partnerships and has fostered understanding of global partnerships and study visits as sites for intercultural, transformative learning. Specifically, it has had impact by:

• the use of research findings by professional bodies to inform best practice in global learning;
• stimulating practitioner debate about global partnerships;
• developing resources to enhance professional practice in the teaching of geographical and intercultural education.

Summary of the impact

A corpus of research developed over twenty years brings together experience and expertise of staff, students and researchers at Birmingham City University in the Early Years (EY) cluster. This has had effects on practice in contexts in which national and international EY policy, leadership and pedagogy are developed and produced, enacted and contested. It has affected specific areas of learning and development, e.g. mathematics, including thinking skills, creativity, information and communications technology.

Research that was policy, programme and issue-focused has stimulated discussion and action, locally, nationally and internationally, for instance in Europe, Central and South-east Asia and Australia.

Summary of the impact

Practitioner research into Work Based Learning (WBL)^* undertaken at Chester since 1993 has seen the University established as a national leader in this field of study and the impact has affected both the private and public sectors. During 2008-2013 practitioner research at Chester has underpinned consultancy and developmental work. This has resulted in significant impact on workforce development including transforming policy and efficiency within a large Government department, a NHS Hospital Trust and with businesses in the private sector.

^*(WBL defined in this context as fully accredited, negotiated, modules or programmes of planned learning through work delivered by HE providers)

Summary of the impact

The University for the Creative Arts has a longstanding commitment to the history, practice, and theory of craft. The research of the Crafts Study Centre (CSC) and Anglo-Japanese Textile Research Centre (AJTRC) has long championed the work of craft practitioners in order to find new ways of thinking through creative practice. This curatorial work, public facing in nature, has contributed to the personal, professional and creative development of a range of craft practitioners by offering an enquiry-led platform for the exploration of craft as profession. Though this research has brought numerous benefits to a wide range of people and organisations, this case study explains specific qualitative and quantitative benefits brought to a number of craft practitioners by this work.

Summary of the impact

Pathways that individuals navigate through education, training and employment are becoming ever more complex and high quality labour market information (LMI) is crucial for careers advice and in informing decisions about where to invest in skills training. Research undertaken by Bimrose, with Brown, Barnes and Hughes has resulted in new policy frameworks for systems design and delivery of careers services; and has informed professional development in careers policy, research and practice. Internationally, the Institute for Employment Research (IER) at Warwick has informed and shaped policy debate and practice on career development services in response to political, economic, technological and social changes.

Summary of the impact

Over a decade of innovative comparative research has made a significant contribution to international debates on the future of education, employment and the labour market in the global `knowledge' economy. Prior to this research it was commonly assumed that the demand for high skilled workers would increase in the developed economies as emerging economies including China and India, entered the global economy. Research led by Cardiff University is the first to (a) show how this underestimated the way emerging economies were rapidly entering the competition for high skilled work and (b) outline its far-reaching implication for education, skills and economic policies in the West. The impact of this research is demonstrated in the way policy-makers in transnational organisations including the International Labour Office (ILO) and national governments are rethinking their policy agendas in this crucial area of public policy

Summary of the impact

Dr Tony Crook's research on knowledge-practices solved a long-standing theoretical problem in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Key insights have been developed into a working method for knowledge exchange - `Pacific Connections' - with application for national and international policy contexts that confront misunderstandings between Euro-American and Pacific knowledges.

The EU is the second largest international donor of development assistance to the Pacific region, contributing €665m between 2008-2013. Through on-going collaborations, and a series of EU-funded workshops and high level roundtables, involving EU and European Commission policy makers and diplomatic counterparts from a range of Pacific states, Dr Crook is implementing `Pacific Connections' as the method by which social science research is informing and enabling European external actions to more effectively connect to Pacific concerns. As a consequence of Dr Crook's work, Europe's capacity and ability to more effectively engage its Pacific partners has been significantly enhanced.

Summary of the impact

This collaboration between the UoE and six local authorities developed social work interventions to improve engagement with `involuntary' services users. The impact of the research is seen in the sharing and implementation of knowledge about `what worked' within and across the participating local authorities and in gradually shifting practice cultures within these authorities. The impact is evident at several levels:

• practitioners changing how they work with service users, including greater ability to challenge risk averse practice in, for example, working with young adults with learning difficulties;
• three participating local authorities incorporating project findings into policy and staff induction and training;
• knowledge exchange activity via a thriving practice panel with representation from one local authority and UoE. This has led directly to six events each attracting around 60 practitioners;
• use of findings in wider academic, policy and practice communities through distribution and uptake of 500 `Good Practice' booklets;
• practitioners pursuing further study, one enrolling for a PhD, another writing a book and others going on to participate in a subsequent KE project following on from this one.

Summary of the impact

This case generated new ways of thinking among a self-selecting sample of `senior' PR practitioners and delivered personal autonomy and professional development. The term `senior' is commonly employed in PR practice and formed the basis for discussion on practitioner conceptualisation of professional expertise. Critical interventions extracted practitioner accounts of their work, methodologies and impacts, and changes in critical, conceptual thinking took place. The project created an awareness of subjectivity in everyday practice among a collective category of workers with regard to their information and knowledge expertise, with implications for the practice community and wider society.