REF 2021 impact case studies
A complete list of University research impact case studies submitted to the Research Excellence Framework 2021.
Our REF 2021 submission was one of the largest in the higher education sector, including a total of 160 impact case studies from across our three Faculties.
We submitted examples of our research impact to 31 subject areas – explore individual impact case studies and key researchers involved.
UOA 1 Clinical Medicine
- Preventing stillbirths and improving the quality of care after a baby dies
Key researchers: Alexander Heazell, Rebecca Jones, Colin Sibley - Advancing treatments for lysosomal storage disorders
Key researchers: Brian Bigger, Robert Wynn, Simon Jones, Alexander Broomfield - Radiotherapy research changes standard clinical practice and improves survival for patients with small-cell lung cancer
Key researchers: Corinne Faivre-Finn, Fiona Blackhall, Paul Lorigan - Clinical trials in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) advancing effective combination treatments
Key researchers: Dave Singh, Jorgen Vestbo - Transforming patient outcome of pulmonary aspergillosis with better and faster diagnosis and therapy
Key researchers: David Denning, Rob Niven, Timothy Felton - New targeted therapies in non-small cell lung cancer improve patient outcomes
Key researchers: Fiona Blackhall, Malcolm Ranson
- Cough monitoring system adopted in clinical trials to enable development of treatments for patients with refractory chronic cough
Key researchers: Jaclyn Smith, Kevin McGuinness, Ashley Woodcock - Improving survival and reducing treatment damage in Hodgkin lymphoma
Key researchers: John Radford, Tim Illidge - Manchester’s Lung Health Checks: community-based screening boosts early lung cancer detection and leads to national screening pilots
Key researchers: Philip Crosbie, Richard Booton - Rapid diagnostic pathways reduce unnecessary hospital admissions for suspected acute coronary syndromes
Key researchers: Richard Body, Kevin Mackway-Jones, Simon Carley, Garry McDowell - Access to more effective therapies in Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Key researchers: Tim Illidge, John Radford, Jamie Honeychurch
UOA 2 Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care
- Radical reorganisation of trauma services reduces risk and saves many lives among severely injured patients
Key researchers: Antoinette Edwards, Omar Bouamra, Hiren Patel, Fiona Lecky, David Yates - Successfully tackling serious fungal diseases to transform global population health
Key researchers: David Denning, Malcolm Richardson, Sara Gago - Definitive multinational efficacy trials and pioneering real-world evidence informing treatments and international strategy for managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Key researchers: Jorgen Vestbo, Dave Singh, Ashley Woodcock - Biologics registers for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: enhancing access to novel therapies and balancing drug safety concerns versus effectiveness
Key researchers: Kimme Hyrich, Ian Bruce, Chris Griffiths, Richard Warren, Deborah Symmons, Darren Ashcroft, Will Dixon, Mark Lunt, Zenas Yiu, Louise Mercer - Risk assessment and suicide prevention: Improving skills and confidence of frontline workers internationally through STORM training
Key researchers: Linda Gask, Gillian Green, Louis Appleby, Richard Morris - ASPIRE™: Using machine learning to detect undiagnosed fractures in patients with osteoporosis
Key researchers: Paul A Bromiley, Timothy Cootes, Eleni Kariki, Judith Adams - Stimulating debate, changing practice and influencing policy in tackling drug-related deaths in the UK, Europe and USA
Key researchers: Tim Millar, Graham Dunn, Matthias Pierce, Andrew Jones
UOA 3 Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
- Redressing health inequalities through evidence-based health and social care practice with deaf sign language users
Key researchers: Alys Young, Katherine Rogers, Emma Ferguson-Coleman
- Modernising drug development practices for precision dosing in diverse patient populations
Key researchers: Amin Rostami-Hodjegan, Leon Aarons, Jill Barber, Aleksandra Galetin - Promoting oral health in medically compromised patients to improve patient outcomes
Key researchers: Anne-Marie Glenny, Helen Worthington, Janet Clarkson, Philip Riley, Martin McCabe
