̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Catherine Barnard

New PhD funding programme launched

ps748 — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:17:11 +0000

Trinity College and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s new £48 million programme enabling fully-funded PhDs has been launched.

̽��ֱ�� launches enhanced bursary scheme

ps748 — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 13:19:47 +0000

̽��ֱ��new scheme is being made possible through the generosity of philanthropic donations from alumni and friends of the collegiate ̽��ֱ��. ̽��ֱ��Harding Challenge, established by David and Claudia Harding as part of their £100 million gift to Cambridge and St Catharine’s College in February 2019, was designed to underpin this expansion in bursary provision. Far more students will qualify for support since the threshold for eligibility will rise from the current maximum household income of £42,620 to £62,215. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� expects 25 – 30% of students will be eligible for the enhanced support (currently it’s around 20%). Once fully rolled out, around 700 students will also qualify for an additional £1,000 because they were eligible for free school meals.

UK students can apply to the Student Loans Company for a maintenance loan to cover basic living costs. There is widespread take-up of these loans: repayments are linked to future earnings which means they are more like a tax than conventional debt, and they are an invaluable support to making ̽��ֱ�� more affordable for as many students as possible. However, research conducted by the ̽��ֱ�� suggests many students struggle to meet all their expenses because parents often can’t afford to contribute to the extent that these means-tested loans assume they will. It’s these financial gaps that the new bursary scheme will help to alleviate.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, said:

"This new enhanced bursary scheme, which wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of donors, will help to ease some of our students' financial worries. ̽��ֱ��scheme’s launch means far more students will be eligible for support. This is particularly relevant now, at a time when many families’ incomes have been affected adversely by the COVID-19 pandemic."

̽��ֱ��launch of the enhanced bursary scheme follows a pilot scheme involving 20 Colleges established and largely funded by Trinity College. Students in receipt of these bursaries said they were able to participate more fully in the academic and wider student activities Cambridge has to offer. ̽��ֱ��awards also had a positive impact on their mental well-being, reducing the anxieties they had about finances. Colleges also noted that there was a marked reduction in applications for hardship funding in-year.

Professor Catherine Barnard, Senior Tutor at Trinity College, said:

" ̽��ֱ��enhanced bursary scheme is about removing barriers, and helping students fully participate in ̽��ֱ�� life. Our evidence suggests supporting students in this way not only improves their wellbeing but ensures they can thrive while studying at Cambridge."

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s Faculty of Education has conducted research to find out how effective this level of support is for students. This found it contributes substantially to their wellbeing, participation in academic life and student societies, and overall student experience.

Under the new scheme, bursaries of up to £3,500 per year will be given to students from households with an assessed income of up to £62,215, without any application needed. Previously students were given support if the assessed income rose to £42,620. ̽��ֱ��bursary will be tapered so those at the lower end will receive more. For example, all undergraduates from households with assessed incomes below £25,000 will receive the full amount. Those at the top end will receive £100. ̽��ֱ��amount they receive is a grant and so is non-repayable. Awards will be further enhanced for students who join the ̽��ֱ�� from local authority care or who have been classed as independent by their regional funding body. In addition, the scheme will include a supplementary award of £1,000 per year to all low-income students who qualified for free school meals, contributing to a bursary of £4,500 in each year of their undergraduate studies. Mature students (aged 21+) are also eligible for both the enhanced and supplementary awards.

Further details on how the scheme will work

A new enhanced bursary scheme is being launched by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to support undergraduate students facing financial pressures. Over the next ten years, more than £100 million will be awarded to students, across all the Colleges. ̽��ֱ��additional funding, to help with living costs, will enable students to enjoy the benefits a Cambridge education offers, regardless of their personal financial circumstances. Students will start benefiting from October 2021.

