Impact

Our research contributes to building the skills and knowledge of community groups, practitioners and professional organisations. We are helping to change practices for specific groups, influencing professional and practitioner standards and guidelines, and enabling community groups greater lobbying and advocacy potential.

• Our collaborative research with 6th formers of different faiths in a West London comprehensive school and an international architecture company to design a new multi-faith space for Ealing has stimulated new creative ideas, perspectives and professional practices.
• Our participatory action research with Indigenous communities in the Guiana Shield region of South America has increased their capacity to use films and photostories as powerful communication media to raise awareness on social and environmental issues within their own and other communities, civil society organisations, as well as to a wider national and international constituency.
• Our research on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is supporting the Department for International Development’s advisors and programme managers with evidence, relevant examples and practical guidance on how to address harmful social norms in the context of programming to prevent VAWG.
• Our research on architectural issues and phenomena have contributed to the successful campaigns of activist groups, such as the Twentieth Century Society to obtain listed status for the South Bank, and the Long Live Southbank campaign to stop the undercroft space of the South Bank being developed.

Our research aims to question the current socio-economic, political, economic and environmental system and their predominant paradigms, whether it be foreign policy, approaches to sustainability or historical events, so as to promote alternative, socially just and ecologically sound practices and policies.

• Our historical research has challenged popular portrayals of exploration as solely the work of exceptional individuals in extraordinary circumstances. We have emphasised exploration’s wider cultural, economic and social significance, showing it to be a fundamentally collective experience, and making visible the vital roles played by local people and intermediaries.
• In the Guiana Shield region of South America, we have changed mind sets of conservation and development institutions to taking an alternative approach to working with Indigenous peoples. This involves supporting community owned solutions where the communities provide the initiative, innovation, and direction, and governments/NGOs provide the enabling conditions. 
• We have changed common perceptions of ‘no-man’s lands’ from dead zones to sites filled with life, sustaining livelihoods and with distinct ecologies. For example, young Cypriots reimagined sites across Nicosia, and developed plans and proposals for a post-reunification Buffer Zone then discussed with the Cyprus diplomatic community, academics, NGOs, the public, and representatives from the Mayors’ offices.

Our research informs professional heritage practice and wider cultural understanding of the geographical significance of collections and artefacts. We have pioneered knowledge partnerships between academic Geography and the museum and archives sector, working with a range of institutions to enhance curation and exhibition on geographical themes of place, mobility and environment.

• Our leadership of the English Heritage funded National Ice Age Network has influenced environmental archaeology practices, enhancing the recognition, recording and removal of Pleistocene remains in England’s sand and gravel quarries.
• We provide expert advice to national museums, including the Royal Museums Greenwich, the Science Museum and the Museum of London, through membership of management and advisory boards. For example, we have supported the Museum of London in the planning and design of their galleries and exhibition spaces, and most recently on the Museum’s planned move to a spectacular historic space at West Smithfield, adjacent to the new CrossRail station at Farringdon.

Our research makes a demonstrable contribution to the economy and society. This includes changing approaches to the management of resources resulting in improved service delivery and processes, as well as understanding, developing and adopting alternative economic models.

• We have achieved a shift in mind set among Chilean and Brazilian policy makers to recognise public procurement as a legitimate instrument of social and environmental policy. In Brazil, we have supported current policy trends with much-needed evidence. In Chile, we helped policy makers extend their thinking from environmental to social and animal welfare criteria, impacting on procurement budgets of billions of pounds.
• Our research on Pleistocene river patterns underpinned the locating of aggregates between 2008-2014 worth over £50m to the UK quarrying industry.
• We have shaped the adoption of alternative, ethical consumption models, promoting the role of mobile phone technology in presenting product origins to consumers.

Our research contributes to addressing some of the most pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges of the world today, both in the UK and worldwide. We are working on improving the governance and management of natural resources and environmental risk, while securing poverty alleviation through enhancing social welfare, equality and social inclusion.