- Optimising patient care for the prevention of dental caries
Key researchers: Anne-Marie Glenny, Helen Worthington, Janet Clarkson, Tanya Walsh
- Falls prevention amongst older people: increased reach and further impact of interventions, uptake and adherence
Key researchers: Chris Todd, Dawn Skelton, Jackie Oldham, Maria Horne
- Improving health service support for family carers during end-of-life care: implementing a Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool Intervention (CSNAT-I) and principles for organisation change
Key researchers: Gunn Grande, Lynn Austin, Janet Diffin
- Transforming referral management in oral surgery
Key researchers: Iain Pretty, Tanya Walsh, Martin Tickle, Caroline Sanders
- Optimising outcomes for people with venous leg ulcers
Key researchers: Jo Dumville, Nicky Cullum, Paul Wilson - Smart inhaler improves adherence to treatment for children with Asthma
Key researchers: Tariq Aslam, Clare Murray, David Henson, Ian Murray
UOA 4 Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
- Metacognitive therapy improves outcomes for patients with anxiety and depression worldwide
Key researchers: Adrian Wells, David Reeves, Pia Callesen
- Transforming long-term support for stroke survivors – developing and implementing clinical tools that informed national policy and improved regional and national service provision
- Key researchers: Audrey Bowen, Emma Patchwood, Andy Vail
- Transforming autism treatment worldwide
Key researchers: Jonathan Green, Shruti Garg, Ming Wai Wan
- Worldwide reduction in the number of children exposed to harmful antiepileptic drugs in the womb
Key researchers: Rebecca Bromley, Jill Clayton-Smith
- A new international measurement standard and guidelines for healthy lighting
Key researchers: Timothy Brown, Robert Lucas, Annette Allen
- World’s first effective treatment to prevent psychosis has been implemented as standard treatment in NHS mental health services across England
Key researchers: Tony Morrison, Paul French, Richard Bentall, Linda Davies, Graham Dunn, Shon Lewis, Sophie Parker, Rory Byrne
- Shaping UK policy and guidelines for suicide prevention
Key researchers: Pauline Turnbull, Louis Appleby
UOA 5 Biological Science
- Commercial development and patient benefit of adoptive cell therapy (ACT) for cancer
Key researchers: Fiona Thistlethwaite, Robert Hawkins, Peter Stern, David Gilham
- Transforming the management of people with inherited eye diseases: a paradigm for the implementation of genomic medicine
Key researchers: Graeme Black, Panos Sergouniotis, Jamie Ellingford, Rachel Taylor - Improving treatment and prevention of cervical cancer in Kenya
Key researchers: Ian Hampson, Lynne Hampson
- A new international lighting standard that meets our biological needs
Key researchers: Robert Lucas, Tim Brown, Annette Allen, Helena Bailes
- The miRBase microRNA database – driving the development of commercial microRNA research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics
Key researchers: Sam Griffiths-Jones, Ana Kozomara, Maria Birgaoanu
- Improved infection awareness, prevention and treatment in hard-to-reach groups
Key researchers: Sheena Cruickshank, Kathryn Else, Joanne Pennock, Richard Grencis, Andrew MacDonald, Philip Withers - Re-animating school biology lessons through teaching with living flies
Key researchers: Andreas Prokop, Sanjai Patel - Defining global antifungal azole resistance in Aspergillus – enhancing diagnostics and driving drug discovery
Key researchers: David Denning, Peter Warn, Michael Bromley, Paul Bowyer, Caroline Moore
UOA 7 Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
- Affecting change of UK public health policy on vitamin D, sun exposure, skin cancer and vitamin D supplementation
Key researchers: Ann Webb, Lesley Rhodes
- Arsenic research identifies avoidable health risks from groundwater arsenic informing increased awareness, policy change and mitigation
Key researchers: David Polya, Jonathan Lloyd, Bart Van Dongen, Jianxin Pan - New geological understanding reducing risk and uncertainty to improve economic exploitation of oil and gas resources across North Africa
Key researchers: Jonathan Redfern, Cathy Hollis, Mads Huuse, Kevin Taylor, Stefan Schroeder, Emma Finch, David Hodgetts
- Development of radioactive effluent management strategies at Sellafield delivers economic and environmental benefits
