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¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Culture are excited to be able to offer small grants of up to £500 for ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Staff (Academic & Professional Services) and Students (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) for you to invite voices not often heard in academic settings into an online conversation. This can be for the simple aim of listening and understanding an individual or group better.  This could be:  As part of a teaching module to develop real-world learning opportunities with partners (For examples of  teaching activities with partners, please visit the Community Engaged Learning Service pages). To discuss engagement practices within our current context. (e.g., exploring issues around digital poverty or  inclusivity). To seek out new potential partnerships with external community groups. To develop dialogue with existing partner community group to develop a mutually beneficial engagement idea. â€¯ We are looking to support applications which: Choose to bring in individuals or groups who are unlikely to be heard within the academic setting otherwise. Make a strong justification for their chosen conversation. Demonstrate that they and their ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº participants are committed to listening and deepening understanding through the process. Have a clear idea about how the conversation might be framed and managed (including how issues of accessibility e.g., digital poverty and language might be addressed and how everyone’s expectations from the session/s can be managed). Clearly demonstrate that they have thought about issues of safety and safeguarding where necessary. The funds are intended to go to external partner/partners for their time; however, a small proportion of the funds may go towards people or materials that might facilitate these discussions e.g., BSL signer, interpreter, notetaker. The grants are not intended to support conversations with other academics or academic institutions, or for fostering business partnerships or for-profit enterprise.   As part of our ongoing work to improve our inclusivity and accessibility, we encourage applications from those who are underrepresented in the sector and at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº including but, not exclusive, to disabled, D/deaf and neurodiverse people, LGBTQ+ people, people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Timeline: Deadline for Applications: Mid-day Tuesday 1 June 2021Awardees Notified: by Friday 11 June 2021Funds sent over to Awardees Financial Contact over IDTS:  by Friday 18 June 2021Award spent by: Friday 30 July 2021Funded Projects Debrief Meeting: August 2021 (exact date tbc)ApplicationsDownload the application form (Word) We strongly advise that before you submit an application you read the following: Application Form Guidance PDF We are launching later in the year than we would have liked, due to uncertainties of funding caused by the Covid-19 crisis. We appreciate that this is a short period to write your application and are aware that many are working harder than ever this term. We encourage staff to consider their own workload before applying. However, the Engagement team is happy to give advice before an application is submitted. Contact us on publicengagement@ucl.ac.uk.For announcements and further information sign up to our newsletter. 

The voluntary and community sector (VCS) has a crucial role to play in dealing with the immediate impact of COVID-19 - particularly for the most vulnerable in our communities - as well its longer-term effects. In turn, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº has an important role to play in supporting the sector and a strong track record of work undertaken by academic and professional services staff and students to build on. The emergency has already shown that ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff and students are keen to continue to make a difference.The principle aim of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Listen and Respond is to better connect VCS organisations with people and groups within ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº who are interested and able to provide support. There is also potential to work in partnership with Local Authorities around specific areas of advice and guidance. The work is designed to fully align with ¹û¶³Ó°Ôºâ€™s commitment to being a publicly engaged university, to making a difference to London and Londoners, and to the vision for ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº East. Thus far, we have been working closely with our community partners, particularly those in Camden and Newham around our current and future campuses, to scope their needs. This is what they told us:Research; to help VCS organisations understand and respond to clients’ changing needs and circumstances.Policy; empowering VCS organisations to both influence and access emerging policy.Evaluation; VCS organisations need support in reflecting on and learning from rapid reconfiguration of services and resources.Development of virtual educational and engagement practice and content to meet clients’ needs. Infrastructure support; for fundraising and organisational strength and sustainability, IT, HR and transition planning.Physical resources; space, digital hardware, food.Network and capacity building; how to maximise and mobilise resources across VCS organisations and communities.As part of this work we have funded a series of projects connecting ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff and students with community organisations, around an identified issue resulting from Covid-19. These rapid reponse projects have been made available with funding from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Culture, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº East and Innovation and Enterprise. Read more about the successful projects below:Emily Emmott (Anthropology) and Gnome HouseDue to COVID-19, much of the community activities surrounding Waltham Forest based community centre, Gnome House, have been cancelled. While some  have been transferred online, this creates accessibility issues (online events can be challenging for households with no Wi-Fi, or little or no access to hardware). Households in the area have been isolated, with very little opportunity to come together in groups. Furthermore with social distancing measures  set to continue for at least the next 12 months indoor community activities are likely to be restricted. This project will work with a group of local stakeholders to develop a community garden that will create a safe outdoor space for the local community to use. Led by a culturally diverse working group with representatives for older people, those with mental health needs, access and mobility needs, and young people, the garden will constantly strive to fully