impacts the world

Bringing 18th Century literature to a modern audience

Researchers from Northumbria’s English department have introduced new audiences to the writings of the 18th Century novelist Laurence Sterne. Through a partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust, people across the North East and Yorkshire have had the opportunity to explore Sterne’s work through comedy nights and educational workshops.

The United Nations follows Northumbria’s lead

Researchers at Northumbria have seen their methods adopted by the UN after helping to redefine professional practice and decision-making in digital records management. Their expertise is such that the University’s research has been adopted by the UN’s Secretariat’s Archives and Records Management Service (ARMS) in its service delivery and strategic planning.

Professor Julie McLeod led the AHRC-funded research project, ‘Accelerating Positive Change in Electronic Records Management’, which aimed to better understand the issues surrounding digital records management and to develop practical approaches to support effective organisational strategies.

The research revealed overwhelmingly that people, rather than systems or technologies, are at the heart of the challenge, and that possible solutions are complex and individual to each particular situation and organisation. To help practitioners make sense of this, researchers developed a strategic framework to better understand people and systems issues.

Professor McLeod said: “This research investigated a challenging, contemporary issue which is important to both practitioners and academics. It is the fact that it is evidence-based that makes it so valuable to organisations such as the United Nations, where the adoption of its proportionate risk-based approach has already had a positive economic impact.

“Its innovative combination of research methods and approach to analysis are developing outside-of-the-box thinking and presenting new perspectives on the ‘wicked problem’ of managing digital records. This has captured the attention of practitioners and academics worldwide.”

Northumbria is a leading centre for research into 18th Century literature and culture, with a particular expertise on the experimental novelist Laurence Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy Dr Helen Williams, an English lecturer, has worked closely with the Laurence Sterne Trust based at Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire. Drawing on her own research and the wider expertise at Northumbria, Dr Williams helped to design a schools outreach programme that complemented the exhibition, Eliza Draper: An Absent Presence, which she also helped to curate. Developed with teachers, the outreach programme focused on the letter writing aspect of the exhibition. Children from three schools in the North East and Yorkshire were invited to Shandy Hall and took part in letter writing workshops. They learned about Sterne’s distinctive writing style and the conventions that structure writing. They also had the opportunity to produce their own 18th Century letters, digitised on the Dear Sterne blog. Following the success of these workshops, the Trust offers a wider range of workshops for schools and has extended its geographic reach to primary schools outside of North Yorkshire.

Dr Williams’ expertise also helped the Trust to secure a Heritage Lottery grant, resulting in the production of The Good Humour Club. The Club is an ambitious year-long project that offered a series of comedy nights, an exhibition, a period drama podcast and educational workshops to a broad public audience. The idea was based upon a book recently identified in the Shandy Hall collection about an 18th Century gentleman’s club set up to promote laughter and comedy as a means of living a long and healthy life.

Northumbria’s partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust also provides opportunities for its students, some of whom have taken on the role of Wikipedians, directing readers to the Trust’s collections through Wikipedia. Additionally, an internship programme has been created giving six students the chance to spend time at Shandy Hall, Dove Cottage and the Literary & Philosophical Society to learn about collecting and curating eighteenth and nineteenth-century prints. To view a film about how Northumbria recently introduced its 18th Century research to the public as part of the national Being Human festival scan this code.

Driving research through the heart of horror

Cult, fantasy and horror festivals have been given an academic twist thanks to researchers from Northumbria.

Working in collaboration with organisers of international festivals such as Abertoir in Wales, and Offscreen in Brussels, academics from Northumbria’s Media department have been instrumental in shaping festival programmes, which has contributed to an increase in audience numbers.

Northumbria’s research, led by Professor Peter Hutchings, Dr Jamie Sexton and Dr Johnny Walker, explores themes of key significance to the festivals such as the history of European horror cinema and cult fan cultures.

Their involvement during the festival planning stages has allowed the programme to develop within an educational context, bringing such research to life and transforming the audience experience.

