Impact and Knowledge Exchange

The School of Politics and International Relations has made it a priority for its research to solve real world problems and to make a difference for the improvement of people's lives.

The school’s research strategy stresses the importance of conducting research with impact, collaborating with local, national and international non-academic stakeholders and providing support for its members to engage in impact and knowledge exchange activities.

The school has developed a diverse portfolio of collaborations and knowledge exchange activities. Members of the school regularly collaborate with major international organisations such as the UN, the World Bank and the Council of Europe. They work closely with non-governmental organisations such as Transparency International and Walk Free, and national governments from around the world including the UK, Australia, India, Norway, Spain and Bangladesh. Members of the school have made a real difference for public policy and have shaped public debate at national and international level.

The most significant impacts have occurred in the areas of:

supporting policies to end modern slavery and ending forced marriages
shaping national and international strategies to reduce corruption
improving the quality of public administration
influencing constitutional reforms
supporting the coordination of law enforcement agencies across countries

The school actively supports all members of staff who seek to engage in knowledge exchange. It has formed an Impact Group that consists of more than 20 members of staff and is convened by an Impact Coordinator. Members of the Impact Group receive dedicated support including training and access to funding from the school’s research budget and the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account managed by the Faculty of Social Sciences to kick start collaborations and knowledge exchange activities.

Awards and appointments

Members of the Impact Group have received prestigious Awards and Appointments since 2020:

Professor Kevin Bales received the Catalyst Award at the 13th Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day
Dr Helen McCabe received an Award for the Best Public Engagement Initiative from the Institute of Policy and Engagement and was appointed Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellow with the Home Affairs Select Committee, working to support their work on forced marriage and violence against women and girls.
Professor Andrew Mumford was appointed Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship with the House of Commons International Affairs Unit, supporting the work of the Integrated Review of the UK foreign, defence and security policy.
Dr Louise Kettle has been commissioned to write a report for the Cabinet Office on security strategy, and was appointed an Associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Funding

Members of the Impact Group have received impact-related funding from the AHRC, the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account, and Research England’s Participatory Research Fund:

Dr Natalie Martin received ESRC IAA funding for a workshop on 'Information Wars: Power, Politics and the News Media', which examines the political use of disinformation, misinformation and malinformation.
Dr Pauline Eadie won £7500 in funding from the ESRC IAA for her project “Rights, Resilience and Equity During Covid-19: Women in Affected Low-Income Urban Communities in the Philippines”.
Dr Helen McCabe received 18 months of follow-on funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for an impact-oriented project, 'Survivors' Voices, Stories, and Images: Survivor-Led Empowerment Through Ethical Story-Telling and Participatory Photography in Kenya'.
Dr Laura Martin won Research England Participatory Research for her project 'The Force of Female Voices: Exploring Relationships between Women, Politics and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone', which aims to understand how women see themselves as political actors in the lead up to the June 2023 elections in Sierra Leone, and their view of their own agency in relation to sex and gender-based violence.
Dr William Daniel won ESRC IAA funding for his project on how the implementation of gender quotas impacts on both descriptive and substantive forms of representation in politics in Europe.
Dr Hugo Drochon and Dr Annemarie Walter won ESRC IAA funding for their project studying how the Holocaust is taught on the UK national curriculum as part of a wider project on tackling rising antisemitism. They are collaborating with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum and impacting the UK government’s antisemitism policy.

Impact and knowledge exchange activity

Professor Todd Landman, Professor Zoe Trodd and Professor Kevin Bales all lead work on measuring prevalence and risk of modern slavery around the world, with impact on inter-governmental organisations, international NGOs, and national governments. They also submitted written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Call for Evidence on UK Policy Towards Afghanistan.
Professor Paul Heywood’s work has helped shape the global agenda of how corruption is understood and combated.
Dr Fernando Casal Bertoa has impacted constitutional reform in Georgia, and party regulation in Europe.
Professor Jan Meyer-Sahling has provided ethics training to 400 tax administers in Nepal and 1,400 police in Bangladesh as part of a wider Global Integrity-funded project on influencing civil service reform and management.
Dr Andrea Nicholson is working with survivors of modern slavery to create a set of underlying ethical principles and practical guidance for interviewing survivors, and working on a report for the Greek National Rapporteur for Human Trafficking and the Minister of Health on the experiences and support needs of unaccompanied trafficking children and young adult migrants in Greece.
Professor Mathew Humphrey is working with motorcycle riders’ rights organisations to understand the demographics of riders of powered two-wheelers, and to impact riders' rights lobbying activity and transport policy in the UK.
Dr Helen McCabe has presented findings from her project on the impact of Covid-19 on forced marriage in the UK to the All Party Parliamentary Group for honour-based abuse, Cambridge Policy Fellows, and other key stakeholders. She also contributed to written evidence submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences Call for Input on contemporary forms of slavery as affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities.
Professor David Gill is working with the UK and US Treasuries on the issue of unpaid debts from WWI.
Dr Anna Meier works with UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate-created project Tech Against Terrorism which partners with tech companies and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, to tackle extremist content online whilst respecting human rights.
Dr Edward Burke’s AHRC-funded research findings have been discussed in the Irish parliament and have been drawn upon by the police to aid them in a series of Troubles-related murder investigations.
Professor Bettina Renz works on Russian defence and security policy, military modernisation and Ukrainian military reforms, regularly contributing expertise to various national and international policy- and decision-makers and defence establishments.
Dr Carole Spary works with NGOs in India on increasing female representation in politics.