Key researchers: Katherine Morris, Sam Shaw, Jon Lloyd, Kurt Smith, Lynn Foster, Tom Neill
- The development of new international regulatory standards deliver global engine emission limits and reduction in aviation soot
Key researcher: Paul Williams
- Making drinking water safe by enabling ‘smart’ water distribution networks
Key researchers: Stephen Boult, John Gaffney
UOA 8 Chemistry
- C4X Discovery: generating market-leading drug candidates from cutting-edge technology
Key researchers: Andrew Almond, Charles Blundell
- DOSY and pure shift NMR: from changed practice in the chemical, pharmaceutical and scientific instrument industries to a multimillion-pound new food ingredient
Key researchers: Mathias Nilsson, Gareth Morris, Ralph Adams
- Driving the industrial biotechnology revolution: cheaper and more sustainable chemical manufacturing through enzyme discovery, engineering and scale-up
Key researchers: Nickolas Turner, Sabine Flitsch, Nigel Scrutton, Jason Micklefield, Michael Greaney, Nicholas Weise, Christopher Hardacre, Sarah Lovelock, Anthony Green
UOA 9 Physics
- Establishing the UK’s first high-energy proton beam therapy service at The Christie Hospital Manchester and University College London Hospital
Key researchers: Hywel Owen, Robert Appleby, Ranald Mackay, Karen Kirkby, Roger Barlow - Increased public understanding and economic impact arising from particle physics and cosmology research
Key researchers: Richard Battye, Brian Cox, Richard Davies, Clive Dickinson, Jeffrey Forshaw, Patrick Leahy, Althea Wilkinson
- Establishing and directing the world’s most significant radio astronomy infrastructure investment: the Square Kilometre Array
Key researchers: Andrew Faulkner, Simon Garrington, Keith Grainge, Michael Kramer, Anna Scaife, Richard Schilizzi, Ralph Spencer, Benjamin Stappers, Peter Wilkinson
- Influence on graphene policy and global market growth
Key researchers: Konstantin Novaselov, Andre Geim, Cinzia Casiraghi, Ursel Bangert, Rahul Nair
- Product enhancement by graphene
Key researchers: Konstantin Novaselov, Andre Geim, Aravind Vijayaraghavan
- Radio astronomy and big data – bringing STEM training to the developing world
Key researchers: Robert Beswick, Anna Scaife, Benjamin Stappers, Peter Wilkinson, Rene Breton, Anita M S Richards
- Jodrell Bank astronomy research inspires millions of people from a wide range of backgrounds to be more engaged with science
Key researchers: Tim O'Brien, Robert Beswick, Rene Breton, Clive Dickinson, Simon Garrington, Michael Kramer
UOA 10 Mathematical Sciences
- Image reconstruction algorithms underpin Rapiscan Systems RTT®110 baggage scanner, bringing benefits to airports and generating over $215 million in sales
Key researchers: William Lionheart, Marta Betcke, Nicola Wadeson, William Thompson - Modelling in a pandemic: advising the UK response to COVID-19 and protecting enclosed communities
Key researchers: Lorenzo Pellis, Ian Hall, Thomas House, Christopher Overton, Helena Stage, Stefan Güttel
UOA 11 Computer Science and Informatics
- Groundbreaking computer vision research revolutionises digital entertainment
Key researchers: Chris Taylor, Tim Cootes, Carole Twining, David Christinacce, Kola Babalola, Vlad Petrovic - Context-aware text mining for the pharmaceutical sector
Key researchers: Goran Nenadic, David Robertson
- Rule-based analysis for talking to spacecraft
Key researchers: Howard Barringer, David Rydeheard
- SpiNNaker – enabling brain-inspired AI
Key researchers: Steve Furber, James Garside, David Lester, Oliver Rhodes
- Improving healthcare and animal welfare using statistical shape models
Key researchers: Tim Cootes, Chris Taylor, Carole Twining, Claudia Lindner, Rodri Davies
UOA 12 Engineering
- Manchester’s independent graphite research for the Office for Nuclear Regulation has been instrumental in improving the safety, security and reliability of the UK’s nuclear industry
Key researchers: Abbie Jones, Paul Mummery, Barry Marsden, Graham Hall, Alex Theodosiou, Muhammad Fahad, Tatiana Grebennikova, Rahul Nair, Wu Wen - Providing the scientific foundations to grow a sustainable, low-carbon UK bioenergy sector
Key researchers: Andrew Welfle, Patricia Thornley, Mirjam Roder, Paul Gilbert
- Financial and environmental benefits through the development and transfer of control and monitoring technology in the process industries