• The sharing of community owned solutions between Indigenous communities of the Guiana Shield region of South America has resulted in local communities implementing solutions from other communities in order to address their own social, cultural and environmental challenges. This has led to, for example, greater recognition and uptake, as well the revival, of local cultural practices that foster both social and ecological sustainability.

Our research informs local, national and international organisations in the UK and worldwide on policy development and improved practices. As well as working directly with policy-makers, we also work as advisors to provide expert guidance and information to government bodies, international institutions and local organisations.

• We have influenced government procedures, guiding the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs process of reviewing evidence for decision-making, including assessing quality and communicating uncertainty.
• We have guided policy development in urban climate/environmental change adaptation and transformation from the international level (e.g. UN-HABITAT, the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network) to the work of national agencies (e.g. Sida) and national, regional and local policy (Sweden, Western Gotland region and regional association of local authorities, municipalities in Gothenburg, Durban, Cape Town, Greater Manchester, Bangalore and other cities).
• We have advised the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction on how transformation in disaster risk management can enhance development goals.
• Focusing on its strategic role and interests in the region, we have shaped Britain’s defence and foreign policy towards the South Atlantic, Antarctic and Arctic.
• Deepening our understanding of why investments in domestic violence law are faltering and what action can be taken, we have informed Cambodia’s 2^nd National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women (NAPVAW) 2013–2017 led by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, as well as UNWomen Cambodia, DFID, FCO and the UK Parliament Select Committee on Violence Against Women and Girls.
• We have successfully influenced international United Nations policy processes to include not just environmental, but also social criteria in the global Sustainable Public Procurement Initiative (SPPI).
• We have been and are currently expert advisors on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Africa Advisory Group, the United National Environment Programme’s Guiana Shield Facility Committee, UN-HABITAT, the government’s Darwin Expert Committee, the House of Lords Select Committee on the Arctic, and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes Working Group.

We value public engagement as an important element of research activity that can and does enhance cultural, economic and political understanding of geographical challenges and problems. We do this by: 

• Developing research outputs that reach non-academic audiences

Our funded research produces exhibitions, websites, publications, art installations, films, online resources, podcasts and poetry. Examples include the Into No-Man’s Land expedition website receiving 50,000 hits during 6 weeks, the Hidden Histories of Exploration Exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society, the Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story Exhibition on human evolution at the National History Museum, podcasts on Artist and Empire: Facing Britain's Imperial Past Exhibition for Tate Britain, films produced by Indigenous communities in South America, and British Library to produce Lines on the Map Exhibition.

• Establishing and sustaining spaces for public engagement

Highlights include our film society ‘Passenger Films’, recognised as UK’s ‘Best Film Education Programme’ by the British Federation of Film Societies in 2012 and 2013, Royal Holloway’s Annual Science Festival, where we involve thousands of visitors in demonstrations and exhibitions of our research, the 'Out of the Ice Ages: Our Past Present and Future' public meeting and the Making Suburban Faith collaborative arts projects. We also work closely and intensively with organisations devoted to public geographies including the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association.

• Promoting an active and dynamic social media strategy

We are committed to enhancing broadcast and press engagement via our twitter accounts and research blogs, including on geopolitics and security, social, cultural & historical geography, sustainability issues, Antarctic glaciology, historical geographies, geospatial issues, gender and feminist geographies and urban studies.

We prioritise collaborations with non-academic groups and organisations, reflecting our understanding of impact as depending upon two-way relationships between research units and beneficiaries. Our strategy has been to embed partnerships within our research environment, closely working with beneficiaries to answer questions and address problems that are relevant and important to them. The co-production of knowledge and practice is integral to those activities. These have been through research grants, postdoctoral fellowships, cultural engagement projects, collaborative doctoral projects, and student dissertation research placements. 

