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Winners
Outstanding business and enterprise impact
Winner: Professor Monder Ram, Aston University
Team application: Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) with Dr Imelda McCarthy, Aston University
Project: Entrepreneurial responses to the pandemic: supporting microbusinesses and promoting inclusion
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Productivity from Below is an ESRC-funded collaboration between researchers, businesses and civil society partners. It has enhanced productivity among ethnic minority microbusinesses, ensuring they accessed the right funding and support during the pandemic.
It has helped organisations secure a combined value of over £3 million of funding to support more than 1,000 female and migrant entrepreneurs. Organisations included:
- Ashley Community Housing
- Punch Records
- Citizens UK.
Outstanding international impact
Winner: Professor Alexander Betts, University of Oxford
Team application: Refugee Studies Centre with Evan Easton-Calabria, University of Oxford and Kate Pincock, University of Oxford
Project: Refugee-led social protection during COVID-19
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Researchers have drawn international attention to the key role played by refugee-led organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has prompted a rapid change in global policy, new funding of over $50 million, and the provision of vital assistance to more than 100,000 of the most vulnerable refugees.
Outstanding public policy impact
Winner: Professor Jenny Kitzinger and Professor Celia Kitzinger, Cardiff University
Project: Changing the law to promote person-centred decision-making for ‘coma’ patients
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Research has led to changes in the law in England and Wales on life-sustaining treatments, improving person-centred decision-making. This has benefited over 68,000 patients in prolonged coma, vegetative or minimally conscious states, as well as their families and friends.
It has also resulted in new guidance for health professionals on protecting all patients’ dignity and best interests.
Outstanding societal impact
Winner: Dr Simon Rushton, The University of Sheffield
Team application: this project was funded in partnership between ESRC and Minciencias through the Newton Fund. The Improbable Dialogues team includes:
- Dr Juan Mario Díaz, The University of Sheffield
- Adriel Ruiz Galván, Pontifical Javierian University and CORMEPAZ, Colombia
- Professor Jefferson Jaramillo Marín, Pontifical Javierian University, Colombia
- Dr Melanie Lombard, The University of Sheffield
- Dr Juan Miguel Kanai, The University of Sheffield
- Daniela Mosquera Camacho, Pontifical Javierian University, Colombia
- Dr Paula Ospina Saavedra, Pontifical Javierian University, Colombia
- Johana Paola Torres, Pontifical Javierian University, Colombia
- Jhon Erick Caicedo, Office of Communication and Community Development, Alcaldía Buenaventura, Colombia
- María José Ruiz, CORMEPAZ, Colombia.
Project: Improving lives affected by violence in ‘post conflict’ Colombia through the participatory development of a local strategy for peace in Buenaventura
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
An international ESRC and Minciencias Newton-funded collaborative research partnership has prompted a new city-wide peace strategy in the violence-affected Colombian port of Buenaventura. It has led to a skills-based training programme that enables communities to engage in conflict resolution at the grassroots level.
Outstanding early career impact
Winner: Dr Rebecca Windemer, Cardiff University, now at University of the West of England
Project: Influencing policy and debate on end-of-life considerations for onshore renewables
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Research into the 25-year planning consents that regulate the UK’s onshore wind and solar farms has led to policy change in Wales.
It has also led to greater guidance for local authorities and the wind industry on end-of-life considerations for onshore renewable energy infrastructure. It has increased community awareness of the potential to influence the future of local wind and solar sites.
Panel’s choice
Winner: Professor Lucie Cluver, University of Oxford
Team application: COVID-19 Emergency Parenting Response team with:
- Dr Jamie Lachman, University of Oxford
- Dr Franziska Meinck, The University of Edinburgh
- Janina Steinert, University of Goettingen and University of Oxford
- Professor Lorraine Sherr MBE, University College London
- Dr Inge Wessels, University of Oxford
- Dr Ohad Green, University of Oxford
- Isang Awah, University of Oxford.
Project: COVID-19 Parenting Emergency Response: supporting 155.3 million families globally
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers brought together an emergency collaboration of:
- United Nations agencies
- non-governmental organisations
- governments
- volunteers.
This was to adapt and deliver evidence-based child abuse prevention and positive parenting resources. These have reduced violence against children and helped tens of millions of families cope with the challenges of COVID-19.
Finalists
Outstanding public policy impact
Finalist: Professor Paul Mizen, University of Nottingham
Team application: decision maker panel with:
- Nick Bloom, Stanford University
- Phil Bunn, Bank of England
- Julia Leather, University of Nottingham
- Gregory Thwaites, University of Nottingham.
Project: How decision maker panel data informed Brexit and COVID-19 policy
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Near real-time data on UK business activity and uncertainty provided since 2016 by the pioneering decision maker panel survey has helped shape UK government and Bank of England policy decisions. Decisions were made in response to the economic shocks caused by COVID-19 and Brexit.
Outstanding public policy impact
Finalist: Dr Sarah Spencer, University of Oxford
Team application: Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) with Jacqueline Broadhead, Nicola Delvino and Denis Kierans. All team members are from COMPAS and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) at the University of Oxford.
Project: Supporting European and UK cities to integrate newcomers and vulnerable migrants
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
A unique city-focused programme has brought over 60 UK and other European cities together to share best practice on inclusion and service provision. This is to the benefit of their whole local communities, prompting local, national and EU initiatives to protect vulnerable migrants and crime victims.
Outstanding early career impact
Finalist: Dr Emily Marchant, Swansea University
Project: HAPPEN Wales: developing a national-scale primary school health and attainment research network and school health network to improve pupil health and wellbeing
Video credit: ESRC
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.
Research has expanded a primary school health and wellbeing network across Wales, developing new tools such as a survey for pupils to share their perspectives on health and wellbeing.
This has helped more than 250 schools to design the health and wellbeing component of the new curriculum for Wales (2022), tailored to their pupils’ needs, and to adopt evidence-based initiatives such as outdoor learning.