Impact
OUR REPUTATION FOR IMPACT
The School has an established reputation for the impact of its research, i.e. engaging in research that is meaningful and responds to identifiable needs in society. We work with community groups, voluntary and public sector bodies, and industries both locally and globally, evidenced in longstanding and productive working relationships.
KTPS and CONSULTANCY
As a School, we deliver between 30-40 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) with Industry: connecting industry-led projects with graduates and academics. Our staff and research groups have recognized expertise and experience, with access to cutting edge equipment and labs, and hence engage directly in consultancy for a variety of sectors (community, construction industry, academic and cultural). This activity generates over £1M in consultancy fees on an annual basis across the school.
If you are interested in working with us contact our research centres, through which most of the consultancy occurs, or contact QUB’s award-winning KTP office or consultancy services for further advice.
IMPACT SUPPORT
To ensure that our research is relevant, impactful, and used by external bodies we seek to support staff and their research partners through a school impact strategy: this includes one-to-one support, tailored workshops, external stakeholder meetings and knowledge brokering events.
Research Impact in the school is supported by a Director of Impact and Impact Champions who are aligned to the school’s Research Clusters. Our SNBE impact team is in turn supported by the university’s Impact Officers in the Research and Enterprise Directorate and we are part of the wider network of impact champions across the faculty and university.
EXAMPLES OF SNBE IMPACT CASE STUDIES:
Shaping Community Engagement in Energy Transition
For over 15 years, Geraint Ellis has been researching the ways in which the low carbon transition has changed communities’ relationships with energy infrastructure. This can lead to community concerns around environmental impacts, community involvement and distribution of costs/benefits of development, which has a significant influence on the pace and nature of energy transition. Geraint has undertaken funded research on this issue for the ESRC, Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland, International Energy Agency, Danish Council for Strategic Research, Irish Environmental Protection Agency, EU Joint Research Centre, Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Ireland’s National Economic and Social Council, and a number of energy companies.
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Aquatic Geoforensics in the Search for Sunken Objects
Innovative water-search techniques (GIS-based radar, sonar, recovery dogs) developed by us is used in investigating humanitarian, serious and environmental crime plus engineering problems. Engagement and partnerships with i) non-government and ii) government agencies: International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP: Colombia), Red Cross (RC: Geneva/South Ossetia; Colombia), International Union of Geological Sciences (Initiative on Forensic Geology – IUGS-IFG), Search & Rescue Dogs Association; law enforcement (~15); FBI; Independent Commission for the Location of Victim’s Remains (ICLVR). The above then liaise with communities, media, relatives of missing persons. Our techniques currently being used and adapted in Colombia (ICMP); UK (Home Office); Cyprus; Netherlands; Sweden.
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Water search for missing victim of homicide in progress: Coatbridge (Scotland), March 2019.
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Queen’s research enabling industry to deliver innovative low carbon construction materials
Construction materials research at Queen’s University Belfast targeting resource efficiency, performance prediction and rheology have enabled construction material suppliers to embed innovation, improve their offering/products, develop best practice, and reduce the carbon footprint of the products by 15-40%. As a consequence, they were able to capture a larger market share whilst generating a total savings/new income of GBP5,960,000. The underpinning research and subsequent impact were achieved through 5 EU/RCUK funded projects and 8 KTP projects with 8 industrial partners.
Image Details
The diagram outlines the reactions that occur in activated calcined clay (source KTP banahUK Ltd).
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A data analytics driven smart alerting system for Structural Health Monitoring
The timing of ‘replace, repair or extend service’ decisions for infrastructure is a significant challenge for local authorities. To address this, researchers at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have developed a cutting-edge Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) smart alerting system to monitor structures in real time to directly inform decision making at local government level. By embedding data analytics models within an intelligent diagnostic framework, this unique system has delivered step-like improvements in infrastructure monitoring in Northern Ireland (NI). To date, it has resulted in ‘extension of service’ for assets with a replacement cost > GBP40,000,000 within the critically underfunded budget of the Department for Infrastructure. SHM has also demonstrably transformed ‘risk to life’ assessment and practice in NI.