̽��ֱ��new bursary scheme, which wouldn't be possible without the generosity of donors, will help to ease some of our students' financial worries

Vice-Chancellor, Prof Stephen Toope

Bursaries at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge academics elected to British Academy fellowship

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 12:49:00 +0000

They are among 86 distinguished scholars to be elected to the fellowship in recognition of their work in the fields of law, economics, Middle Eastern studies, geography, history of science, art and architecture, classics, and English literature.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge academics made Fellows of the Academy this year are:

Professor Catherine Barnard (Faculty of Law; Trinity College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of her work on European Union law, especially the single market; Brexit and the UK-EU future relationship; employment law, especially equality law, and its European dimension.
Professor Giancarlo Corsetti (Faculty of Economics; Clare College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of his work in the field of economic policy and international economics, with focus on currency, financial and debt crises, European monetary union and open economy macroeconomics.
Professor Khaled Fahmy (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; King's College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of his work on modern Middle Eastern history, history of Islamic law, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Professor Sarah Radcliffe (Department of Geography; Christ's College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of her work on critical development and political geography; postcolonial and decolonial geography; indigeneity; intersectionality in socio-spatial inequalities; these themes in relation to Andean lives, contestations and knowledges.
Professor James Secord (Department of History and Philosophy of Science; Christ’s College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of his work on history of science; science communication; natural history, evolution and geology in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Professor Caroline van Eck (Department of History of Art; King’s College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of her work on the history of European art and architecture c. 1800 in a globalising world.
Professor Timothy Whitmarsh (Faculty of Classics; St John's College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of his work on ancient Mediterranean literature, culture and thought; Greek literature, especially of the Roman Empire; cultural contacts in the ancient world; ancient religion and scepticism; literary and cultural theory.
Professor Clair Wills (Faculty of English; Murray Edwards College) has been elected to the fellowship in recognition of her work on 20th-century British and Irish cultural history; contemporary writing; the literature and social history of migration.

̽��ֱ��British Academy has also welcomed four new honorary Fellows, among them Bridget Kendall MBE, Master of Peterhouse Cambridge. Kendall is a broadcaster and writer with a particular interest in Russia, international diplomacy and security and promotion of language learning.

̽��ֱ��new Fellows join a community of over 1,400 leading minds that make up the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Current Fellows include the classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard, the historian Professor Sir Simon Schama and philosopher Professor Baroness Onora O’Neill, while current honorary Fellows include Dame Joan Bakewell, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Baroness Brenda Hale.

Professor Whitmarsh said: “I have owed much, along the way, to the British Academy, who funded my postgraduate studies and awarded me a Mid-Career Fellowship in 2012-2013, which allowed me to write my book Battling the Gods. I am now greatly honoured, and genuinely humbled, to have been elected a Fellow.”

Professor Sir David Cannadine, President of the British Academy, said: "I would like to extend a warm welcome and hearty congratulations to the individuals who have joined the British Academy Fellowship. This is a time to reflect on the many invaluable contributions these academics have made to their disciplines. It is also a time for celebration, and I hope that, social distancing measures notwithstanding, each of our new Fellows is able to do so in ways great or small."

As well as a fellowship, the British Academy is a funding body for research, nationally and internationally, and a forum for debate and engagement.

Eight academics from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have been made Fellows of the prestigious British Academy for the humanities and social sciences.

I have owed much, along the way, to the British Academy ... I am now greatly honoured, and genuinely humbled, to have been elected a Fellow

Timothy Whitmarsh

̽��ֱ��British Academy

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Awards recognise teaching excellence

ps748 — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:14:41 +0000

̽��ֱ��prizes were presented by Professor Graham Virgo, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education.

Professor Virgo said: “We are extremely proud of the outstanding education we deliver at Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��prizewinners showcase many of the qualities that make Cambridge teaching exceptional. From creative curriculum design to engagement with world-leading research, from support for outreach and inclusivity to careful and committed personal attention in supervisions, our students have benefitted immensely from the imagination and dedication shown by the recipients of this year’s awards.”

This year’s ceremony was held at Girton College, which is celebrating two anniversaries: 150 years since its foundation as the UK's first residential College for women to study in higher education and 40 years since the College became co-educational. 10 Girton Fellows have previously been awarded Pilkington Prizes.

̽��ֱ��2019 Pilkington Prize winners are;

Dr Ruth Abbott, Faculty of English

A three-time winner at CUSU’s student-led teaching awards, Dr Abbott’s students attest to the life-changing experience of being taught by her. She is deeply committed to outreach, diversity and equality, and has worked tirelessly to make teaching spaces safe and enabling.

Professor Catherine Barnard, Faculty of Law

Professor Barnard consistently receives outstanding feedback from the 200+ students who take her compulsory core course on European Union law every year. There is a strong synergy between her world-leading research and her teaching, and she also undertakes extensive public engagement, particularly in relation to Brexit, on which she is a sought-after commentator.