Key researchers: Barry Lennox, David Sandoz, Ognjen Marjarnovic, Matt Desforges, Matt McEwan, Marie O'Brien
- Empowering local climate change action: shaping local authority policy through the adoption of carbon budgets
Key researchers: Carly McLachlan, Alice Larkin, Kevin Anderson, Jaise Kuriakose, John Broderick, Chris Jones, Sarah Mander, Ruth Wood
- Increasing renewable energy and reducing customer bills: using managed connections and flexible demand response controls in the electricity network to support decarbonisation with the minimum infrastructure investment
Key researchers: Haiyu Li, Eduardo A Martinez-Ceseña, Jovica Milanovic, Zhongdong Wang, Luis F Ochoa, Pierluigi Mancarella, Christopher Jones
- Reducing climate change caused by shipping and aviation
Key researchers: Alice Larkin, Kevin Anderson, Sarah Mander, Ruth Wood, John Broderick, Conor Walsh, Paul Gilbert, Michael Traut
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Key researchers: Julien Harou, Evgenii Matrosov, James Tomlinson, Anthony Hurford, Ivana Huskova, Andrew Slaughter, Robel Geressu, Erfani Tohid, Kevis Pachos
- Increasing productivity in the process industries through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for the optimisation of distillation operations
Key researchers: Robin Smith, Megan Jobson, Nan Zhang, Lluvia Ochoa-Estopier
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Key researchers: Ping Xiao, Xiaofeng Zhao
- Robotic and mechatronic manufacturing of 3D shell-shaped textile products to deliver medical and structural textile reinforcements
Key researchers: Prasad Potluri, Tilak Dias, Anura Fernando
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Key researchers: Simon Rowland, Ian Cotton, Iain Dupere, Konstantinos Kopsidas, Vidyadhar Peesapati, Roger Shuttleworth, Jeff Robertson, Antonios Tzimas - Reducing usage of fossil oil-based insulating liquids in power transformers to deliver environmental, safety, and financial benefits
Key researchers: Qiang Li, Zhongdong Wang, Shanika Matharage, Paul Jarman
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Key researchers: Adam Fletcher, Anthony Peyton, Wuliang Yin, William Lionheart, Liam Marsh, Michael O'Toole
UOA 13 Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
- Strengthening planning for urban climate change adaptation and resilience
Key researchers: Jeremy Carter, Stephen Hincks, John Handley, Angela Connelly - Ketso: improving professional practice and participation by embedding research findings into a physical toolkit
Key researcher: Joanne Tippett
UOA 14 Geography and Environmental Studies
- Mobilising urban living labs to create sustainable infrastructure
Key researchers: James Evans, Jana Wendler - Climate Just: shaping more socially-aware responses to climate change
Key researchers: Sarah Lindley, Joseph Kandeh, Alexandra Kazmierczak, Angela Connelly, Nigel Lawson
- The Everyday Austerity project: shaping welfare policy and practice and shifting public understanding of the everyday impacts of austerity in the UK
Key researcher: Sarah Marie Hall
- Transforming European energy poverty policy
Key researchers: Stefan Bouzarovski, Saska Petrova, Harriet Thomson, Neil Simcock, Sergio Tirado Herrero, Caitlin Robinson
UOA 16 Economics and Econometrics
- Designing and implementing a new Kidney Exchange (DEC-K) programme in Italy
Key researcher: Antonio Nicolò - Fuller working lives and the economics of ageing
Key researcher: James Banks
- Building analytical capacity, informing monetary and macroprudential policy, and strengthening policy frameworks in central banks in middle-income countries
Key researchers: Pierre-Richard Agénor, Kyriakos Neanidis
- Shaping the design of economic policy to reduce diet-related disease
Key researcher: Rachel Griffith
UOA 17 Business and Management Studies
- Influencing policy, management practices, and response capabilities for the effective management of spontaneous volunteers during disasters
Key researchers: Duncan Shaw, Jenny Moreno, Chris Smith - Changing how international policy organisations understand and manage environmental problems
Key researcher: Frank Geels
- Addressing workplace bullying and harassment: building systems and competences for formal intervention
Key researchers: Helge Hoel, Cary Cooper
- Stimulating demand-side innovation through policies on the Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI)