• Community groups and associations

Long Live Southbank Campaign, Aylesbury Residents Association, North Rupununi District Development Board (Guyana), Instituto Raoni (Brazil) 

• Business / Industry

Hanson Quarry Products Europe Ltd, The Body Shop, WWT Consulting Ltd, Responsible Safari Company (Malawi), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 

• Government agencies

Department for Environment, British Antarctic Survey, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, Food & Rural Affairs, English Heritage, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa) 

• Public sector

British Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, SNCF (France), Ordnance Survey 

• International agencies

UN-HABITAT, UNDP, International Maritime Organization 

• Non-governmental organisations and social enterprises

The Arts Catalyst, StreetInvest, Institute of International Visual Arts, Iwokrama International Centre (Guyana), IUCN-Netherlands Committee, Institute for Environmental Security, WaterAid, Tipping Point, Julie’s Bicycle, Furtherfield, Twentieth Century Society, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts 

• Professional / Learned societies

Royal United Services Institute, Royal Geographical Society, Quaternary Research Association, Geographical Association, Royal Institute of British Architects 

• Museums

British Museum, Museum of London, Museum of Salt (Seille), National Maritime Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Peckham Platform.

Despite several decades of work on evidence-based policy, there is still an urgent need for greater use of research within policy making. Advocates of evidence-based policy making argue that the effectiveness of policies are significantly influenced by the depth and quality of knowledge available to policy makers. However, a key barrier to this is how decision-makers assess the quality of the knowledge emerging out of academic research and how uncertainty within the evidence is communicated.

Alice Milner

Since 2013 I have been working with the Chief Scientific Adviser within the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to improve how scientific research is used in environmental decision-making. More specifically, I am helping to establish innovative and practical mechanisms for the use of evidence in policy decisions. I have focused my work with Defra on the key challenges facing decision-makers: how to synthesise the vast evidence-base available for many policy areas; and how to assess the quality and uncertainty of that evidence base and use this knowledge to inform decisions. I have developed a new method and guidance document for Defra to produce short summaries of evidence for senior policy officials (Evidence Statements) using rigorous methods of secondary synthesis. The method includes a framework for assessing the quality of primary studies and communicating the uncertainty of evidence.

Since my work with Defra, there has been an increased awareness for applying rigorous approaches to evaluating evidence and the range of methodological approaches available. This is a direct result of my work with the Chief Scientific Adviser to embed procedural change in the use of evidence for government decision-making.

Find out more about Alice's work here.

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding the natural environment, supporting the food and farming industry, and sustaining the rural economy. Find out more about its work here.

Alice's work with Defra is through a through a NERC Knowledge Exchange Policy Placement. Find out more about this scheme here.

The Domestic Violence (DV) Law in Cambodia was passed in 2005 and is a legal mechanism to prevent domestic violence and protect victims. However, despite the well-known existence of the DV Law, there is confusion over women's rights and the translation of the DV Law into concrete outcomes. Socio-legal conditions for DV Law to take root in Cambodia are compromised by: structural gender inequities and discriminatory gender attitudes; customs and traditions that are detrimental rather than supportive of DV alleviation; a weak rule of law environment, and; inadequacy of financial and human resources to support DV Law training, implementation and enforcement.

Between 2012 and 2015, I worked with the NGO Gender and Development/Cambodia on deepening our understanding of the opportunities and challenges that domestic violence legislation presents for victims, why investments in DV Law are faltering and what action can be taken to apply the DV Law. This has involved questioning conventional knowledge among policy makers to recognise that DV Law is not adequate in terms of protecting women and children. At the same time, I have been increasing the capacity of local communities to use DV Law to find solutions to this particular societal challenge, influencing the work of NGOs and practitioners working in this area and improving public understanding of DV Law in Cambodia.

For example, in 2014 the quantitative dataset of the project was formally contracted to the Asia Foundation to improve the targeting of interventions for primary prevention of intimate partner violence. In March 2016, Mu Sochua, one of Cambodia's opposition leaders cited my research in her presentation at the 60th Session on the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The presentation explained the legislative battle against violence towards women.

Find out more about Katherine's work here.

A policy report by Katherine on the gap between DV Law legislation and practice in Cambodia, and what can be done about it, can be found here.

Katherine has been lobbying the UK government on violence against women. Read her written submission to UK Parliament Select Committee on Violence against Women and Girls here.