Dr Cecilia Brassett, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

As the ̽��ֱ�� Clinical Anatomist, Dr Brassett has pioneered the innovative use of technology to supplement traditional dissection demonstrations in the teaching of anatomy. She has also led the creation of a new Biological and Biomedical sciences module within the Natural Sciences Tripos, undertaken extensive teaching and examination duties, and engaged in vital public engagement and outreach work through the Festival of Ideas and working with the Sutton Trust.

Dr Manali Desai, Department of Sociology

Dr Desai has helped to deliver improvements in teaching at every level in the department, from slight adjustments in classroom delivery to macro-level reforms of the curriculum. She works on a continuous feedback basis, incorporating immediate change where possible, and working creatively and collaboratively to plan and deliver larger reforms where necessary.

Dr Sonja Dunbar, Department of Plant Sciences

Dr Dunbar is not only an outstanding and dedicated teacher herself, she is also committed to improving the educational experience of all students in her department. She has undertaken research into how students access scientific papers (which is now informing departmental practices), introduced new teaching methods, led course reform, revised teaching materials, and personally recruited and trained supervisors to ensure students receive teaching of outstanding quality.

Dr Midge Gillies, Institute of Continuing Education

As Institute Teaching Officer in Creative Writing, Dr Gillies is remarkably skilled at adapting her teaching to the diverse needs and experiences of students in continuing education, acting as expert tutor and critical friend to learners from a wide range of backgrounds and with a wide range of writing projects. She is a driving force for change, helping bring new courses and projects to fruition, in particular the new ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Centre for Creative Writing.

Dr Jessica Gwynne, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy

Dr Gwynne has revolutionised teaching in her department, helping to make Materials Science one of the most popular options in the Natural Sciences Tripos. She has a passion for helping students to reach their full potential, and plays an energetic role in all aspects of departmental teaching, including lecturing on a wide range of subjects, course coordination, examining, outreach, and training and motivating staff involved in teaching.

Dr Cesare Hall, Department of Engineering

Dr Hall was voted best Part 1A lecturer in his department for two years running, and is known for his fun and accessible thermodynamics lecturers featuring live experimental demonstrations. His research, on new propulsion technology to reduce emissions from aircraft, features heavily in his teaching. He is also committed to access and outreach and regularly delivers engineering masterclasses and admissions talks.

Dr Liz Hook, Department of Pathology

Dr Hook has transformed Clinical Pathology teaching from a traditional lecture-based course into an interactive, clinically-integrated programme featuring innovative e-learning modules and a new exam structure with practical assessment. She receives glowing student feedback for her engaging teaching.

Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, Institute of Astronomy

Dr Madhusudhan introduced a novel course on the theory of extrasolar planets which has no precedent in Cambridge or elsewhere. He used a combination of the latest research literature, innovative pedagogical techniques, web-based tools and his engaging lecturing style to create a very successful course receiving excellent student reviews. He regularly goes above and beyond for his students with extra supervisions, careers guidance, and special consideration for inclusive teaching.

Dr Laura Moretti, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Dr Moretti’s innovative approach to her flagship course in Classical Japanese has resulted in a dramatic increase in students opting for the paper. She is equally fervent in developing educational opportunities for younger scholars and professionals, students in Japan and the general public, and has developed and run multiple summer schools in Asian and Japanese studies for different audiences.

Professor Anna Philpott, School of Clinical Medicine

Professor Philpott has conceived, designed and implemented a highly innovative MRes/PhD programme in cancer biology and medicine which substantially extends the reach of graduate teaching in this important and cross-cutting discipline at Cambridge. Throughout her career she has championed diversity and has sought in particular to mentor younger female trainees, to encourage them to reach their full potential.

Professor Simone Teufel, Department of Computer Science and Technology

Professor Teufel was the main author of a new Part IA course in Machine Learning for Real World Data which her colleagues consider exceptionally innovative in its design, content and mode of delivery, unlike any equivalent course anywhere else in the world. ̽��ֱ��course was enthusiastically received by students and was key to the Department’s successful expansion of its first-year undergraduate teaching and restructuring of the Tripos to deliver more practical experience.

