Collaborations and Current Projects
We have a vibrant, active and diverse research community generating impactful world class research. Our researchers are involved in a number of strategic partnerships and collaborations within the University and beyond; working with funders and partners including research councils, government departments, the EU, Council of Europe and large foundations.
Below are a few examples of our research into the important issues facing society today
Queen's Communities and Place was launched in 2021 by researchers from Queen's and the Market Development Association (MDA) and is a community-academic partnership that aims to find better solutions for tackling disadvantage and improving outcomes for children, young-people and communities.
Research team: Ciara Keenan, Karen McConnell, Catherine Storey, Allen Thurston
Description: This is a database that collates research about Video-based interventions and their impact on the social skills of children aged 3-18 with a diagnosis of Autism. This is part of a wider programme of work detailed here in our research protocol.
The project is managed, developed and maintained by researchers at Queen's University, Belfast and Ulster University, Northern Ireland.
If you would like to follow project outputs, follow our OSF page here: https://osf.io/qjsuf/
Read more Read less
A team from The Centre for Children’s Rights were the academic lead in a coalition with the UN and 25 international NGOs, including Terre des Hommes, Child Rights Connect and World Vision International, among others. Together they conducted a rights-based global consultation with children and young people to capture their views on COVID-19 with a view to informing the policy and practices affecting their lives now and in future emergency/crisis situations.
Decisions are being taken about children during the COVID-19 pandemic that will have extensive impact on their lives, without any understanding of their lived experiences and views. An international advisory group of children and young people will be involved at all stages of this project from planning and design through to impact and dissemination. During the research design stage, a global consultation was undertaken with 270 children and young people from 28 countries, and our international partners, to inform the development of a survey, due to be launched at the end of May 2020.
The team led by Dr Katrina Lloyd have used this understanding to inform the development of a range of outputs and resources focused on improving professional practices and intergenerational relationships.
Read more Read less
More than two decades since Northern Ireland’s peace agreement, peacebuilding organisations continue to face daunting challenges, such as continuing communal divisions (which have been exacerbated by Brexit), paramilitary activity, dealing with the past, mental health issues, intergenerational trauma and structural inequalities. The Covid-19 pandemic has confronted peacebuilding organisations with new challenges in how they provide services and support in these and other areas. In this project, we focus on how peacebuilding organisations are negotiating these new challenges to post-conflict societal resilience, comparing churches engaged in ecumenical/cross-community activities with dedicated community relations organisations.
Read more Read less
This project aims to investigate three interlinked themes: vulnerability, care, and emotions/affects. The project team including Dr Lisa Smyth, Dr Giulia Carabelli and Dr Teresa Degenhardt are interested in understanding how vulnerability and care are experienced, understood and responded to through emotions and affect, from family and interspecies relationships to collective forms of friendship and solidarity with immigrants and asylum seekers in detention. We explore the ethical complexity of care giving at time of crisis, reflecting on the ways social actors experience vulnerability and seek comfort and meaning in the everyday, when quarantine conditions make physical contact either severely restricted or extremely close.
This project pays attention to the ethical quality of carers’ emotional lives, as well as the affective bonds forged between human and non-human species during isolation.
Read more Read less
As COVID-19 and enforced lockdown takes hold, social science researchers are moving to the forefront in a bid to identify, understand and respond to the range of impacts on lived experiences. There has been little or no work to date which has considered the intersection of age and disability; that is, the impacts on and experiences of children and young people with disabilities. For children with disabilities, there is concern that lockdown is having significant implications. For example, children in mainstream schools who are registered as having special educational needs may no longer be able to access critical statutory and targeted support.
Read more Read less
This project will examine school exclusion across the four jurisdictions of the UK. The project is a collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast, Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University and London School of Economics.
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has awarded £2,550,850 to develop a multi-disciplinary understanding of the political economies and consequences of school exclusion across the UK.
The research to be carried out between October 2019 - October 2023 will lead to a greater understanding of the cost of exclusions at individual, institutional and system levels, as well as pupils’ rights, entitlements, protection and wellbeing, and the landscapes of exclusion across the UK’s four jurisdictions.
Read more Read less
This Cochrane Fellowship started in November 2018 to complete a systematic review of psychological interventions for depression, prolonged grief disorder and PTSD in bereaved adults. The cause of death has been broadened to any type of death vs life limiting conditions, and is now exploring prolonged grief disorder and PTSD.
Find out more about the Protocol on the Cochrane library website.
Read more Read less
The ‘Building Better Futures’ (BBF) project aims to improve children’s outcomes by producing and evaluating an evidence based model of social work assessment intervention for children and families. It is part of the DoH Early Intervention Transformation scheme.
