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The switch of the nation's televisions to receive digital signals is widely acknowledged as the biggest government-enforced change in British life since 1971's decimalisation. Jonathan Freeman's research on the human factors of digital switchover is recognised as an essential source of information to government, industry, and consumer groups (including charities such as RNIB) and therefore as a key foundation in the success of the switchover. In particular, his research influenced the design of easy-to-use TV equipment, and communications about switchover to different types of viewer, improving the experiences of millions of TV viewers in the UK and beyond.
The impact of the Lectura Dantis Andreapolitana (LDA) on a wide and varied public is primarily cultural and social. The lecture series in St Andrews presents the newest academic research on Dante's Divine Comedy directly, significantly increasing public understanding and appreciation of this key part of Western cultural heritage. Video recordings of the lectures on the website extend the geographical reach of the impact globally. Complementary events invited the public to reflect on and engage with aspects of contemporary society in the light of Dante's ideas about good and evil. Collaborations used research on Dante to inform artistic reflection.
The Open-Air Laboratories (OPAL) project was funded by a £14.4 million grant from The Big Lottery Fund and represented one of the largest public participation initiatives in environmental research projects ever. The Grenfell-Baines School of Architecture, Construction and Environment (the unit of assessment, UoA) was one of nine academic partners to benefit from this funding (see REF 5a). OPAL was led at the UoA by Toogood (Principal Investigator) from 2007 to 2013. This project has positively impacted society's awareness of the natural environment and inspired over half a million people to explore their environment through active engagement. OPAL has also positively changed the way environmental teachers, scientists and other professionals, view and discharge their duties.
Impact derived from Prof Maggie Andrews' research was through collaboration, since 2008, with the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Staffordshire and, latterly, with archival and heritage organisations in Worcestershire and Staffordshire, to increase public involvement in practices of remembrance, memorialisation and commemoration and to enhance experience of them — both for those directly affected and for the general public. Andrews' collaboration with the NMA influenced development of the UK's first, national centre for remembrance during critical years of its evolution. Through assisting the NMA to envision and understand its role in the context of contemporary culture, her input informed the NMA's approach to supporting visitors' experience and framed and informed its developing approaches to visitor interpretation. Her collaboration with organisations in Staffordshire and Worcestershire supported development of approaches to forthcoming, national centenary commemoration of World War 1.
Since 2008, drawing on the findings of the EU-funded project Digital TV for ALL (2008-2011) and on his book Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking (2011), Dr Pablo Romero-Fresco has researched and promoted a new technique to guarantee that deaf and hard-of-hearing people around the world can have access to live programmes and public events through speech recognition-based subtitles. The impact achieved as a result of this research is three-fold:
BU research has demonstrated the benefits of radio archives. Radio recordings are a rich source of social, cultural and political history. Until recently archives have been inaccessible to schools, community organisations, scholars and other users. Research by the Centre for Media History (CMH) at Bournemouth University (BU) was the motivation behind a committee being formed to raise awareness of the problem. The committee strongly supported the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in making their catalogue available to the public via the British Library (BL). The research itself informed the library's new sound archive policy. Archive access has a wide range of benefits to the production industry, education, culture and the economy.
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.
University of Reading-led research projects on the histories of British post-1955 television drama have had a major impact on television producers, directors, performers and cultural institutions responsible for policy, production and the preservation of television heritage, not only through dissemination of research findings, but also through actively involving them in project interviews, seminars, conferences and contributions to published outputs. Through this collaborative approach, the researchers have influenced the professional development and practice of leading television drama producers, and policy and programmes for the public dissemination of audio-visual heritage, as well as providing specialist advice relating to television copyright and commercial marketing.