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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:
Innovative geochemical research led by Selby at Durham has permitted savings of up to $70M in global mineral and petroleum exploration programmes (e.g., Andes of S. America; West of Shetlands oilfields). Selby's research has developed a unique geochemical toolbox using rhenium, osmium, platinum and palladium that constrain more accurate geological models leading to better reserve predictions. The toolbox provides previously unavailable geological time constraints and source identification of resources (e.g., copper, gold, crude oil) that gives mineral and/or petroleum companies an enhanced economic advantage by improving reserve estimates and/or reducing exploration budgets and/or minimising the environmental impacts of exploration.
Semiconductor wafers are subject to damage from misaligned handling tools, leading to cracks. Most of these are benign, but a few propagate to cause silicon wafer breakage during high temperature processing, leading to losses in production time costing millions of dollars per year. Research in Durham showed that X-ray Diffraction Imaging can be used to identify which cracks will catastrophically fail. As a consequence, Jordan Valley UK Ltd has designed and already sold over £M [text removed for publication] worth of X-ray imaging tools to the semiconductor industry. The company identifies this product as being critical to its continuation, safeguarding more than 25 jobs, and growth over the past 2 years.
Anxiety before dental procedures is common in children, and is usually managed by conscious sedation of the patient. Previously, nitrous oxide inhalation was the only method widely used in primary care, so patients who could not be thus sedated were referred for general anaesthesia. In 2010, NICE published the first national guideline on medical sedation, which states that administration of midazolam should be considered alongside the standard technique of nitrous oxide inhalation for sedation of children. That recommendation is based on robust evidence, the majority of which came from a series of randomised controlled clinical trials carried out by researchers at Newcastle University. Midazolam is now deployed as a second-line sedation option across the UK.
The way in which UK upland hay meadows are managed and restored to conserve botanical diversity has been largely determined by research carried out at Newcastle University. Increased post-war agricultural production has converted most species-rich upland hay meadows to species- poor rye-grass grassland so that today only 1070 ha (hectares) undisturbed hay meadow remains. The Newcastle research has been used by Natural England (an executive non-departmental public body responsible for England's natural environment) to produce targeted management prescriptions for 2500 ha of farmland in northern England and has informed National Park and AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) management on best practice for successful restoration of hay meadows. The research has ensured the successful restoration of more than half of the remaining upland hay meadows in England.
Durham University Business School (DUBS) research concerning the nature of trust within organizations, along with research on the methods managers can use to build trust and to repair it after major failures, has led to significant impacts across a wide reach of organizations. Through a series of professional training projects, practitioner-oriented reports and media articles the research has led to: (i) investments in training — benefiting both the organizations involved and the individual staff members who have undergone the training; (ii) improved effectiveness of workplace practices in organizations; and (iii) the use of research findings by professional bodies to define best practice. Organizations involved include UBS, Sunderland City Council; Richmond Housing Partnership; Lloyds Banking Group; Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC); the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Research produced at Northumbria on migration to and from Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has enriched the presentation and understanding of cultural heritage and public discourse in the North East of England and in South Carolina. It has contributed to the creation of:
1) a permanent exhibit at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle
2) a series on Englishness at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle
3) an exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina that will become the first permanent digital exhibition in the Lowcountry Digital Archive
This research has shaped the cultural sector's historical understanding of the role played by migration on English and Irish identity and resulted in more durable collaborations between history at Northumbria and public history practitioners.
Dr Tanja Bueltmann's research on the Scots in New Zealand has enhanced Scottish ethnic groups' understanding of their own history and heritage as a community in New Zealand. Through public talks and direct research user engagement, Bueltmann has been able to change their perceptions of the role the Scots played in the making of New Zealand society, as well as of their cultural legacies. Secondly, her research has increased awareness in Scotland, among museum curators, heritage sector stakeholders, and policymakers, of the central role of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the diaspora, directly informing, shaping and changing their practice of presenting the diaspora to the Scottish public.
Michael Cullinane's research on anti-imperialism has influenced the way in which history is taught in a number of secondary schools across the United States. By making the research for his book Liberty and American Anti-Imperialism available through lesson plans on his website www.antiimperialist.com, Cullinane has given students and teachers access to relevant learning resources. As a result, lesson plans and state curricula have changed. Secondly, Cullinane has promoted a transnational and global perspective of the Philippine-American War, which has been adopted by heritage organisations, such as the Lopez Foundation of Balayan and the Filipino-American Association of New England (PAMAS).
Research disseminated through the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) has played a pivotal role in changing attitudes and increasing recognition of the importance of gender-insensitive disaster policy and practice. GDN is an international collaboration between Northumbria University, UN agencies and US and Swiss government agencies that distributes research-led resources through an open access website (www.gdnonline.org) co-ordinated by Dr Maureen Fordham at Northumbria. GDN resources are used internationally by practitioners in the United Nations, national and local governments, and non-government and corporate business organisations. Gender analysis is now routinely incorporated in training for disaster management and risk reduction and this is seen in official UN documents, for example the guidance published in 2009 `Making Disaster Risk Reduction Gender-Sensitive: Policy and Practical Guidelines' for which Fordham was a contributor.