represent the community it serves. The project will also develop a young person’s steering group to ensure the design and development of the garden meets the needs of local young people.Chris Harker (Institute of Gobal Prosperity) and Money A+EThe project will assess how, Money Advice and Education (Money A+E), an organisation that was created to empower disadvantaged groups and Diverse Ethnic Communities through financial advice and education are addressing the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities. The team will seek to track the immediate coping mechanisms established by Money A+E during the crisis, understand how this situation is impacting their users’ livelihoods and finances and codify how their service users are developing longer term visions for recovery, renewal and inclusive prosperity.IGP is involved in a 3-year collaboration with Money A+E to explore the links between prosperity, race and finance as a lived experience. Read more about the collaboration and the associated working paper.Jay Derrick (Institute of Education) and self-employed creative practitioners in east LondonSOLO: Surviving or Thriving?The East End boroughs of London are the base for very many self-employed and sole-trader artists and craftworkers, whose work has been particularly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  They are typically focussed on developing the quality of their work and contributing to the community’s quality of life, as well as to earn an income.  This group plays a key role in the uniqueness of the area, and in its developing economy.This project will investigate the way the pandemic has impacted on this group, throwing light on changes they have made in their work and what they have learned.Read more about the project including the full report of what happened.Duncan Hay, Leah Lovett (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) and OneNewhamMeasures implemented to tackle the global pandemic have disrupted the lives of children and young people across the UK affecting access to education and extra-curricular activities, impacted childcare arrangements for working families, and increased the risk of social isolation. Such challenges to health, social and economic stability pose a greater risk for the 52% of children already living in poverty in Newham and for the parents looking to access support. In partnership with OneNewham, a Newham-based partnership network for the voluntary and community sector, researchers from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº CASA will work with young people (16-25) living in the borough to create a map of activities and services for families, children and young people in Newham. CASA will build the site and deliver training for the young people to enable the map to be developed and maintained.The young people will be asked to commit to the project for 2 weeks in total, to assist with collating and uploading information to the site. The map will be colour coded by categories such as age group, service type (e.g. children’s centres, support groups) and activity (e.g. arts, sports, etc.) for easier searching. The map will be a valuable resource for young people and families across Newham and the young people involved will develop a range of skills.Oliver Peachey (Students Union Volunteering Service) and Aspierations, PoplarHARCA, Anna Fiorentini Theatre and Film School, Opening Doors London, One Housing Group.In partnership with a range of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Students Union Volunteering Service will plan and deliver a range of virtual 'social hackathons'.Each organisation involved (Aspierations, PoplarHARCA, Anna Fiorentini Theatre and Film School, Opening Doors London, One Housing Group) will pitch an ‘issue’ to a group of 15 ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff and students. The cohort will then work together to come up with a solution to that issue and will have £1,000 to spend to implement an action. This will be led by the VCS organisations and will directly respond to issues they or their service users are experiencing as a result of Covid-19 and lockdown guidelines. Watch more about the events below:YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/RNGev2XiRrk Cae Wilson (Anthropology) and Karolina RacyzynskiIn an unprecedented move, the London borough of Tower Hamlets closed Victoria Park to all visitors for two weeks in April. The park is now re-opened, with extensive restrictions on permitted activities. In an era of lockdown, in a borough which has suffered severe issues of overcrowded housing and poverty, and in which a large percentage of the population live in high-rise blocks, the importance of the park is highlighted more than ever. This project, following the announcement of the gradual ease of lockdown will explore safely re-rooting ourselves into a ‘new normal’. With the aim to collate a diverse range of perspectives of the park and community, participants will be invited to explore different roots and routes of the park with the creative guidance of an artist filmmaker and the expertise of an anthropologist/park ranger. What connects the participant to the park? What routes do they make around the park? What can we learn from a park re-opening during/following a major world-wide pandemic? These questions will be explored by conducting interviews and gathering videos (smartphone footage, GoPro camera), written descriptions and found objects. The collection of the audio visual material will be made up of guides and reflections centred around the meaning of the park as a site of routes/roots. It will contribute to an art installation comprising of video/film and sound materials that will respond physically to a space within the park (e.g. possibly using digital projections or sound interventions using the tannoy system if accessible).  Sam Fardghassemi (Computer Science), Professor Helene Joffe (PALS), Dr Gemma Moore(IEDE) and Syrup (Emily Briselden-Waters & Grace Crannis)Connecting Spaces: East. This project will explore how loneliness both isolates people and contributes to poor health and wellbeing in young people. This project aims to reflect on ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº research in east London collected before the global pandemic and question how our current circumstances have impacted young people in this area, especially in their interactions with their local neighbourhoods (i.e. parks, public spaces, homes, streets etc.). The process of this project will also focus on the collaborative potential for artists and researchers to work together and learn from one another. Exploring this subject from both scientific analysis and a creative mindset, the project will document these opportunities for knowledge exchange.See the outcomes from the project on the Syrup Website: Connecting Spaces: East.Hannah Sender( Institute of Global Prosperity) and Hackney Quest, The Plug.Fuse: Empowering young people to engage local businesses in Hackney to co-design solutions for youth underemploymentFuse is a co-design project led by youth design agency The Plug, Hackney Quest youth charity and the Institute for Global Prosperity at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº. Fuse responds to the complex challenges young people growing up in Hackney face to achieve their aspirations in a context of widening inequalities and COVID-19 economic failure.¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Listen and Respond supports mid- to late-adolescents employed on Fuse, to engage local businesses in a research workshop. It funds their training run by Fuse’s partner LivingMaps with support from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Urban Lab. The training session introduces young designers in mapping and interview skills. They will apply these skills in their own youth-led workshop with local business owners. The workshop will explore local businesses’ aspirations for working with local young people, barriers to doing so, and their practices for overcoming those barriers.This innovative partnership includes the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), and will support the actual implementation of research and design. It will deliver a second iteration of the Youth Prosperity model, which can be used to monitor Fuse and other programmes which focus on, or involve, young people. It will also deliver insights which support the design and delivery of LLDC’s programmes and services, in a way which genuinely supports young people’s prosperity.Leah Lovett (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) and Nisha DuggalImpossible Architecture.This project uses 3d capture technology to reimagine social isolation and distancing in relation to Covid-19 and the home. Taking the idea of ‘home’ as both physical boundary and metaphorical refuge, Leah and artist Nisha Duggal will collaborate with east London communities, enabling them to capture their personal living spaces. The project will explore how social distancing measures have changed the way families and friends connect. The near-global ‘lockdown’ has led to an unprecedented shrinking and expansion of space, as people are confined in their homes together and as households move from meeting in physical to digital space via video calls and social media. Using the readily available camera technology on their smartphones, collaborators will document and share images of their living spaces over time. With point cloud and VR technologies, we will then ‘stitch’ the contributions together to construct new virtual, meeting spaces. The project will capture and stitch together 6 dwelling spaces, working with a small circle of east London families. Haidy Geismar, Alison Macdonald (Anthropology) and St. Pauls Way SchoolThis project will build on the success of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Anthropology's 'Young Curator' project and develop an online short course that will be aligned with curriculum across A-levels in Humanities (history, geography, English) and Social Sciences (sociology). The course will focus on developing independent research skills and learning how to use online collections and archives to undertake research. A-level students will also be encouraged to develop their critical engagement with these resources, to examine not just what is present in the archival record but what is absent. They will be trained in oral history techniques in order to connect their own lives and histories to the formal record. The project will end with the opportunity to participate in the Museum of Covid-19 an online crowd-sourced collection of young people’s experience of Coronavirus. Over the summer we will work with student consultants from St Pauls School asking them to take the course and then feedback how it worked in order to ensure that it is effective and accessible. Students will be therefore able to develop their research skills but also be activated within the pedagogical process. Participating students will also have the opportunity to be mentored by students and staff at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº towards their own applications to university. Once the materials have been developed the materials in consultation with these students, the team will launch the course for all schools through a social media campaign that will focus in particular on east London.Exploring partnerships with Kentish Town Community CentreKentish Town Community Centre (KTCC) are working with a number of academics at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº around their projects providing food to Camden residents local to the community centre during covid-19. This work includes helping to evaluate KTCC's 'Happiness Hampers' project, which provides local food hampers to local families who are struggling to afford or access food during lockdown. The project will also explore the potential for ongoing collaboration around issues exploring both Universal Basic Services, and the potential of connecting with ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº teaching.In addition to this the Listen and Respond initiative is undertaking two pilot projects to explore how we can continue to meet the needs of our local communities beyond lockdown.Listen and Respond Matching Platform.Our rapid response funding has shown what a great desire there is for ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff and students and community organisations and individuals to work together to tackle the issues arising from Covid-19. To catalyse this activity, the Listen and Respond team have developed a platform where requests and/or offers of support can be posted. During the Matching Platform pilot phase, the Listen and Respond team will also do its best to connect relevant people and facilitate greater community-university partnership working. The platform will launch in early August. Please watch this space for more information or contact listen-and-respond@ucl.ac.uk for more information.Rapid Evaluation Advice and Learning Service with Camden Council.At the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown, Camden Council were required to re-engineer almost all of their key services, from child support to business growth, within a matter of days. As a consequence the local authority has identified a need to monitor, evaluate and learn from their performance, and has sought out advice and expertise from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº. This pilot project is exploring how the skills and expertise of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff and students can be utilised to support Camden Council to reflect on and evaluate their service delivery during the Covid-19 outbreak, and to use this learning to inform future service delivery to local people. For more information visit the REAL Service webpage.In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like further information, please email us.