The QUB team, including Dr Lorna Montgomery and Dr Mandi MacDonald from SSESW, are completing a 4-year implementation and evaluation plan involving tiered roll-out of the model across all HSCT. This plan has had strong buy-in from the Health and Social Care Board, the Department of Health, senior staff and practitioners across the NI Trusts. A sustainability plan has been developed by each HSC Trust to embed the model as core practice with QUB staff continuing as special advisers.
Find out more about the project here
Read more Read less
The harms associated with New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) present a major public health challenge. This project investigated usage of NPS to provide evidence on risks and potential protective factors. A mixed-methods design was used incorporating latent class analysis of the Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS) and qualitative narrative interviews with people with experience of NPS use. Suggested interventions and treatments were made based on empirical findings which will have high relevance among those working to prevent harms of NPS use.
Read more Read less
The Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) carried out by the team at QUB considered two primary research aims:
1. To examine the effectiveness of psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for adults (18+) with comorbid alcohol use and mental health problems.
2. To identify the general policy framework for co-occurring substance use disorders and Alcohol Use Disorders (AuDs), assessment models, care plans and guidelines for practice within the UK. In addition, there was a specific focus on models of treatment delivery within the UK and international contexts.
This project was funded, in 2018, by a MRC Proximity to discovery award and involved the development of a new Immersive Technologies and Digital Mental Health network at QUB which is led by Dr Paul Best from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work.
This network is trans-disciplinary partnership of academics, practitioners and technology companies focusing on therapeutic and pedagogical advances in mental health and social care through digital means. A particular focus of this work is to increase the accessibility and capacity of immersive technologies among social science researchers, educators and practitioners.
Read more Read less
This project is a national evaluation of the NSPCC’s Speak Out, Stay Safe programme for primary school children across the UK. Speak Out, Stay Safe is a preventive intervention that aims to improve children’s understanding of abuse and other forms of harm, recognise the signs of abuse, how to get help, and the sources of help available to them.
Read more Read less
This DRILL funded project is led by Queen’s University Belfast in partnership with Action for Real Change UK, Compass Advocacy Network, NI; Praxis care, NI; Mencap Cyrmu, Wales; Richmond Fellowship, Scotland, and Ann Craft Trust, England, is exploring different approaches to exerting influence taken by people with learning disabilities and their organisations on the specific policy and practice subject of adult safeguarding.
Read more Read less
This networking grant from the European Cooperation in Science and Technology funding organisation was awarded to Dr John Topping in 2018 and involved academics, practitioners and policy makers from across Europe to examine police stop and search practices. Police Stops are widely used and adopted by police forces as a means to control and prevent crime and terrorism. At the same time, the practice is experienced as intrusive and problematic, particularly among young men and minority ethnic communities. A practice that is intended to increase safety undermines trust and legitimacy.
Read more Read less
In 2018 Professor Joanne Hughes, Director of the Centre for Shared Education and colleagues from the School of Psychology at Queen’s were awarded AHRC GCRF Network funding to build an international network of academics and other stakeholders to explore the potential for initiating and developing shared education in Balkan countries, and devise an interdisciplinary comparative research project.
Read more Read less
In 2016, Professor John Brewer was awarded funding from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to develop a curriculum and workshop manual to assist Mr William Mitchell from ACT (Assisted Conflict Transformation) and various ACT branches to use with Loyalist community groups to engage with the strengths and weaknesses of Loyalism and improve Loyalist engagement with the peace process.
Read more Read less
Commencing in 2019, Assess@Learning (A@L) is a four-year project funded by the Erasmus+ Key Action 3 Programme of the European Commission (€1.9m), coordinated by European Schoolnet with 5 Country Partners (Estonia, Finland, Greece, Spain and Portugal), researchers from IRVAPP (Italy), and Universities of Glasgow and Queens University Belfast.
Read more Read less
The Council of Europe commissioned research in 2017 to investigate the experiences of children with disabilities within the digital environment from the perspective of their human rights.
The study, with input from four advisory groups of children with disabilities in Northern Ireland, involved interviews and focus groups with over 90 children with a diverse range of disabilities in five European countries.
Read more Read less
In 2017 the American Institute for Research commissioned this research project, the report presents findings from the Whole Child Development project on organisations and schools undertaking whole child development in Western Europe and North America.
This report presents findings from the UK and will form part of larger report which is still in progress, this larger report will be based on the findings Western Europe and North America.
Read more Read less
This project is a development/efficacy RCT of the 'Reciprocal Reading' programme in secondary schools commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).
The project is a workforce development program that supports Teachers and Teaching Assistants develop and deliver targeted reading comprehension instruction to high school students aged 11–13. The aim of the project is to improve overall literacy, reading accuracy and reading performance.
Read more Read lessOutside the University, our partners include:
- UNICEF
- United Nations
- UNESCO
- Stellenbosch University
- University of Cardiff
- Ulster University
- University of Warwick
- Zhengzhou University
- South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
- Police Service Northern Ireland
- Northern Ireland Executive