̽��ֱ��Pilkington Prizes were initiated by Sir Alastair Pilkington – graduate of Trinity College, engineer, businessman and the first Chairman of the Cambridge Foundation – who passionately believed that teaching excellence was crucial to Cambridge’s future success. Largely as a result of his efforts, and supported by a significant personal donation, the ̽��ֱ��’s Pilkington Prizes Fund was created in 1992. More recently, the Fund was augmented with a generous donation from the late Clifford Anthony Ingram.

̽��ֱ��2019 Pilkington Prizes were awarded last night (25th June) to thirteen highly gifted and committed teachers from a variety of disciplines. This year’s prizewinners demonstrate an impressive array of achievements, including developing innovative courses from scratch, incorporating the latest research into undergraduate teaching, pioneering the creative use of technology to support learning, and supporting and encouraging inclusive teaching.

̽��ֱ��prizewinners showcase many of the qualities that make Cambridge teaching exceptional

Professor Graham Virgo

Yes

Mend the gap: solving the UK’s productivity puzzle

sjr81 — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:02:25 +0000

̽��ֱ��UK is the world’s sixth largest economy. But would it surprise you to learn that outside of London, the South East and a handful of major cities, many areas of the UK are just as poor as swathes of Eastern Europe?

̽��ֱ��disparity between different regions of the UK is stark, and not only in terms of living standards and educational attainment – but, crucially, also in the productivity of its workforce.

̽��ֱ��productivity gap is one of the most serious and vexing economic problems facing the government of the day, and Brexit is adding uncertainty to the mix.

Close the productivity gap between the most and least successful regions of the UK, and the GDP of UK PLC will invariably rise. Allow it to remain at current, stagnant levels – or, even worse, let the gap widen – and it’s not only our place in the world rankings that suffers, but also the UK’s economy, infrastructure, educational standards and health, as well as other indicators of social cohesion, such as child poverty and rising crime rates.

Put simply, productivity fires the engine of our economy – and we all need to mind the gap.

̽��ֱ��UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’ is what concerns Dr Maria Abreu from the Department of Land Economy. She’s working with colleagues from universities around the UK as part of the Productivity Insights Network funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Sheffield. ̽��ֱ��group of economists, geographers, management experts and other scientists are taking a place-based approach to a problem HM government is desperate to solve.

Last year, the government published a 256-page Industrial Strategy that placed the productivity gap at its centre and is looking to the Network to provide policy recommendations, explains Abreu.

“There’s a narrative that the UK is a very rich country, but many regions of the UK outside the capital are poor,” she says. “We have a few of the richest regions in Europe and some of the poorest. It’s a delusion to say we’re rich.

“All the growth in the economy is centred on London, the South East and a few other cities. But growth is low or negative in the rest of the UK, and overall that means there is nearly no growth whatsoever. We are standing still.”

Compared with other OECD countries, the UK has had low productivity performance since the 1970s.

̽��ֱ��gap with other countries closed significantly during the Labour governments of the late 1990s and 2000s: GDP per hour worked grew at an average rate of 2.1% until 2007 when the global financial crisis began.

Since then, however, productivity growth has been negative (-1.1% per year for 2007–9) or very low (0.4% per year from 2009–13), and the gap with other OECD countries has increased again despite employment rates remaining relatively strong, leading to the so-called productivity puzzle.

̽��ֱ��three-year ESRC project is divided into distinct themes, and Abreu is leading on researching how the skills of the UK labour force, developed from preschool to life-long adult learning, go hand in hand with the rise (or fall) of productivity – and how place is a crucial, determining factor in all of this.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that labour productivity in 2016 was significantly above the UK average in London (+33%) and the South East (+6%), but below average in all other regions and nations, and particularly low in the North East (-11%), the West Midlands (-13%), Yorkshire (-15%), and Wales and Northern Ireland (-17%).

“My group is looking at education and teaching standards, and what might be causing the regional disparities,” says Abreu. “We are also looking at graduate migration because we have some excellent northern universities, but those regions lose a lot of people after graduation.

“London and its surrounding areas are very successful in attracting graduates and highly skilled workers from around the UK, as well as migrant workers from abroad.

“ ̽��ֱ��capital’s productivity is enormous, but this means it is decoupling from the rest of the economy. We can link this directly to globalisation in the 1980s and the offshoring of certain industries. Most of the new jobs have been in hi-tech industries concentrated in only a few places.”

Abreu suggests the dismantling of the Regional Development Agencies and the move to LEPs (Learning Enterprise Zones) from 2010 has come at a huge cost to large areas of the UK that are no longer covered by a consistent development strategy.

