Writing a note of introduction for the College Research Showcase this year – in the midst of the challenges we currently face – prompts a mix of emotions. As I have mentioned in a number of my weekly emails, the College has organised a number of well-attended workshops to consider the many and varied impacts of Covid-19 on society, as well as how social science insights can support a more effective, and comprehensive, response to the pandemic. Moreover, we have submitted a significant number of recent funding bids, some of which are in response to specific Covid calls.
At the same time, I know many colleagues have struggled to focus on their own research and scholarship during this time to the extent that they would have liked. As I am sat here writing this foreword, I have several other files open trying to finalise a book contract that should have been off my desk several weeks ago. Academic Year 2019/2020 hasn’t gone the way many of us would have foreseen. And we already know that the next academic year will also present challenges.
When discussed the topic for the event several months ago, we thought it beneficial to “showcase” our impact case studies. Looking back, I think that was prescient as the role of universities is now in question more than ever. Connecting our research with external stakeholders and its impact – both narrowly conceived in REF-terms and more broadly understood – is fundamental to making a positive case for university research.
The event may be virtual but it is full with stimulating discussion. In addition to presentations on many of the College’s impact case studies, there are panel discussions on climate change and global health, poster presentations from PGR students and UROS students, and an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues across the College – if this year – digitally.
Can I thank the College Exec team for bringing this together so brilliantly, and for all the contributors.
– Duncan French, PVC/Head of College of Social Science
The Research Office would like to extend their thanks to all those who have taken the time to contribute towards this year’s Research Showcase. We appreciate that in the face of covid-19, academic colleagues are having to undertake significant pieces of work at pace and across multiple areas of focus, whilst at the same time managing the demands of home working and the use of digital tools like never before. The effort taken is hugely appreciated!
Macmillan Cancer Support is the UK’s leading cancer charity and comprises a network of millions of professionals, volunteers, campaigners and people affected by cancer. In November 2013, the university signed a formal partnership with Macmillan and from the outset Ros Kane was a member of the steering group to direct and co-ordinate activities across three key areas: volunteering; student experience, and research.
To date we have received funding and collaborated with Macmillan on seven studies, all focused on examining ways to help improve the lives of people affected by cancer. This has included funding (matched by the School of Health and Social Care) to support the employment of a full-time Macmillan Research Fellow and to support his PhD on a topic which was agreed with Macmillan to be a priority for research: Urban/rural differences in self-management.
Our work with Macmillan has led to widespread regional, national and international collaboration and research activity with the potential for broad impact. The presentation will provide a brief overview of the research that has taken place and outline the history and benefits of the development of the on-going collaboration between the two organisations both from the perspectives of the UoL and Macmillan Cancer support
Ruth Willis, Macmillan Partnership Manager, Caroline Boyer, Macmillan Partnership Quality Lead – Lincolnshire, Kathie McPeake, Macmillan Cancer Development Manager, Wendy Munro Regional Learning and Development Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, Denise Doyle: Patient/Public Representative, Dr Ros Kane, David Nelson, Dr Ian McGonagle and Heidi Green, School of Health and Social Care
@macmillancancer @Roslyn Kane @MH2aSC_UoL
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Ethical approval from the school was granted in 2015
This presentation introduces the ‘Following Young Fathers Further’ study as an exemplar of ‘thought leadership’ being developed in the College. This four-year study, which commenced in January 2020 has been funded £1.2 million by the Future Leaders Fellowship scheme. This prestigious award is supporting research innovation in qualitative longitudinal methods of enquiry, as well as methods for working with and engaging young fathers (aged 25 and under) in support for their children, both in the UK and internationally. New and ambitious collaborations with local and national organisations have also been established to ensure extensive reach and impact.
Dr Anna Tarrant, School of Social and Political Sciences
@dratarrant
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Ethical approval was granted in 2020. Ref: 2020-0828
This 21-month research project will generate a robust evidence base to improve support for Polish migrant women in violent relationships living in the UK. It seeks to understand the reasons for the very low rate of referrals by Polish residents to domestic abuse services and thus enhance knowledge about how migration and transnational factors shape domestic abuse.
The project is a research-practice collaboration between Dr Iwona Zielińska, Ending Domestic Abuse Now Lincolnshire (EDAN Lincs) and researchers in the College of Social Science at the University of Lincoln (secondment). The project will start in August 2020 and is funded by a grant from the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship scheme.
The project will combine multiple methods and data sources to gain comprehensive insight into domestic abuse among the Polish migrant community in the UK. Analysis of discourses on domestic abuse in Polish-language media will be integrated with interview data from practitioners (domestic abuse workers, social workers, police officers, health visitors), specialist domestic abuse projects launched for Polish women in the UK, and Polish women who experienced domestic violence whilst living in the UK. The findings will inform practitioner workshops, practice guidance, help guides for Polish women and national-level policy recommendations.