Key researchers: Jakob Edler, Elvira Uyarra, Luke Georghiou, Jillian Yeow
- Influencing international and national employment policies to promote inclusive labour markets
Key researchers: Jill Rubery, Aristea Koukiadaki, Isabel Tavora, Miguel Martinez-Lucio, Damian Grimshaw, Mathew Johnson, Arjan Keizer
- Influencing innovation and servitisation in small and medium-sized enterprises in Manchester
Key researchers: Judy Zolkiewski, Jamie Burton
- The Foundational Economy: influencing economic policy and practice in Wales
Key researchers: Julie Froud, Michael Moran, Karel Williams
- Development and implementation of improved software and service systems in the European manufacturing industry
Key researchers: Nikolay Mehandjiev, Iain Stalker, Martin Carpenter
- Evaluating and improving extended access to primary care
Key researchers: Ruth Boaden, Damian Hodgson, William Whittaker
- Improving public and organisational policies on health and wellbeing in an ageing workforce
Key researchers: Sheena Johnson, Helge Hoel, Lynn Holdsworth
UOA 18 Law
- Influencing labour standards and stakeholder action through international, European and national law and policy
Key researcher: Aristea Koukiadaki - Shaping domestic abuse policy and practice
Key researcher: David Gadd
- Shaping administrative justice policymaking
Key researcher: Robert Thomas
- Shaping COVID-19 vaccination policy and practice
Key researcher: Søren Holm - Protecting Education Rights in Russian Law and through International Standards
Key researchers: Maria Smirnova, Christopher Thornhill
UOA 19 Politics and International Studies
- Strengthening political representation and advocacy of the Roma community in Slovenia
Key researchers: Andreja Zevnik, Andrew Russell - Informing British democracy: the impact of the British Election Study on the media, polling, and political party decision making
Key researchers: Edward Fieldhouse, Jane Green, Chris Prosser, Jonathan Mellon
- Getting gender on the devolution agenda in Greater Manchester
Key researchers: Francesca Gains, Clare Annesley
- Jam and justice: shaping policy through co-production
Key researcher: Liz Richardson
- Increasing the integrity of the British elections while protecting the rights of the individual voters
Key researcher: Maria Sobolewska
UOA 21 Sociology
- Influencing cultural policy for democracy by mobilising the civic capacity of ‘left behind’ communities
Key researchers: Andrew Miles, Jill Ebrey - History lessons/Our Migration Story: creating an inclusive history curriculum
Key researcher: Claire Alexander
- Ensuring more effective and safer data sharing practices through the Anonymisation Decision Making Framework
Key researchers: Mark Elliot, Elaine Mackey
- The impact of research on work, stress and wellbeing on influencing employment policies and public campaigns on improving working conditions
Key researcher: Tarani Chandola
- Age-friendly cities: improving the lives of older people in urban communities through research
Key researchers: Tine Buffel, Chris Phillipson
UOA 22a Development Studies
- Promoting small farmer cooperation for sustainable livelihoods in India and Nepal
Key researcher: Bina Agarwal
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Key researcher: Gindo Tampubolon
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Key researchers: Sam Hickey, Kunal Sen, David Hulme, Tom Lavers, Antonio Savoia, Pritish Behuria, Pablo Yanguas
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Key researcher: Stephanie Barrientos
UOA 22b Social Anthropology
- Shaping public debate and policy on cosmetic procedures in the UK
Key researcher: Jeanette Edwards
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The establishment of a Catholic family centre for Papua New Guineans in Cairns, Far North Queensland
Key researcher: Karen Sykes
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Reframing understandings of the sonic environment in Okinawa, Japan
Key researcher: Rupert Cox
UOA 23 Education
- New-generation children's zones: supporting schools and their partners to implement long-term sustainable change in disadvantaged areas
Key researchers: Kirstin Kerr, Alan Dyson, Carlo Raffo - Transforming wellbeing provision in education: changing the way that schools identify, monitor and provide support for mental health needs among their pupils