She passionately believes that increasing education standards across the country is vital if the UK is ever to close its productivity gap. She also argues for proper development strategies for all regions of the UK – as well as investment in education.

̽��ֱ��extent to which parents are engaged with their children’s schooling also displays strong regional variations. Areas that are better off attract better teachers. ̽��ֱ��benefits and drawbacks of this regionalism become self-perpetuating and that affects everyone.

“These disparities in productivity, education and living standards affect us all,” says Abreu. “It matters if you have one region that far outpaces everywhere else. Regions get left behind, become very socially and politically unstable, and low productivity translates into low wages and deprivation. Families do badly at school and this entrenches poverty and poor social mobility, which impacts the rest of the country.”

Inset image: read more about our research on the topic of work in the ̽��ֱ��'s research magazine; download a pdf; view on Issuu.

When it comes to the output, education and wellbeing of the Great British workforce, our towns, cities and regions exist on a dramatically unequal footing. A new, wide-ranging research network hopes to find answers to a decades-old problem – the UK’s productivity gap.

There’s a narrative that the UK is a very rich country, but many regions of the UK outside the capital are poor.

Maria Abreu

Brandon Wong

Migrant workers and domestic labour

A study by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2015 found that migrant workers brought benefits to UK employers that led to productivity boosts. What happens after Brexit?

Professor Catherine Barnard from the Faculty of Law believes that too much of the Brexit debate has been taken up with the discussion of trade – manufacturing amounts to only 15% of the economy – rather than the impact of the migrant workforce.

“We know there are sectors that are highly dependent on EU labour such as agriculture, which is often low-paid, seasonal work where the incentive to UK workers is not that great,” says Barnard. “We also know that 10% of the NHS, especially in London, is made up of migrant workers. At Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, it’s 27% at postdoctoral level.”

Barnard, working with Dr Amy Ludlow and Sarah Fraser-Butlin, has been looking at the issue of immigration and the labour force, funded by the ESRC. They have focused on the East of England, visiting schools in Spalding as well as attending town hall meetings in Holt and Sheringham. Barnard says: “You get a very different view of the world. When I have given evidence to parliament, I can talk about these towns and their experiences of Eastern European migration – which are very different to the experiences of a town like Cambridge.

“ ̽��ֱ��reason people can’t get a hospital appointment or a school place is partly to do with migration, but it’s also because of the underfunding of public services. Local councils have lost 40% of their funding from central government since 2010.”

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All in a day’s work

lw355 — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 08:54:24 +0000

READ THE STORY HERE

Researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge are helping to understand the world of work – the good, the bad, the fair and the future.

Christopher Burns on Unsplash

Yes

Vice-Chancellor’s awards recognise the difference researchers make to society

cjb250 — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:44:35 +0000

̽��ֱ��announcement was made at a prize ceremony held at the Old Schools on 13 July. At the same event, one of Cambridge’s leading experts on EU law – and in particular, Brexit – received one of the Vice Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards for her work around the EU Referendum.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, says: “I would like to offer my warm congratulations to the recipients of our Impact and Public Engagement Awards. These are outstanding examples that reflect the tremendous efforts by our researchers to make a major contribution to society.”

Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards were established to recognise and reward those whose research has led to excellent impact beyond academia, whether on the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life. Each winner receives a prize of £1,000 and a trophy, with the overall winner - Dr Alexander Patto from the Department of Physics – receiving £2,000.

This year’s winners are:

Overall winner: Dr Alexander Patto (Department of Physics)

WaterScope

Using an open-source flexure microscope, spin-out company WaterScope is developing rapid, automated water testing kits and affordable diagnostics to empower developing communities. Its microscopes are being used for education, to inspire future scientists from India to Colombia. Its open-source microscope is supporting local initiatives, with companies such as STIClab in Tanzania making medical microscopes from recycled plastic bottles.

Elroy Dimson (Judge Business School)

‘Active Ownership’: Engaging with investee companies on environmental and social issues

‘Active Ownership’ refers to commitment by asset owners and their portfolio managers to engage with the businesses they own, focusing on issues that matter to all stakeholders and to the economy as a whole, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. By providing evidence to guide ESG strategy, Professor Dimson’s research has had a substantial impact on investment policy and practice.