Dr Iwona Zielinska, Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw Poland, Celia Madden, EDAN Lincs, Dr Michael Rasell, School of Health and Social Care, Prof Sundari Anitha, School of Social and Political Sciences and Dr Ros Kane, School of Health and Social Care
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Ethics will be in place prior to any data collection.
Universities in the UK are increasingly adopting corporate governance structures, a consumerist model of teaching and learning, and have the most expensive tuition fees in the world. This research employed collaborative methods that aimed to develop and define an alternative conceptual framework of knowledge production grounded in co-operative values and principles. The main findings were published as a framework for co-operative higher education, including five 'catalytic principles': knowledge, democracy, bureaucracy, livelihood, and solidarity. We worked with academics, students and co-operative members to put these principles into practice. The research has had impact on political policy and institutional practice through the planned creation of a federated co-operative university that goes beyond the distinction of public and private education.
Prof. Mike Neary, School of Social and Political Sciences and Dr Joss Winn, School of Education
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Ethical Approval was granted from the school in 2018
In 2017, Lincolnshire Police approached the School of Sport and Exercise Science, with a view to identifying how expertise in the School might assist in improving the wellbeing of the force’s employees. The Health Advancement Research Team (HART) suggested that a multifaceted and collaborative approach could be adopted, targeting both physical and psychological wellbeing. Working in collaboration with the Police’s wellbeing team, we designed and implemented an innovative scheme to improve the physical fitness of employees, known as the Fitness Mentors. The Fitness Mentors are volunteers from the Lincolnshire Police workforce, who completed a level three certificate in personal training. Once qualified, the Fitness Mentors meet with colleagues to provide tailored support and advice on how to get fit, and develop an individually-tailored 10-week programme of exercise for each client. Alongside this, research was conducted to examine psychological wellbeing, work-related stressors, and social support, which led to the development of several practical recommendations to support the force’s employees in managing and improving their psychological wellbeing. This work has now attracted the attention of Oscar Kilo, the Police’s National Wellbeing Service, who we hope to collaborate with to develop police workplace wellbeing initiatives.
Dr Hannah Henderson, Dr Trish Jackman and Georgia Clay, School of Sport and Exercise Science
@HEHenderson80 @Trish_Jackman @Georgia___C @HARTResearch @LPFitnessMentor @LincsPolice
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Psychological wellbeing ethics approval was granted by the school in 2018
Physical wellbeing ethics approval was granted by the school in 2018
This presentation shows how research projects can produce valuable assessment tools for the local, national and international community. The first project on children’s early word learning demonstrates how our research led to the production of the UK-Communicative Development Inventories with UK-standardised questionnaires and the first UK norms of early language. As no such norms existed, we have filled this gap and health and education professionals, speech and language therapists and researchers can now use appropriate UK questionnaires and norms to enable early assessment of child's language development. The second project on Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) led to the creation of unified best practice guidelines and the Lincoln Education Assistance with Dogs (LEAD) Risk Assessment Tools. These are the first comprehensive and easy-to-use risk assessment tools of their kind and can be used to ensure safe and animal welfare-oriented AAI locally, nationally and internationally. They provide consistency across AAI providers, AAI users, researchers and settings and protect the safety and welfare of all involved.
Prof. Kerstin Meints, Dr Janine Just, Dr. Mirena Dimolareva, Dr Victoria Brelsford, Dr. Elise Rowan, All School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, UK
Collaborators at other Universities: Prof Caroline Rowland, Anna Christopher (School of Psychology, Liverpool, UK), Dr.Katie ALcock (School of Psychology, Lancaster, UK), Prof. Nancy Gee (VCU, USA)
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Ethics approved by SOPREC for 'UK-CDI' in 2012 and 'dog-assisted interventions' in 2016
This presentation discusses the author’s work as an independent member of Lincolnshire Police’s Ethics Panel. Ethics Panels are a relatively new innovation initiated across a number of police services up and down the UK. Their specific terms of reference vary, but generally they share the a common purpose of providing a space for police to discuss and develop guidelines around issues for which there is traditionally no forum within policing – ideally with outside stakeholders giving a non-police view – with the intention of developing ethical approaches to such issues. In this presentation I will discuss my work sitting on Lincolnshire Police’s Ethics panel and in particular how my research concerning victimisation and the role of victims within the criminal justice process assisted the police through this forum to develop updated policies on issues such as: membership of police officers in the Masons and other ‘secret’ organisations, the policing of Roma and Traveller Populations and the response of the police to officer-to-officer disclosure of domestic abuse victimisation.
