Impact Global Location: Oceania

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Access to Justice Through Education: Building a Law Clinic Culture in the UK and Beyond

Summary of the impact

The pedagogic research undertaken by the School of Law has produced an ambitious and innovative model of clinical legal education: the in-house live client model, which offers a university-based free legal service offering full representation to private clients and NGOs in the form of the Student Law Office. The Student Law Office integrates supervised legal service in the law curriculum, thereby delivering free access to justice to the wider community whilst benefiting the learning environment. Impact is three-fold:

  1. a major contribution to voluntary legal services in a region with high social deprivation: over 1,000 clients secured access to justice and over £840,000 of compensation has been recovered for clients;
  2. a national and world leading role influencing the legal profession, regulators and policy makers; and
  3. building the capacity of law clinics in other HEIs to provide a free legal service.

Submitting Institution

Northumbria University Newcastle

Unit of Assessment

Law

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Specialist Studies In Education
Law and Legal Studies: Law

Accurate statistical methods for detecting the source of human campylobacteriosis cases in New Zealand leads to an annual reduction of around 90,000 cases per year.

Summary of the impact

Research at Lancaster led to a novel approach to detect the source of cases of campylobacteriosis (a bacterial foodborne disease). The application of this method to data from New Zealand pin- pointed that New-Zealand's high rate of cases was linked to the eating of contaminated poultry. These results were a key part of the evidence used by New Zealand's Food Safety Authority to introduce a new code of practice for the poultry industry. The impact of this code of practice has been a halving of the number of reported cases of campylobacteriosis in New Zealand (from around 16,000 cases in 2006 to less than 7,000 in 2008). With notification rates estimated as 1 in 10, this corresponds to around 90,000 fewer actual cases per year. The saving for the New Zealand economy during the REF census period has been independently estimated as between £100M and £150M.

Submitting Institution

Lancaster University

Unit of Assessment

Mathematical Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Applied Economics

Addressing the Inherent Biases in Automated Systems: On Detecting 'Plagiarism'.

Summary of the impact

Over a decade's research by Introna and Hayes has investigated the biases inherent in automated systems. As part of this research they showed that the design and use of plagiarism detection systems (PDS), used by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide, may be unfair due to their embedded values and assumptions. A series of reports, workshops and supporting resources, using these insights, have transformed writing support and teaching practices at no less than 32 HEIs nationally and internationally, affecting lecturers, support staff and student union representatives. As a result, at least 10 HEIs have developed less punitive policy frameworks and taken a more developmental approach, leading to a much fairer treatment of plagiarism cases.

Submitting Institution

Lancaster University

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Education: Specialist Studies In Education

Adoption of behavioural roadside training programme improves children’s road crossing skills.

Summary of the impact

In a series of training studies on children between the ages of 5 and 12 years, a research team at the Department of Psychology successfully demonstrated that substantial improvements in roadside decision-making and behaviour can be achieved in children as young as 5 years. Based on their findings, the team developed and evaluated a training intervention (Kerbcraft) aimed at improving children's pedestrian skills through practical roadside activities which was formally adopted by the UK government. Since 2008, the majority of 5-7 year old children in the UK have received formal pedestrian skills training using Kerbcraft either in its full or adapted form. Kerbcraft now plays a key role in the UK Government's road safety strategy and has been cited as an example of best practice by the World Health Organisation and safety agencies across Europe, the US, Australia and in developing countries such as Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

Submitting Institution

University of Strathclyde

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

ARC02 - Impact on Mesolithic heritage preservation, conservation and presentation

Summary of the impact

Founded in York in 1996, the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has transformed how archaeological research is communicated in the UK, and impacted digital archiving throughout the world. Without the ADS, much of the fragile digital data (often the primary record of sites now destroyed) would have been lost. Instead, they are freely available to all. This impact extends across national heritage agencies, local government, commercial archaeology, and the public. Our resources are widely used with over two million page requests per month; almost half from beyond the HE sector. A recent study has concluded that the ADS is worth £5m per annum to the UK economy (Beagrie & Houghton 2013). The ADS has helped shape the digital preservation policy of English Heritage and informed practice in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Data Format
History and Archaeology: Archaeology, Curatorial and Related Studies

