Emerald Publishing announces winners of the 2019 Real Impact Awards

The Real Impact Awards celebrate the commitment to impact by the research community across the globe, honour the changemakers, and bring together key stakeholders in the impact debate

Emerald Publishing has announced the winners of its annual Real Impact Awards which celebrate the commitment to impact by the research community across the globe.

Now in its second year, the awards received more than 100 high quality entries from researchers and institutions around the world. The awards aim is to raise the profile of individuals, teams and institutions that have placed real impact at the top of their agenda, recognise innovative approaches to impact, celebrate interdisciplinary research, bridge the gap between research and practice and tell real impact success stories of those driving the debate.

The judging panel, made up of an externally recognised body of research professionals, assessed the submissions based on the type of impact that the nominee committed to achieving, within three separate categories.

The 2019 Award winners are:

• Driving the Impact Agenda Category: The Knowledge Translation Team at Melbourne Children’s Centre for Community Child Health, based within the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Among other factors, the judges were impressed by how the team is committed to building a culture that values, rewards and embeds research impact so that impact is now a prominent part of the campus agenda and is helping Melbourne Children’s achieve their purpose of improving child and adolescent health and wellbeing.
• Mobilising Research into Action: Dr Hannah Bows, Assistant Professor in Criminal Law at Durham University, UK, for her significant contributions to generating change across the general public, policy and practice to close the loop between research and practice.  Over the last six years, Dr Hannah Bows has conducted research examining different forms of violence against older people. Her commitment and clear focus on mobilising research, involving multiple stakeholders have led to developments in law and policy, as well as creating much needed awareness of older victims and ensuring that appropriate services are in place.
• Developing a Focus on Lifecycle Approaches to Impact: Natalia Kucirkova, Professor of Early Childhood Education and Development, University of Stavanger and Senior Research Fellow at the University College London, UK, for her dedication to researching innovative ways of supporting children’s early literacy, reading on screen and the role of personalisation in narratives. Her work is a great example of connecting impact along the lifetime of a research project, embedding impact from inception to completion and beyond.

Tony Roche, Publishing and Strategic Relations Director at Emerald, said: “We understand the increasing pressure the research community is under to demonstrate the impact of their research.  We feel strongly that we have a responsibility in not only supporting the impact agenda, but also in challenging outdated approaches to measuring effects.

“These awards are a great way for Emerald to recognise and celebrate the changemakers that are driving impact and it was fantastic to read stories from across the world of how researchers are doing things differently to challenge the traditional approaches to impact. As a signatory of DORA, we are passionate about leading the publishing charge towards meaningful impact and overcoming barriers to impact. The awards are a fundamental part of how we work in partnership with the research community to drive positive change.

“This year, we have been particularly delighted to see an increase in entries that are aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including those linked to our research gateways in improving health and education.”

Emerald, in partnership with communities across and beyond the research ecosystem, strives to a leading force in impact debate.  It signed its real impact manifesto in 2018 when Vicky Williams became CEO, and in July 2019 launched its ‘Change Ready’ report, looking at global attitudes to research impact.

Additionally, Emerald’s impact literacy website provides downloadable tools, blogs and case studies to help members of the research community learn from each other and encourage change in their institution –  for further details visit www.emeraldpublishing.com

In October, the publisher also launched the Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) Award which offers a monetary research grant of £10,000 for an interdisciplinary research project in the social sciences that has demonstratable real world impact and promotes action on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

“Following the success of the Real Impact Awards, the IDR Award is a natural extension and demonstrates our commitment to the development of best practices to help members of the research community and better tell the story of their work”, Tony Roche added.

Alongside the winning entries, another eight finalists will also have their impact commitment celebrated through a case study written by Emerald’s specialist editors. Each case study will form part of Emerald’s Real Impact Awards Showcase book, which will be awarded to every nominee featured.

Winners will also receive a certificate and physical award at a fun and informal gathering in early 2020, as well as benefiting from further publicity across Emerald websites, social media and press.

You can find out more about the awards, the IDR Award and our commitment to impactful research, by reading Emerald’s Impact Manifesto, and get involved with the debate on our Real Impact blog.

ENDS

About Emerald Publishing

Emerald Publishing provides a range of publishing services to help authors tell their story in a meaningful and timely way, providing innovative tools and services to build confidence and capability in impactful research. They are committed to providing a leading service for the discoverability and accessibility of research, celebrating transparency and co creation in a way that instils trust and confidence in their communities and the global audiences they reach in over 130 countries worldwide. For over 50 years Emerald’s core purpose has been to champion fresh thinkers and help them make a difference so that little by little those in academia or in practice can unite to bring positive change in the real world.

Contact

Gemma Clulow
PR Manager
Emerald Publishing Limited
Email: [email protected]