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Between January 2008 and July 2013 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland resource [hereafter RPS] has been accessed over 1.99 million times by users from all over the world. Whilst the principal purpose behind the publication of RPS was to further the study of Scottish history, this level of access reflects widespread engagement with the resource from a broad spectrum of users outside the traditional university sector. In 2007, following an editorial and research programme which lasted over a decade, the Scottish Parliament Project at the University of St Andrews published a full edition of the proceedings of the parliament of Scotland between the 13th century and its union with the English parliament in 1707. This edition of parliamentary texts was published online as a free-to-access and fully searchable website. Its value in supporting informed public debate in Scotland during a period of rapid constitutional change has received the recognition of major political figures and has been noted in UK and Scottish print and broadcast media. The online edition and associated research behind its production has also contributed to the continued enhancement of the history curriculum within the Scottish secondary education sector and its use in the field of Scots Law.
James Hogg (1770-1835) is an important but hitherto little known nineteenth-century Scottish author and songwriter. In recent years, Stirling research has demonstrably expanded the audience for Hogg's songs and poetry in Scotland, the wider UK, and USA. Contemporary writers and artists have become more engaged with Hogg's work, and among the public this research has generated greater appreciation of the Scottish literary and music tradition in particular, while promoting Scottish cultural heritage in general, at home, and around the world.
University of Glasgow research on the Scottish Parliament's public petitions system directly influenced processes for petition consideration through the production of a review of the petitions process, which prompted a year-long inquiry. Additionally, the research informed the Public Petitions Committee's public outreach and information efforts, with the aim of increasing public awareness of the petitions system. Beyond Scotland, the research has informed HM Government's ongoing policy debates around the operation and administration of its petitions system.
The Stevenson project, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, has built bridges between general and scholarly readers of a major, popular Scottish author. The project helped to change the ways in which members of the public understand the significance of editorial work and book-history. Providing readers with practical skills with which to approach varying editions of Stevenson's work, it promoted broader understanding of how we encounter the work of major authors. It has also influenced the ways in which the National Library of Scotland (NLS) communicates its central mission to the public, by demonstrating how to expand appreciation not just of literary works themselves but also of the Library's collections and its role in preserving and presenting our literary heritage.
The historically accurate restoration of six Stirling Castle Palace apartments and replication of the Stirling Heads by Sally Rush of the University of Glasgow has transformed academic and curatorial understanding of how the Palace looked and functioned and enhanced popular understanding of life at the royal court. A £12 million restoration has brought to life one of Britain's most architecturally complete Renaissance buildings — Stirling Castle Palace — securing its position as a prime educational and tourist attraction — voted the UK's top heritage attraction in a 2012 Which? survey and in Europe's top 40 `amazing experiences' in the July 2013 Lonely Planet guide. Visitor numbers increased by 17% and annual revenue by £1M in the year after the reopening of the Palace.
Impacts: I) Enhanced public engagement with Scotland's cartographic heritage. II) Enhanced cross-sector collaboration around the use and digital delivery of historical maps.
Significance and reach: A major synthesis of Scotland's map history sold >8,000 copies between publication in 2011 and April 2013 and was named `Scottish Research Book of the Year' by the Saltire Society (2012). Three online map collections experienced 2008 — June 2013 access levels >50% higher than those for pre-2008. The newsletter of the Scottish Maps Forum (launched 2008), reached 553 individual subscribers and 117 institutional subscribers (January 2013).
Underpinned by: Research into the mapping of Scotland from the late sixteenth century, undertaken at the University of Edinburgh (1996 onwards).
Professor Dauvit Broun has shaped the History curriculum for Scotland's schools through his advisory role in the development of the `Curriculum for Excellence', a new national framework that has reinvented Scottish education for ages 3-18. He has set the pace nationally for teacher-academic collaboration through his activities with the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE); Scottish History Society; Scottish Association of Teachers of History; the schools Inspectorate; and the History and Social Studies officers in Scotland's curricular and assessment bodies, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland. Through his leadership, a University of Glasgow (UoG) team has established large-scale, systematic knowledge transfer to secondary school teachers and learners across Scotland through tailored events and web resources. The Subject Specialist for History in HM Inspector of Education states: `Professor Broun has been at the forefront of academics extending the reach of universities into school education.'
The Union of 1707 - the constitutional foundation of the modern British state — has been a controversial issue in Scottish history, society and politics for three centuries. With devolution (1999) and the forthcoming referendum (2014) interest in the history of the Union has intensified. The research project was about why Scotland surrendered her independence as a nation state in 1707 and accepted Westminster rule. The main output was Professor Whatley's 424-page monograph, The Scots and the Union (2006, 2007). Largely through public engagement, dissemination of the findings has enhanced public understanding, while study of the work in HEIs and schools has assured significant educational impact. By challenging received wisdom and contributing from an historical perspective to the current debate about Scotland's future, civil society has been better informed.
Over the last decade a major body of historical research produced in Aberdeen has generated new insights into the making of the British union in the eighteenth century. In particular, this research has transformed historical understandings of events such as the Jacobite Risings which are of central importance in public conceptions of modern Scotland past, present, and future. This transformation has generated economic, cultural and public discourse benefits by facilitating the successful reconstruction of the National Trust Visitor Centre at Culloden, and through a major exhibition held in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood and in the University of Aberdeen's new library exhibition space.
The collective research of Breitenbach, Delaney, Devine, MacKenzie, and Ugolini at the University of Edinburgh since 2006 has had impact in terms of public understanding, policy and museum practice in relation to the Scottish diaspora. Specifically it has: (i) enabled the transformation of public understanding of the emigration history of the Scots (a central part of the history of the nation) as global in territorial spread rather than simply confined to the settlement colonies and the USA; (ii) shaped the development of new Scottish Government policies of engagement with the global diaspora; and (iii) influenced the intellectual underpinning of new and revised national museum displays in Scotland especially in relation to empire and emigration.