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This case study describes contribution to public knowledge, discussion and debate about social security policy, including contributions to policy development. It is a process where research develops through from engagement and interaction, and engagement and interaction in turn prompts the production of research. This research engagement with the field and authority has prompted a recent change in legislation affecting Scotland.
Through engagement with government, parliamentary committees, individual parliamentarians, and the media, this research has generated impact which is both significant and far reaching. It has influenced substantive reform in parliamentary oversight of the intelligence and security agencies and contributed to proposals for House of Lords reform. It has also informed debates about various aspects of parliamentary reform by challenging prevailing assumptions, including through engagement with the media and by influencing the work of other groups with an interest in parliamentary reform, such as the Electoral Reform Society and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Louise Haagh has played a major role in putting alternative welfare and employment policy options on the mainstream agenda. Haagh's comparative empirical research on basic income (BI) provides support for an approach to welfare that gives citizens unconditional, universal economic entitlements and multiple opportunities, through education, work, and social care, to acquire the economic stability needed to help themselves. Haagh has promoted this approach through a portfolio of international engagement with policy makers, international organisations and NGOs: most notably, the Council of Europe's `Rights of People Experiencing Poverty' project and its major guide Living in Dignity in the 21st Century: Poverty, Human Rights and Democracy; and her work with the Government of Canada's National Council for Welfare.
The research conducted by Professor Timothy Edmunds has had three primary impacts. First, it has played a role in framing policy and setting the operational agenda for security sector reform (SSR) programmes by national governments and international organisations. Second, the research has had a direct influence on the substance of security and defence reforms in parts of the post-communist and western Balkan regions, particularly in relation to the consolidation of democratic control over the security sector. Finally, it has had an impact on the evolution of British defence policy and armed forces since 2007, and on the debate leading up to the introduction of a new Armed Forces Covenant in May 2011. The research addresses change and transformation in military, police and intelligence agencies through the development and evolution of the concept of SSR. In so doing, it examines how security actors can both threaten and facilitate democratisation and human security goals in post-authoritarian and post-conflict societies, and the manner in which these issues can be addressed through international policy. It also `reverse engineers' the questions and lessons of SSR to interrogate wider challenges of defence transformation and civil-military relations in western democracies, and particularly the UK.
Professor Sasse created, developed and delivered the user-centric perspective that now underpins security thinking in both corporate and public-sector domains. This perspective shaped the UK government's Identity Assurance Programme (IDAP), a federated identity solution that will provide access to all e-government services in the UK. HP has incorporated the compliance budget model into its Security Analytics product, which enables companies to calculate the impact of a given security mechanism on individual and corporate productivity. Sasse's work also underpins new and improved security products, including First Cyber Security's SOLID and Safe Shop Window tools, which protects over 70% of UK online shopping revenue; GrIDSure's one-time PIN system (now part of the SafeNet Authentication Service); and iProov's authentication service.
Professor Ross Anderson's (University of Cambridge) research in security economics has had considerable impact on public policy and industry practice. Through two reports for ENISA, his work has directly influenced European Commission policy on combatting cyber-crime and on protecting the internet infrastructure. Through his membership of a Blackett Review and appearances before parliamentary committees, he has influenced UK government policy on cyber- security. Personally, and through the positions to which members his research team have moved, his research has influenced a range of organisations, including the US government, the European Union, Google, and Microsoft.
MMU's International Business (IB) impact case reflects the breadth and multi-disciplinary nature of the subject area: it demonstrates MMU impact in established and evolving IB areas, and in developed and emerging economies.
Primary impacts relate to policy development and policy outcomes at government, NGO, international organisation, and business association levels. Research has impacted by:
a) increasing understanding (for policy-makers, development agencies & companies) of drivers and attractors for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI);
b) shaping policy initiatives to support increased FDI volumes and improved outcomes;
c) increasing public awareness and informing policy with relation to requirements for successful, development-oriented economic reform; and,
d) influencing creation of new security governance paradigms to underpin expansion of (and equitable outcomes from) IB activity in emerging economies. Our research shapes international business frameworks, which, in turn, affects the strategy and practice of the business community for improved operation in the global economy.
Work conducted at UEL in the area of secure software systems engineering has had impacts on both the private and public sectors, in the UK and abroad. Through its application to financial pre-employment screening it has enabled an award-winning UK company to improve its security processes and become a world leader with respect to secure systems in their sector. This has, in turn, allowed the company to develop a competitive advantage in the market and attract more and larger multinational clients. In the public service sector our work has enabled a Greek governmental department — the National Gazette — to analyse the security implications of fully automating their processes and identify security mechanisms that enhance the security of their new systems. This has improved their service delivery, with significant impacts on Greek society.
Professor Adam Tomkins of the University of Glasgow provides research-based evidence and advice to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, serving as one of their legal advisers since 2009 and, in that time, drafting reports on more than 30 Government Bills. His research has directly influenced law and policy, most markedly in two recent Acts of Parliament. Tomkins' research on the constitutional conventions of ministerial responsibility influenced a series of amendments to the Health and Social Care Act 2012; his research into national security and the due process of law proved critical, again resulting in several amendments, to the Justice and Security Act 2013.
The research has explored the impact of welfare transformations on the activities of social workers on the frontline. A key concern has been to explore the gap between, on the one hand, social work ethical statements and the commitments of practitioners on entering the field and, on the other, the workplace reality of marketization, austerity driven cuts and a range of restrictions placed on workers by new regulatory regimes. The research explores the potential, internationally, for a new `engaged' social work practice that draws service users, carers, academics, and practitioners together in defence of good quality, value driven social work.