Read the 2023 Impact Prize stories of this year’s winners and finalists at research outcomes and impact stories.
Winners
Outstanding business and enterprise impact
Winner: Nutrition and Lifestyle Analytics Team, Consumer Data Research Centre
Team application:
- Professor Michelle Morris, University of Leeds
- Dr Emily Ennis, University of Leeds
- Dr Francesca Pontin, University of Leeds
- Dr Victoria Jenneson, University of Leeds
- Dr Stephen Clark, University of Leeds
Project: Enhancing retailer knowledge and building capacity using consumer data
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Research by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Consumer Data Research Centre is changing how supermarkets promote products to customers and how they deliver their services. This is helping shape buying behaviour and encouraging people to make healthier and more sustainable food choices in their supermarket shop.
Read the full story: Driving the smart use of consumer data in supermarkets.
Outstanding early career impact
Winner: Lukas Lehner, University of Oxford
Project: Designing a guaranteed job scheme to employ long-term unemployed people
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
ESRC-funded research by Lukas Lehner helped design a successful job-guarantee scheme in the Austrian town of Marienthal. The scheme brought more than 100 people who had been unemployed for a year or more back into work, eliminating long-term unemployment in the area. It made participants feel happier, more financially secure and more involved in their community.
Read the full story: Helping long-term unemployed people back into work.
Outstanding international impact
Winner: Professor Rachel Murray, University of Bristol
Project: Collaborative working to redress human rights violations for African peoples
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
ESRC-funded research led by Professor Rachel Murray focused on understanding how to enhance the delivery of reparations to victims of human rights violations. It has influenced strategy and decision-making in national courts and state authorities leading to significant impacts on communities and individuals and helping ensure the victims of wrongs are delivered due justice.
Read the full story: Ensuring reparations for victims of human rights violations.
Outstanding public policy impact
Winner: Dr Kate Orkin, University of Oxford
Project: Redesigning social protection in South Africa: poverty relief, job search and youth employment during COVID-19
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Dr Kate Orkin’s ESRC-funded research focused on ‘unconditional cash transfers’, where money is distributed without conditions directly to poor households. The research provided insights that helped the South African government design and implement a radical new welfare response to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to 5.5 million fewer people facing poverty and hunger.
Read the full story: Pivoting to cash-based poverty relief during COVID-19.
Outstanding societal impact
Winner: Waterproofing Data team
Team application:
- Professor João Porto de Albuquerque, University of Glasgow
- Professor Maria Alexandra Cunha, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil
- Professor Alexander Zipf, Heidelberg University
- Dr Rachel Trajber, National Centre for Disaster Monitoring and Early-Warning, Brazil
- Dr Liana Anderson, National Centre for Disaster Monitoring and Early-Warning, Brazil
Project: Democratising data: empowering communities at risk from flooding in Brazil
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Professor João Porto de Albuquerque’s ESRC-funded project developed an innovative approach combining community-generated data and analytics to increase community resilience and enhance the capacity of residents of flood-prone areas in Brazil to take protective action. It has also informed the practice of humanitarian organisations and Brazil’s National Disaster Monitoring and Early-Warning Centre.
Read the full story: Helping to protect residents of flood-prone areas in Brazil.
Panel Commendation
Winner: Dr Philip Butler, Cardiff University (Early Career finalist)
Project: In command: the psychological skills of fire service incident commanders
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
Dr Philip Butler has used his ESRC-funded doctoral studentship to produce THe INcident Command Skills, a freely available assessment tool and training programme. It helps to support the development of Fire and rescue service incident commanders command skills, leading to more effective incident command and shaping national policy and qualifications.
Read the full story: Improving command skills for fire and rescue service incident response.
Finalists
Outstanding early career impact
Finalist: Dr Julia Ebner, University of Oxford
Project: Understanding indicators of proneness to extreme violence among online users
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
The growing number of online violent threats makes it difficult to distinguish between empty words and credible threats. ESRC-funded doctoral researcher Dr Julia Ebner has developed a new framework that analyses online language. It predicts the likelihood that individuals will engage in real-world violence revealing patterns that can be used to better predict acts of terror and extremism.
Read the full story: Tracking online extremism to tackle violence.
Outstanding public policy impact
Finalist: BeSupported
Team application:
- Dr Emily Harrop, Cardiff University
- Dr Lucy Selman, University of Bristol
Project: Improving bereavement support: legacies of a COVID-19 innovation grant
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
An ESRC-funded study by Dr Emily Harrop and Dr Lucy Selman, investigated people’s experiences of grief and what support they needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the capacity of bereavement services to provide effective and appropriate support. The research highlighted the importance of ensuring equal, timely access to bereavement support and the findings have shaped the UK’s policies and services around bereavement.
Read the full story: Improving bereavement support policies and services.
Finalist: The Countering Kleptocracy Project
Team application:
- Professor John Heathershaw, University of Exeter
- James Nixey, Chatham House
- Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, University of Oxford
- Tom Mayne, University of Oxford
- Dr Tena Prelec, University of Oxford
- Professor David Lewis, University of Exeter
- Dr Catherine Owen, University of Exeter
Project: Tackling the UK’s kleptocracy problem
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
The flow of illicit wealth into the UK costs the UK economy billions of pounds each year and can be a risk to national security. ESRC-funded research, led by Professor John Heathershaw, focused on countering ‘kleptocracy’, corruption among elites within a political system, including laundering assets overseas. The research is increasing understanding of the impact this activity has on the UK, and what government and policymakers can do to control it.
Read the full story: Enabling the UK government to tackle economic crime.
Outstanding societal impact
Finalist: Professor Duncan Shaw, The University of Manchester
Project: Recovery, renewal, resilience and spontaneous volunteers during COVID-19
Video credit: ESRC
Video transcript and on-screen captions are available by watching on YouTube.
ESRC-funded researcher Professor Duncan Shaw has identified the value of networks of local-community volunteers in responding to emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It shaped UK and international policies on mobilising spontaneous volunteers and how they can be effectively and safely used to assist public sector bodies and private sector organisations in local and national emergencies.
Read the full story: Building emergency resilience through volunteers.