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OxCal is the most popular software package world-wide for calibrating and analysing dates within the carbon dating process, enabling the accurate dating of objects from the past. The brainchild of Prof. Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU), OxCal is based on chronologies refined by the use of Bayesian statistical methods, and provides users with access to high-quality calibration of chronological data, now the basis for global chronologies. It is available online and free to download, and has played a highly significant role in establishing the ORAU as one of the pre-eminent international radiocarbon dating facilities. Funded by the NERC, and used widely within professional archaeology as well as other disciplines, OxCal has also played a key role in research projects (within Oxford and beyond) brought to the attention of the general public by the media.
Leprosy is one of the 17 poverty-associated diseases targeted by the WHO as being capable of elimination. Consequently there is great interest in the historic evidence of its incidence and treatment. Analyses of skeletons and medical artefacts excavated by MHARP in Winchester have thus contributed to the wider scientific research of the disease. Through its developing partnership with the UK Leprosy Mission, community links and widespread media coverage, the Project has raised public awareness of leprosy and the wider social issues surrounding it both as a historic disease and one which affects those living in extreme poverty today.
This case study describes creative educational work carried out by Dr Abigail Williams in collaboration with professional musicians to bring alive the details of 18th century popular culture found in poetic and musical miscellanies. Williams selected from the c.1400 surviving miscellanies to create site specific performances in UK historic and museum venues. She has worked with museums, schools and radio to develop curatorial resources for presenting book-based cultural-historical evidence not easily appreciated via the standard museum or library display of written texts. Her research data also brought knowledge exchange benefits to a Canada-based computer technology business.
The Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) runs a successful programme of community engagements with local schools, science centres and tourist attractions to influence public awareness and understanding of the world-class research we perform. In 2012-13, ICG engaged with 4858 people, including 2412 school children. Through our "Cosmology Masterclass", we have inspired hundreds of A-level students from across the region; 60% said we had increased their interest in university. In 2012-13, staff engaged with 50 different schools across the UK. For the last 3 years, we have interacted with thousands of people running BBC Stargazing Live partner events, receiving almost unanimous praise from the public via our feedback.
Bournemouth University (BU) research into the obstacles to and facilitators for breastfeeding has generated impacts for a wide range of beneficiaries at a local, national and international level. Research has influenced and informed policy and guidelines in the UK and Australia. It has informed research-based training modules for midwives, lactation consultants and other related professionals. The research-based online resources produced by BU are regularly used by around 1,500 breastfeeding mothers from across the globe every month. This level of breastfeeding promotion and support presents an opportunity to improve individual well-being, lessen health inequalities and reduce health care costs.
Lincoln's research treats historical, literary, theological and hermeneutical issues in New Testament studies. Aiming to be accessible in its presentation, it has an impact throughout the English-speaking world on leaders in churches, teachers and sixth formers in schools and a broad audience interested in the interpretation of the Bible. In particular, it has contributed to bridging the gap between academic biblical studies and popular understanding in the church and society, as readers turn to his work on New Testament texts and issues to find ways to integrate the challenges of critical reading with an appreciation of the contemporary significance of the Bible for theological thinking and the religious imagination.
`Performing Migration' impact case study includes a number of workshops, performances, artist talks and events undertaken and/or organized by Dr. Lena Simic with contributions from Dr. Gary Anderson, Dr. Niamh Malone and Ms Carmel Cleary. The case study is embedded in the community work within Liverpool, but its outreach is also transnational. This case study's impact lies in enriching cultural life and influencing public discourse around the themes of citizenship, belonging and migration. This work is furthermore activist and political — financial resources have been used from institutions (Arts Council England and Liverpool Hope University) to channel the funds and better the lives of the migrants.
Recent work carried out in Cambridge has brought academic research and performance practice into multiple relationships; the impact of this work has been far-reaching and various. On the one hand, research on the origins of polyphony and on nineteenth-century piano music has impacted performance practice and, through this, the experiences and thinking of a broad listening public. Some of this research has enabled performers to revive scores long thought unperformable, while other work has empowered interpreters in ways that would have been unimaginable before the digital age. On the other hand, research that links polyphonic composition and performance practice with scientific thinking has explored the potential of the concert hall as an arena for research, turning music into a vehicle for public engagement with science. In this way, academic research informs and transforms musical performance and listener experience, while the practice of performance informs and transforms the understanding of music.
Utilising the results of large-scale research programmes by Barry Cunliffe and his Oxford team, the museum facilities connected to both Brading villa and Danebury hillfort bring to life the Iron Age and Roman periods for the general public. In addition, they promote substantial learning into key periods in prehistory, and during Britain's incorporation into the Roman empire, which are often neglected.
Cunliffe's work has had fundamental impact through first the establishment and then the shaping of two museum facilities: the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover and a Visitor Centre at Brading. The work at Danebury is of long-standing origin, and began in 1968, but has been given significant new impetus since 2011 by a substantial HLF grant, which has created new educational materials, guided site visits and online resources. The excavations at Brading took place between 2008 and 2010 and were fundamental to the development of the new Visitor's Centre. Both facilities use recent finds and visual representation to give a more enriched sense of community life in these localities over a millennium and a half, starting at around 1000BC.
The research has had educational impact on visitors to these two museum facilities, including large numbers of school children, the general public, and archaeology and museum professionals, and on individual volunteers who have worked on the sites. By attracting visitors to the sites and museums, the research has also improved the experience of local tourists.
Research at Lancaster has reconstructed the governance systems on common land since the medieval period, informing stakeholders and the wider public about the history of the 554,000ha of surviving commons, mostly in upland terrains in England and Wales treasured for their natural beauty and heritage. By engaging with contemporary users of commons through the Foundation for Common Land, The National Trust, and local commoners' groups, the research has enabled hill farmers to reclaim a sense of ownership over their commons, enhancing the cultural life of upland communities and informing debates about conservation and sustainable use of common land in the shifting legal landscape following the Commons Act 2006.