In addition to informing the festivals’ core programme, lively interactive lectures were delivered, discussing the careers of actors such as Peter Cushing and inviting debate on the best British cult film stars. Another innovative event was the recreation of the world of video nasties through the construction of a replica 1980s video shop in Aberystwyth Arts Centre. This coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act and involved a public talk on 1980s horror videos. The work in this area has also created opportunities for Offscreen Festival to participate in an AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) funded international research network, and has enabled Abertoir to bid for additional funding from the Film Agency for Wales.

Responding to global disasters

Northumbria is changing how women and children are considered in global disaster policy and practice. Created by Northumbria academics, the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) has been providing online resources since 1997 and is used daily by people whose job it is to plan for and respond to disasters around the world.

“The aim of the GDN is to empower women and children to endure and then rebuild their lives following natural disasters. For too long, the particular vulnerabilities of women and children were not recognised in disaster policy planning; nor was the pivotal role played by women in the survival of their families and communities post-disaster,” explains Professor Maureen Fordham who co-ordinates the GDN from Northumbria. “The GDN was set up to provide the evidence, knowledge, training and advocacy to change international policy and it has succeeded.”

The site, which receives half a million hits a year and has 1,000 registered members from every continent, is supported by UN agencies, and the Swiss and US governments. Its research-based resources and training materials are directly shaping gender-sensitive policies for global disaster planning. GDN has impacted international policy by increasing the profile of gender in disaster management policy and practice.

Supporting thousands of vulnerable and elderly people

A care home transformed the quality and efficiency of its service to more than 5,000 people thanks to research by Northumbria.

Valley Care provides a telephone service, which helps elderly and vulnerable people live independently and remain in their homes longer. The service, part of Northumbria NHS Healthcare Trust, receives 129,000 calls a year.

Researchers in Mathematics and Information Science applied a novel method called Targeted Projection Pursuit (TPP) to Valley Care’s service. TPP is a data analysis technique that groups data together in clusters that all have similar traits. This can reveal hidden groupings and trends in the data. This mathematical and statistical method enabled Valley Care to establish the volume, type and frequency of calls and identify users at high risk, improving the quality and efficiency of the service without an increase in budget.

Professor Maia Angelova, who led the team in the Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences, said: “As a direct outcome of applying our research, Valley Care transformed its system for the Call Centre operators. They were able to provide more efficient workload planning for call centre operators, more efficient allocation of warden visits, prioritising calls to ambulance services and relatives, and eliminating false alarms.”

“The research also provided knowledge about the usage patterns of the technology and valuably identified clients at high risk of falls. Monitoring and allocating special attention to high-risk clients means they can live independently at home for longer and not go into residential care, which represents a significant saving per year.”

Helping reduce alcohol consumption

Doctors and nurses commonly ask their patients how much alcohol they drink in a week and advise them to cut down if necessary – but did you know that research from Northumbria has been influential in bringing this about?

This brief chat with a patient helps GPs and nurses to quickly identify those who may be drinking too much alcohol which places them at increased risk of health issues. They can then offer advice on why and how the patient should cut down their drinking. The approach has proved effective in reducing alcohol consumption in patients identified as being hazardous or harmful drinkers and is now standard practice for NHS professionals.

Approximately 1.75 million people a year benefit from this ‘brief intervention’ screening, which was pioneered by Professor Nick Heather, a specialist in alcohol and other drug studies at Northumbria, almost 30 years ago. Northumbria’s research has contributed towards the production of guides and information packs for clinicians and patients.

Professor Heather explained: “The evidence clearly shows that alcohol screening and brief intervention in general practice is an effective and cost-effective way of helping people to cut back consumption to low risk levels. If consistently applied in general practice across the UK, this would make a significant contribution to public health.”

Professor Heather has worked with the World Health Organisation on a 25-year study to promote the benefits of this intervention internationally. Advice to medical professionals to ‘make every contact count’ with patients has led to NHS staff routinely talking to patients about their lifestyle – even when their presenting problem is not obviously connected to alcohol consumption. They can then take the opportunity to advise on changes to lifestyle.