Professor Nick Morrell (Department of Medicine)

From genetics to new treatments in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Severe high blood pressure in the lungs, known as idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, is a rare disease that affects approximately 1,000 people in the UK. ̽��ֱ��condition usually affects young women and average life expectancy is three to five years. Existing treatments improve symptoms but have little impact on survival. Professor Morrell has introduced routine genetic testing for this condition, and found that one in four patients carry a particular genetic mutation associated with more severe disease and worse survival. His research has identified new ways to treat the disease, the most promising of which is being commercialised through a university spin-out biotech company.

Professor Lawrence Sherman, Peter Neyroud, Dr Barak Ariel, Dr Cristobal Weinborn and Eleanor Neyroud (Institute of Criminology)

Cambridge Crime Harm Index

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Crime Harm Index is a tool for creating a single metric for the seriousness of crime associated with any one offender, victim, address, community, or prevention strategy, supplementing traditional measures giving all crimes equal weight. ̽��ֱ��UK Office of National Statistics credits the index as the stimulus to institute its own, modified version from 2017. Police use the Cambridge index to target highest-harm offenders, victims, places, times and days, differences in crime harm per capita differs across communities or within them over time, adding precision to decisions for allocating scarce resources in times of budget cuts.

Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards were set up to recognise and reward those who undertake quality engagement with research. Each winner receives a £1000 personal cash prize and a trophy. This year’s winners are:

Professor Catherine Barnard (Faculty of Law)

In the run up to the EU membership referendum Professor Barnard developed a range of outputs to explain key issues at stake including migration, which forms the basis of her research, in addition to the wider EU law remit. Harnessing the timeliness of the political climate, Barnard’s videos, online articles, radio and TV interviews have supported her engagement across 12 town hall events from Exeter to Newcastle, an open prison and round-table discussions with various public groups. She has also provided a number of briefing sessions to major political party MPs and peers. She has become a trusted public figure, and researcher, on EU law, Brexit and surrounding issues, ensuring that the voices of those key to the research process are heard and listened to.

Dr Elisa Laurenti (Wellcome/MRC Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology)

Dr Laurenti has engaged over 2,500 people, at six separate events, with her Stem Cell Robots activity. She collaborated with a researcher in educational robotics to produce this robot-based activity, which maps a stem cell’s differentiation to become a specific cell type. ̽��ֱ��activity has provided a platform for children, families and adults to discuss ethics and clinical applications of stem cell research.

Dr Nai-Chieh Liu (Department of Veterinary Medicine)

Dr Liu has developed a non-invasive respiratory function test for short-skulled dog breeds, including French bulldogs and pugs, which suffer from airway obstruction. She has engaged with dog owners by attending dog shows, dog club meetings and breeders’ premises to break down barriers between publics and veterinarians working to improve the health of these dogs. As a result of this engagement, the UK French bulldog club and the Bulldog Breed Council have adopted health testing schemes based on Dr Liu’s research.

Dr Neil Stott and Belinda Bell (Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, Judge Business School)

Dr Stott and Miss Bell established Cambridge Social Ventures to embed research around social innovation into a practical workshop to support emerging social entrepreneurs. Since the first workshop in 2014, they have reached almost 500 people wanting to create social change by starting and growing a business. ̽��ֱ��team goes to considerable efforts to reach out to participants from non-traditional backgrounds and to ensure workshops are inclusive and accessible to a wide range of people by incorporating online engagement with work in the community.

Amalia Thomas (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics)

Amalia Thomas researches photoelasticity, a property by which certain materials transmit light differently when subjected to a force. Amalia has developed an engaging exhibition for secondary school students comprising interactive elements, which uses photoelasticity to visualise force, work and power.

Dr Frank Waldron-Lynch, Jane Kennet and Katerina Anselmiova (Department of Medicine and Department of Clinical Biochemistry)

Since the commencement of their research programme to develop drugs for Type 1 Diabetes, Dr Waldron-Lynch, Ms Kennet and Ms Anselmiova have developed a public engagement programme to engage participants, patients, families, funders, colleagues, institutions, companies and the community, with the aim of ensuring that their research remains relevant to stakeholder needs. Amongst their outputs, the team has formed a patient support group in addition to developing an online engagement strategy through social media platforms. Most recently, they have collaborated with GlaxoSmithKline to offer patients the opportunity to participate in clinical studies at all stages of their disease.