Prof Matthew Hall, Lincoln Law School
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Ethical approval from the school was granted in 2018
The Motion Capture Hub provides an advanced motion analysis service with a primary remit to support enterprise activity. The hub founded in 2013 has since grown through funding from the University, Lincolnshire County Council, European Union ERDF and UKRI HEIF to become a prominent UK technology hub. Our expansion in 2020 into a second motion capture studio offers increased access to the advanced motion measuring facilities. The hub houses a 29-camera system capable of tracking retroreflective balls to 0.1mm accuracy to measure any motion such as facial expressions or multiple people interacting. This can be integrated with our other technologies including those measuring acceleration, forces, muscle activity and high-speed video, and all equipment is portable for visiting customers’ sites. The team includes a dedicated manager and academics with expertise in capturing and analysing motion and experience of applying this to industry in measuring machinery, people and animals. Clients have ranged from local SMEs (developing innovative leisure products) to a multinational motor racing team (assessing processes), and we have two current KTPs. To engage new customers, we access for example LCC-ERDF funding and the University’s Productivity Vouchers to support free pilot-work, and we assist companies with KTP applications for long-term projects
Dr Anthony Gorman, Project Manager, Dr Franky Mulloy, Lecturer, Dr Sandy Willmott, Associate Professor and Prof David R Mullineaux, Hub Director, School of Sport and Exercise Science
@MoCapHub
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This presentation is based upon a consultancy contract as as a result has not required the same ethics procedures as externally funded research
Drawing on two distinct strands of research this presentation briefly outlines: firstly, research and developing impact on the Westminster Parliament’s oversight of intelligence; secondly research for the Scottish Parliament and its subsequent impact. It highlights: the challenges of influencing legislatures; the variety of potential paths for impact; and the benefits of developing long-term relationships, whether with members and officials.
Prof Hugh Bochel, School of Social and Political Sciences, Dr Andrew Defty, School of Social and Political Sciences and Anouk Berthier, Scottish Parliament (now Scottish Government)
@adefty @ParliLinc
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Ethical approval from the school for the 'Parliament and the intelligence services' project in was granted in 2009
Ethical approval from the school for 'Committee witnesses in the Scottish Parliament' was granted in 2017
Psychological flexibility has been argued to be a fundamental component of psychological health, with hundreds of clinical trials demonstrating that psychological flexibility is related to many important outcomes: from managing the after effects of trauma, predicting ‘burn out’ in workers, and reducing the impact of mental health difficulties, to predicting better health outcomes for those with chronic physical illnesses, and even reducing the subjective experience of pain. But there is a problem: what exactly is psychological flexibility? In this talk, we briefly discuss our work developing the ‘CompACT’ – a measure of psychological flexibility that has now been translated into over 14 different languages and used nationally and internationally by clinicians, health practitioners, and applied researchers.
Dr David L Dawson, School of Psychology and Dr Nima G Moghaddam, School of Psychology
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The primary LEAS approval Review ref: 2020-3496
School of Psychology REC-approved project approved by SOPREC in 2014
Welcome to the College of Social Science Climate Change Panel. In this panel our colleagues discuss work being undertaken in the University of Lincoln, which is relevant to tackling the Climate Crisis. Our panelists are Dr Rico Isaacs, Professor Louis Kotzé, Dr Adele Langlois, Dr Mark Schuerch and an introduction to the panel is provided by Professor Elizabeth Kirk. Our panelists address the link between research and the climate crisis in different ways. Dr Schuerch discusses the way in which his research will help contribute to addressing a particular climate crisis – rising sea levels. Dr Isaacs and Professor Kotzé discuss the ways in which and the reasons why their disciplines (politics and law) have not contributed significantly to addressing the climate crisis. Finally Dr Langlois and Professor Kotzé discuss how their disciplines (bio-ethics and law) may better contribute to addressing the climate crises.
Prof Elizabeth Kirk, Lincoln Law School, Dr Mark Schuerch, School of Geography, Dr Rico Isaacs, School of Social and Political Sciences, Dr Adele Langlois, School of Social an Political Sciences and Prof Louis Kotze, Lincoln Law School
@Law_Marine @markschuerch @rico_isaacs @KotzeProfessor
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We hope you find the videos below produced by colleagues from the Lincolnshire International Institute for Rural Health, and from the School of Health and Social Care's Community and Health Research Unit both informative and interesting.
Professors Tanser, Gussy and Siriwardena together with Drs Curtis and Nanyonjo discuss health and health care, both in terms of global health and in terms of health and health care in local communities.
For more information and to get in touch please see the Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health and the Community and Health Research Unit.
Prof Frank Tanser, Prof Mark Gussy, Prof Niro Siriwardena, Dr Ffion Curtis and Dr Agnes Nanyonjo, Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health
@ftanser @1markgussy @nsiriwardena @FfionCurtis
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