Key researchers: Neil Humphrey, Michael Wigelsworth, Kirstin Kerr, Pam Qualter
- Promoting equity in undergraduate admissions
Key researcher: Steven Jones
UOA 25 Area Studies
- Developing emergency medical team deployments worldwide
Key researchers: Bertrand Taithe, Tony Redmond, Anisa Jafar, Amy Hughes - Making data work for the humanitarian community
Key researchers: Larissa Fast, Bertrand Taithe, Róisín Read, Sophie Roborgh, Allard Duursma, Roger Mac Ginty
UOA 26 Modern Languages and Linguistics
- Enhancing delivery of multilingual support services for domestic abuse survivors
Key researcher: Rebecca Tipton - Bertolt Brecht’s legacy: enhancing understanding, stimulating debate and influencing creative practice
Key researcher: Stephen Parker
- Conflict with Russia in the new information environment: shaping policy analysis, broadcaster practices and public understanding
Key researchers: Steve Hutchings, Vera Tolz
- Influencing local government strategies and European policy discussion on Eastern European Roma migrants
Key researcher: Yaron Matras
- Supporting social inclusion and justice through enhanced understanding and recognition of language diversity
Key researcher: Yaron Matras
UOA 27 English Language and Literature
- Queer arts as activism
Key researchers: Jackie Stacey, Monica Pearl, Laura Doan
- The Centre for New Writing: developing new writers and audiences, enriching public debate and informing arts policy
Key researchers: John McAuliffe, Honor Gavin, Jeanette Winterson, Ian McGuire, Kamila Shamsie, Beth Underdown
- Changing public perception and creative practice around the Irish migrant experience in Britain
Key researcher: Liam Harte
- Show me the money: improving public and professional understanding of economics and finance
Key researcher: Peter Knight
UOA 28 History
- History for humanitarians: developing and deploying historical methods for humanitarian agencies and policymakers
Key researchers: Bertrand Taithe, Eleanor Davey
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Key researcher: Hannah Barker
- Corpses of mass violence: changing practice in forensic exhumations
Key researcher: Jean-Marc Dreyfus
- Sleeping on it: using history to understand and address today's sleep crisis
Key researcher: Sasha Handley
UOA 29 Classics
- The circulation of ancient manuscripts on the antiquities market: improving the ethical and regulatory practices and standards of market stakeholders
Key researcher: Roberta Mazza
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Cultural protection in post-conflict Iraq
Key researcher: Stuart Campbell
UOA 30 Philosophy
- Climate Just: mapping climate disadvantage
Key researcher: John O'Neill
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Flood re: flood insurance and social justice
Key researcher: John O'Neill
UOA 31 Theology and Religious Studies
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Enhancing church practitioner training, public understanding and the work of Christian communicators through a new paradigm for explaining early Christian diversity
Key researcher: Peter Oakes
UOA 32 Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- "I am Tibetan, this is my story": developing new museological approaches to the representation of Tibet
Key researcher: Emma Martin
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Developing a museum policy and practice for the curation of spontaneous memorials after terrorist attacks and their use for post-trauma recovery
Key researcher: Kostas Arvanitis
UOA 33a Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- In Place of War (IPOW) supporting, developing and promoting artists from conflict zones: from responsive research to internationally significant arts organisation
Key researchers: James Thompson, Jenny Hughes, Alison Jeffers
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Multi-Story Water: cultivating environmental citizenship in West Yorkshire through sited performance research
Key researcher: Stephen Scott-Bottoms
UOA 33b Music
- Singing for life: advancing natural voice practice through professional development and intercultural engagement
Key researcher: Caroline Bithell
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Sonic adventures: enhancing cultural experiences through geolocative audio and interactive composition
Key researcher: Ricardo Climent