Advanced simulation technology to optimise the recovery of high value metals through heap leaching

Summary of the impact

This case study describes the creation and use of advanced simulation technology by international mining corporations to optimise high value metal recovery. The technology involved the development of advanced novel computational methods and software tools to model industrial scale heap leach processes for large scale industrial application at major mining operations. This focus on the development of optimised operational strategies has produced considerable economic benefits measured in the $multi-millions to industrial sponsors, including $58 million dollars in additional revenue for one multi-national corporation over one year following the adoption of engineered heaps based upon the advanced simulation tools from Swansea.

Submitting Institution

Swansea University

Unit of Assessment

General Engineering

Summary Impact Type

Technological

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Applied Mathematics
Information and Computing Sciences: Computation Theory and Mathematics
Engineering: Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

Advocating the use of Powered Toothbrushes

Summary of the impact

Our research showed that powered rotation oscillation toothbrushes were superior to manual toothbrushes for the removal of plaque and reduction of gingivitis. This information has had impacts on national public policy, on commerce and on society.

  1. The findings were used by the Department of Health in its evidence-based guidelines for preventing oral disease, which is NHS policy on preventive dentistry in England and Wales.
  2. The research has also been used in worldwide marketing by Procter and Gamble (the manufacturers of the leading brand of powered rotation-oscillation toothbrush), and by another manufacturer as part of its marketing strategy for a new toothbrush.
  3. Finally, as a result of this work there have been critical reviews of the research and of the toothbrushes in the media that have enabled more informed consumer choice for oral hygiene.

Submitting Institution

University of Sheffield

Unit of Assessment

Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Ageing, Intergenerational Relations and the Life Course

Summary of the impact

Research by the University of Southampton into ageing, intergenerational relations and the life course has influenced policy debate and practice at national and international levels, highlighting the importance of adapting social policy to take account of the changing shape of the life course. Empirical research evidencing the impact of earlier life course events on women's resources in later life informed the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Other research has informed the policy work of the European Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Europe and national and local governments, potentially affecting the lives of millions of people.

Submitting Institution

University of Southampton

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

A genetically informed management plan for breeding African Wild Dogs in captivity

Summary of the impact

African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus; referred to as `AWDs' hereafter for brevity) have been classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for 22 years. Large, well-managed captive breeding programmes provide a safety net to restore wild populations. However, the management of the AWD population has been difficult owing to an incomplete family record of captive AWDs, which risks introducing genetic disorders caused by inbreeding. A genetically informed management plan developed by University of Glasgow researchers has provided a genetic measure of diversity and establishes a genetically informed pedigree, which is used in the European Endangered Species Programme for African Wild Dogs. This has introduced a more informed means to manage the captive AWD population, to maintain the genetic diversity of the species across the European zoo network (roughly half the world's captive AWD population), with 53 zoos in 16 European countries (and Israel) currently participating.

Submitting Institution

University of Glasgow

Unit of Assessment

Biological Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management
Biological Sciences: Genetics

Alcohol Minimum Pricing Policy: government and national debate

Summary of the impact

In 2007, as part of a major update of the national alcohol strategy, the UK Government announced that it would commission an independent national review of the evidence on the relationship between alcohol price, promotion and harm. Subsequently, in 2008, researchers from the University of Sheffield (UoS) were commissioned by the UK Department of Health (DoH) for an `Independent Review of the Effects of Alcohol Pricing and Promotion'.

The UoS research has played a crucial role in informing the debate and deliberations on the available Government options for interventions on alcohol consumption in England and Wales, by providing a robust evidence base to underpin the debate. The UoS research findings have been used to inform policy by senior decision-making bodies e.g. the House of Commons Health Select Committee and the UK Chief Medical Officer to inform policy. The findings have also stimulated the potential for policy intervention beyond England and Wales, e.g. in Scotland and Australia.

Submitting Institution

University of Sheffield

Unit of Assessment

Economics and Econometrics

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

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