There were six impact awards offered by the Economic and Social Research Council, and you can find out more about the winners and their impact below. Each winner has made such a significant difference and impact with their research that has had a positive and effective impact on today’s society and some of the challenges that we face. If you would like to learn more about how to ensure your research has impact, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Rebecca Edwards in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office – ext: 61538 or redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk

Professor Neil Wrigley, University of Southampton won the impact award for ‘Outstanding Impact in Business’. The work of Professor Neil Wrigley and his colleagues has helped to transform thinking on food retail development, its role in sustaining viable town centres and the future of UK high streets. His research influenced national and international debates and UK competition policy. His research collaborations with Tesco and Sainsbury also helped to change the UK retailers’ appreciation of the value of evidence-based research and knowledge exchange with social science.

Professor Debra Myhill, University of Exeter won the ‘Outstanding Impact in Society’ award. Professor Debra Myhill led a decade of research into the development of writing in school children. Her research has shaped national and international policy, and has improved children’s writing abilities and changed classroom practice.

Dr Clifford Stott, University of Leeds won the ‘Outstanding Impact in Public Policy’ award. His research on ‘new approaches to crowd psychology’ is helping police manage the potential for conflict in crowds while allowing people’s rights to protest through dialogue and negotiation. Dr Stott assisted in the design and implementation of a policy use of force strategy for the UEFA European Football Championships (2004) and helped to design, develop, train and implement the UK’s first Police Liaison Teams (2011).

Dr Sabina Alkire, University of Oxford, won the ‘Outstanding International Impact’ award. Dr Alkire and colleagues had developed an innovative method for measuring multidimensional poverty. The method is used to help governments and organisations globally to design poverty-reduction programmes that are more effective.

Hannah Lambie-Mumford, University of Sheffield is an early career researcher who was won the award for ‘Outstanding Early Career Impact’. Hannah’s research on emergency food provision in the UK has provided policymakers, the charitable sector and media with thought-provoking evidence to inform the food poverty debate. Her findings shaped the terms of reference for the April 2014 All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into hunger and food poverty, and she joined the advisory group of Oxfam, CPAG and Church of England for research into food poverty and food banks in early 2014.

Professor Sir David Hendry, University of Oxford won the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Throughout five decades Professor Hendry has developed macroeconomic models that capture how economies work. These are now embedded in software which is widely used by policymakers and decision-makers. Professor Hendry commented, “The impact has been the interaction between developing vastly more powerful methods than when I started, that have a much higher chance of finding the causal relationships that operate in the economy, and embedding these models in software that is very easy to use and is massively labour-saving.”

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