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Our research on corporate governance theory and frameworks provided the basis for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Leeds Business School and the Rugby Football League (RFL) to develop a corporate governance framework for the RFL and its associated professional clubs and charitable foundations, which helped to promote more effective governance practice, leading to improvements in financial and operational sustainability. A diagnostic tool was developed on the basis of the underpinning research, reflecting a dynamic, processual view of governance with complex stakeholder interrelationships, thus helping to improve governance systems and processes and awareness of, and accountability in, the clubs' stakeholder environment.
Global rules and regulatory institutions have major and ever-growing importance in contemporary governance. However, connections between global governance and citizens are often weak, compromising effectiveness and legitimacy. Civil society organisations (CSOs - including Non- Governmental Organisations, business forums, trade unions, think tanks and social movements) offer major potential to link global governance institutions (GGIs) with affected publics. Professor Scholte's sustained programme of research in this area, and related provision of resources and training to international beneficiaries such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has had significant social impact in raising both the quantity and the quality of GGI-CSO relations.
This case study reports three inter-related impacts from Peter Clegg's research at UWE, Bristol. Firstly, his research has helped to shape the reform programme and the return to self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Secondly, it has helped to frame the United Nations Decolonisation Committee's views on how best to implement the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. Thirdly, it has assisted the UK Overseas Territories governments to create an enabling environment for the protection and promotion of the human rights and dignity of People Living with HIV. It has done so by ensuring that these governments' laws and policies facilitate HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Adrian Leftwich's work has made a decisive contribution to changing the way that decision-makers understand `politics' in development policy and practice. Specifically, Leftwich contributed to a step change in the UK Department for International Development's (DfID) approach to the governance agenda, from a narrow technocratic focus on administrative capacity—formal structures and rules—to a much broader conceptualisation of governance as a political process. His `thinking and working politically' framework, encompassing leadership, coalitions and political economy analysis, has shaped the thinking, not only of DfID, but also the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and major international NGOs.
Research by Ferreira and colleagues at LSE shows that a gradual approach to gender-balanced boards based on matching of skills to needs is more effective than the imposition of quotas. The impact of this research has been achieved by engaging with practitioners and regulators in formal evidence-based governance debates and consultations. LSE research has informed the debate on how to best achieve gender diversity and played a central part in the UK Government's decision not to impose gender quotas but instead to endorse a self-regulation regime, a position which is gathering support in the EU as well.
Dr Lee Jones' research on sovereignty, intervention and security in Southeast Asia has helped non-academic users understand this region and formulate policies towards it. This research is typical of work conducted in the School of Politics and International Relations' (SPIR) interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Security and Development: it explores interactions between international and domestic social, economic and political processes, is based on regional expertise, and generates policy-relevant findings. Dr Jones' audiences have included the UK parliament, UK and other European government departments, the Myanmar government, civil society organisations, and the general public via the media.
The ESRC Innogen Centre brought together a multiplicity of disciplines for a large 12-year research programme (2002-14) on the impact of regulation on innovation dynamics in the life sciences. Research design promoted interactions between stakeholders to achieve policy impact. Innogen developed a range of tooIs to disseminate research findings and influence policy in Europe, the African Union (AU), Kenya, Qatar and at the OECD. We used secondments and temporary placements to achieve impact, as well as more traditional activities and outputs, resulting in major policy impacts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.