Public Health England has also developed the Alcohol Learning Centre website that provides online resources and learning for commissioners, planners and practitioners working to reduce alcohol-related harm. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) now recommends that alcohol screening and brief intervention is routinely carried out as an integral part of medical practice.

More than £1million recouped for clients

Based on research developed by Northumbria, the University’s award-winning Student Law Office (SLO) provides a vital service for individuals and businesses, many of whom might otherwise be unable to afford legal representation.

Run as a full legal advice and representation service, Northumbria Law School’s SLO has dealt with over 3,000 enquiries from members of the public, represented more than 1,000 clients and recovered in excess of £1 million for clients since 1 January 2008.

Northumbria University’s Law School is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for clinical legal education. In 2013, Northumbria was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for the outstanding work of the SLO. To date, law clinics based on our model have been established in countries across Europe, Japan, and Bangladesh, the USA and, most recently, in Uganda.

The SLO is a catalyst in the North East to encourage more law firms to become involved in pro bono work. In partnership with national pro bono charity, LawWorks, it works in collaboration with 10 regional law firms, delivering benefits to the community, as well as encouraging a culture of free legal advice in these firms.

It also has close links with charities and community organisations. Through a partnership with Shelter, the homeless charity, students provide a national advice service to homeless and vulnerable clients, researching and advising on complex problems.

Carol Boothby, Director of the Student Law Office, said; “I am extremely proud of the contribution our students make to the local community, through the work of the Student Law Office. They are developing not just as law students, but as future citizens, with the skills and motivation to make a difference whatever career path they choose.”

Creating a brighter future

Research carried out at Northumbria on the performance of photovoltaic systems (PV) – the most commonly used technology for converting sunshine into electricity – has played an important role in helping to meet the UK’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

Northumbria is a pioneer in PV research. In 1994, the University installed the country’s first PV façade, providing data on their performance in UK weather conditions. This generated a unique field of expertise at Northumbria and led to the involvement of the research team in the Domestic Photovoltaic Field Trial between 2000 and 2007. This project remains the most comprehensive study of domestic PV system performance in the UK, and the data and insights from it continue to be used to inform a number of government policies that have encouraged PV implementation.

Professor Nicola Pearsall said: “It is now not unusual to see PV systems on houses all over the country, but at the start of the Domestic Photovoltaic Field Trial there were only a few installations.

“As part of the project, we analysed the performance of 370 individual systems at 24 locations around the UK. We were particularly interested in the electricity yields of the systems and their contribution to the demands of the houses on which they were installed. These results were then used in the development of subsequent programmes for the development of PV systems such as we see today. We also gained a lot of insights into the way PV systems were perceived and understood by the households in the study.”

Digitising the construction industry

Northumbria is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is bringing construction into the digital age. BIM is the structured creation, sharing, use and re-use of digital information about a building throughout its entire lifecycle. This involves the use of 3D design models that are created and managed using a range of technologies.

BIM Academy at Northumbria is an innovative joint venture between the University and Ryder Architecture. It is impartial and industry-facing, and undertakes research, consultancy, software development, outreach and training. BIM Academy works closely in the UK with industry bodies such as RIBA Enterprises and has been recognised internationally, winning both the Build Qatar Live and Build Sydney Live competitions.

Professor David Greenwood, of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, said: “Northumbria’s excellence in BIM has resulted in a number of research funding awards, primarily collaborative industry-led projects funded by Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). One project, the ‘Digital BIM Toolkit’, led by National Building Specification, will have a major influence

Research that changed the way health information is provided online

Northumbria researchers proved that people using the internet to search for health advice often rejected high-quality medical information from reputable sites, such as the NHS, in favour of those with information provided by people with similar experiences.

The ground-breaking research, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, made a big impact on the future development of health websites in the UK and Europe after being published in 2007.

At the time, the health industry believed that patients would only trust health information if it came from ‘reputable’ sources such as drug companies, physicians or government, but Northumbria’s research findings turned this on its head.