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Turf Wars: Development of a management tool for raised bog conservation
QUB research developed a peatland hydrological model that directly underpinned Irish Government policy on bog conservation and restoration and prevented the imposition of EUR 9 Million fines by the European Commission. The approach was subsequently used to resolve conflicts over the use of peatlands for conservation or fuel. This has led to a new approach to the conservation and restoration of peatlands by companies, regional government and NGOs across the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland, that underpins their sustainable use, leading to improvements in water quality and substantial reductions in water treatment costs for utilities companies.
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Providing a unified timescale to our past: the global impact of Queen's radiocarbon chronological techniques
Prof Paula Reimer and Dr Maarten Blaauw provide and maintain chronological techniques including the IntCal calibration curves and calibration and age-modelling software (e.g. CALIB, Bacon, clam).
Reimer chaired an international research team from 2002-2020 to produce calibration curves for converting radiocarbon dates into calendar ages. The IntCal curves are used by major commercial 14C laboratories generating approx. £40M annual revenue. The President of Beta Analytic reported that IntCal is “the recognized standard” not only for researchers around the world, but also […] in the provision of commercial dating services”. Public and private sector practitioners responsible such as Historic England, Historic Scotland, and the NI Historic Environment Division, also rely on the calibration curves.
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'Living Legacies 1914-18': Sharing contested heritage through digital and spatial humanities
In 2014, the centenary of World War One presented a significant challenge for heritage bodies and communities across the UK and Ireland, as well as a great opportunity on how to commemorate past conflict inclusively. Led by historical geographers at Queen's University Belfast, an AHRC-funded WW1 Engagement Centre—"Living Legacies 1914-18"—partnered with communities and institutions nationally and internationally to co-produce research sharing untold experiences of war, so enhancing inclusive cross-community understanding of contested heritage. Over six years, Living Legacies developed spatial and digital humanities tools and methods to deliver a public engagement programme that supported 120 community centenary projects in Britain and Ireland, reached 16,225 event participants, and 210,000+ exhibition visitors, as well as leveraging c. £900k for community co-production projects between 2014-19, delivering significant policy-recognised benefits and impacts in the UK and Ireland.
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World Heritage: Strengthening Management through Collaboration and Research on Four Continents
Since 2013, direct engagement with heritage organisations such as the World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS, IUCN, The National Trust, as well as corporate, government and local communities by staff from Archaeology and Palaeoecology – led by Malone, Rabett and Megarry – has promoted heritage management best practice in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa & the Americas.
Working with and at the invitation of local stakeholders, we have been building capacity, advancing public and community involvement through diverse media, and helping to develop local legislative policy and global protection plans.
These actions are underpinned by state-of-the-art archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research that has brought significant contributions towards understanding and sharing the world's cultural and natural heritage, and towards shaping its future sustainability.
‘…The FRAGSUS project [led by Malone]…contributed substantially towards the training of technical and professional personnel to manage the archaeological heritage [of Malta]…’ (Former Head of Department, University of Malta).
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Social and Solidarity Economy and Urban Regeneration
This programme of research aimed to develop and evaluate the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in area-based regeneration and community development, locally as well as globally. The SSE builds alternative social economies based on community-owned businesses, different forms of social finance and advocacy networks.
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Digitising Scotland : A SMARTS Way Forward
Digitising Scotland: Understanding Scotland’s People is a successful and multi-strand collaborative project between the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews and Queen’s University Belfast, funded by a £2.5m grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC UK) and the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
The project consists of four key work packages: -
- Digitising birth, marriages and death vital events records from 1855 to 1973. Extended to incorporate 1811.
- Standardising and coding occupation descriptions to the Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations (HISCO).
- Standardising and coding all deaths to the International Classification of Disease – 10 (ICD-10)
- Linking address information to consistent geographies through time.