An open source, 3D-printable microscope that forms the cornerstone of rapid, automated water testing kits for use in low and middle-income countries, has helped a Cambridge researcher and his not-for-profit spin-out company win the top prize in this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Nithi Anand

I drink because I'm thirsty

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Brexit: people are angry but looking for compromise, research finds

fpjl2 — Mon, 22 May 2017 03:15:11 +0000

A new report on public attitudes to the future EU-UK relationship reveals a “striking degree of consensus” that full Single Market access should be retained, while skilled EU migrants – those with a job to come to – should be given entry to the UK labour market in return.

Professor Catherine Barnard and Dr Amy Ludlow, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Law, spent early 2017 canvassing opinion from hundreds of people across the East of England through a series of debates and workshops in schools, community centres and even a prison, as well as gathering views in streets and town squares.

This fieldwork was conducted in locations ranging from the strongly pro-Brexit, including the Lincolnshire town of Boston where the highest Leave vote (75%) was recorded, to Remain strongholds such as the city of Cambridge itself, which voted 73.8% to stay.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that when the public were asked to indicate preferences on the big issues of Brexit, many participants wanted full Single Market access with no free movement or payment to the EU – the position commonly associated with Boris Johnson’s claim that the UK can ‘have its cake and eat it’, something which the EU rejects.

However, when people were presented with current viable options – EU membership, European Economic Area (EEA), Customs Union and ‘hard Brexit’ (i.e. non-membership of the Single Market) – they recognised the need for compromise, and reached an overall consensus that a deal closer to the EEA ‘Norway model’ might be best, at least in the short term.

“ ̽��ֱ��European Economic Area option was consistently seen by Leave and Remain voters alike to be an acceptable compromise that allows limits to freedom of movement and reduces the UK’s financial contribution to the EU. People wanted full access to trade in goods and services with the EU,” said Barnard.

“Remodelling the UK’s relationship along lines similar to the EEA was frequently described as a ‘rebalancing’ rather than pulling up the drawbridge to the world. There was an almost universal desire among the study’s participants for EU citizens who are economically active or want to study in the UK to be able to continue to come.”

̽��ֱ��report, produced as part of the UK in a Changing Europe (UKCE) programme, of which Barnard is a Senior Fellow, also highlights the anger and disappointment people still hold at the conduct of politicians and the media during the referendum campaign.

People on both sides of the debate expressed regret about the sense of division caused by Brexit. Some also reported feeling “embarrassed or awkward” in their relationships with EU nationals. There was also significant anxiety among participants about what might come next, with some describing an “eerie quietness… like the calm before the storm”.

“We found anxiety, but also resentment,” said Barnard. “Many young people, including those in prominent Leave-voting areas, expressed anger at the referendum, and a result they felt they would be living with for the rest of their lives.”

̽��ֱ��researchers also found a serious, often fundamental, lack of knowledge about the EU. Many people struggled to articulate specific examples of the EU’s impact on their lives beyond infamous ‘euromyths’ such as the banning of bendy bananas. Many said they didn’t understand what they were voting for.

̽��ֱ��most commonly cited example of a positive EU impact was no mobile phone roaming charges. Some young people also mentioned the arrival of high-street brands such as Spanish company Zara.

In general, however, Barnard and Ludlow found that it was easier for people who voted Leave to provide examples of how they felt the EU had interfered too much than it was for Remain voters to give concrete examples of the EU’s benefit.

Amy Ludlow said: “A key reason many people gave for voting Remain was inertia, that they saw no good reason to change the status quo. Leave voters could more often give a range of reasons for their vote: from immigration and a perceived erosion of British identity to the promise of additional healthcare funding.”

̽��ֱ��findings will be presented at a public event at Michaelhouse Café in Cambridge on 22 May, where Professor Anand Menon, Director of UKCE, and Dr Angus Armstrong of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, will join Barnard and Ludlow to talk about ‘Brexit, Boston and migration’

Unravelling and reimagining the UK’s relationship with the EU: Public engagement about Brexit in the East of England

Researchers engaged with people across the East of England and found anxiety and resentment, as well as a broad consensus that the UK should remain in the single market.

Remodelling the UK’s relationship along lines similar to the EEA was frequently described as a ‘rebalancing’ rather than pulling up the drawbridge to the world

Catherine Barnard

Unravelling and reimagining the UK’s relationship with the EU

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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