Psychology researchers, led by Professor Pam Briggs, had previously looked at how consumers trusted ecommerce websites before focusing on trust in health websites. They examined the way that more than 2,000 people used the internet to search for health information on topics including high blood pressure, the menopause, the MMR vaccine and hormone replacement therapy.

They found that people immediately rejected most NHS and drug company websites in a matter of seconds and preferred instead to use sites which had personal stories and advice from people with the same problems and concerns.

Users questioned the motivation of drug company sites and rejected the NHS websites available at the time due to their generic content. Users were also hugely turned off by advertising.

The researchers showed that people were drawn to sites where they could read content from contributors who shared similar experiences to their own. Their findings showed that people were more inclined to trust health information if it was accompanied with the views and experiences of others, rather than information only from professional sources. This has since become known as ‘peer-topeer’ healthcare.

From the patients’ perspective, only organisations that they deemed to be ‘impartial’ could generate trust. This meant that advice given by drug companies would be regarded with scepticism even though it was subject to strict legal control.

The research was pioneering at the time and was soon picked up by the pharmaceutical industries, charities and the NHS, who revised their website and patient support materials accordingly.

Professor Briggs explained: “We take it for granted these days that we can find useful information, advice and support from like-minded others online, but at the time this research was conducted, those in the health professions hadn’t realised the enormous potential of such peer-to-peer healthcare.” on the construction industry with the potential to transform the procurement of buildings and infrastructure. The confirmation of two further awards in BIM-related areas is expected in March 2015.

The research team continues to provide advice and work with a wide range of different organisations in the public, private and third sector on how best to create engaging online health content.

They are currently working with the Oxford-based health charity, DIPex, which provides patient experience websites, to develop a new framework for patient engagement and a new set of web-design guidelines around peer-to-peer healthcare.

“Northumbria’s research activity and its role in BIM Academy have also reflected in the recent REF results. Our BIM work was submitted as one of the three impact case studies required for the Architecture, Built Environment and Planning unit of assessment, which returned an ‘excellent’ result in terms of impact with more than 25% of its research classed as ‘world leading’.”

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Helping people with Parkinson’s to walk

Around the world, people with Parkinson’s are better able to walk thanks to research from Northumbria University.

The RESCUE research project tested the effectiveness of a rehabilitation technique known as ‘cueing’ to help people with Parkinson’s and measured its effect on mobility to improve their walking.

Parkinson’s is a neuro-degenerative disorder affecting the area of the brain known as the basal ganglia, which is responsible for coordinating complex movement sequences, such as walking. The brain should naturally generate internal ‘cues’ that regulate the timing and size of each movement. However, people with Parkinson’s can find that their body’s natural rhythm is disturbed. Their steps can become smaller, their walking slower and they may find that they begin to shuffle or even freeze on the spot.

In collaboration with researchers in Belgium and The Netherlands, the Northumbria-based project team worked with people with Parkinson’s in their homes. They found that by introducing auditory and visual cues, such as a beat from a metronome or lines on the ground, patients could focus their attention on walking and it became easier to keep their feet moving. The cues triggered the use of other areas of the brain not affected by Parkinson’s, helping to make their movements easier and at a more normal speed for short periods of time.

The findings of this significant study are now incorporated into the evidence base used to produce clinical guidelines for physiotherapists, as well as in information guides for health and social care staff, patients and carers. Guidance on cueing, developed by Northumbria’s RESCUE project, is now being used by physiotherapists across Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and Australasia, as well as daily by individuals with the condition.

Dr Anna Jones, one of the lead researchers on the project, is a physiotherapist with clinical experience of neurological rehabilitation. She explained: “RESCUE was acknowledged as a ground-breaking piece of high quality research. Outcome data about the effects of cueing on mobility can be incorporated with similar data from other trials to generate best evidence guidelines for rehabilitation practice. Armed with this information, therapists, people with Parkinson’s and their carers, can decide together how best to use cueing to help their mobility in their everyday lives.”