Hackney Museum and Archives have a track record of engaging local communities to explore their heritage in creative and dynamic ways. Local Roots / Global Routes explored Hackney’s local histories in conjunction with ¹û¶³Ó°Ôºâ€™s History Department and the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project.The partners worked with two local secondary schools to create a performance-based session and interactive educational resource for Key Stages 3 and 4 based on Legacies of British Slave-ownership material. Teacher training sessions were hosted and a filmed version of the resource produced. ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff also delivered workshops, a walking tour and a showcase event for Black History Month in Hackney during October 2014.Related Events & ResourcesLegacies of African Enslavement in Hackney: Full FilmPutting the Black in the Union Jack? Black British History in Education - Bloomsbury Theatre, ¹û¶³Ó°ÔºSaturday 8 November 2014, 10 am – 7 pmProject LeadsKatie Donington & Kristy Warren, Research Associates, Department of History, ¹û¶³Ó°ÔºCheryl Bowen, Community Education Manager, Hackney Museum & Archives

Naomi Salaman unpacks the legacy of the life-room as a theoretical aparatus in a visual essay. This installation looked back at an academic model of art education that centred on drawing the male model in classical poses. In the tradition of the visual essay, artist Naomi Salaman puts together photographs of spaces where drawing is still taught alongside historic prints and photocopies from her research archive. Revisiting the academic art curriculum, she explores the process of looking at, making and reading images in relation to institutional forms of knowledge and the technologies of image reproduction.Drawing a nude model after the antique was the apex of an hierarchical course which began with copying from copies of old master prints and plaster casts and lessons in anatomy. This curriculum served as the basis of art education in Europe from the 1600s. In the 1960s art schools in this country moved away from mandatory exams in these subjects.Charting the remnants of a pedagogical system now suspended, Salaman identifies a "curved space of observation" that builds up through a montage of historic life rooms and dissection theatres. Her research path begins with the much-cited painting of The Royal Academicians (1772) by Johann Zoffany and its reproductions in feminist art history texts two hundred years later. Zoffany's group portrait in the life room was contentious as it illustrated the exclusion of women artists from the life room, and therefore from professional advancement. Looking back at this painting, through feminist critiques, to the early ambitions of the life room, Salaman reconsidered the academy life room as a theoretical apparatus that marked the distinction between fine art as an intellectual pursuit and the workshop practices of the guild.Naomi Salaman is a London-based artist and a lecturer at the University of Brighton. Her research-based practice is rooted in the politics of representation and combines photography, installation, curated exhibitions and publications.Co-curated by Nina Pearlman and Naomi Salaman, this exhibition was supported by Arts Council England and the University of Brighton. It drew on research supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and was accompanied by a limited edition artist's print.In conjunction with the exhibition, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Art Museum, the Royal Collection and the University of Brighton have organised a conference entitled Art Schools: Invention, Invective and Radical Possibilities.  

‘Measuring Wellbeing Creatively’ is funded through a ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Grand Challenges: Human Wellbeing Award. The project will work with participants who have acquired communication difficulties (as a result of a brain injury or stroke) to explore how different colours and sensations can help to express feelings and emotions.  Through a series of workshops, the project will co-develop a visual toolkit for expressing emotions. The project seeks to provide original research on creative and accessible methodologies for measuring wellbeing.Research Activities1. Three co-production workshops with adults with acquired communication difficulties (January, February and March 2017)2. Design of the creative nonverbal toolkit based on colour and co-designed by participants.3. Cross-disciplinary symposium at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº to present research (July 2017). This will include participants, researchers across faculties and professionals with an interest in wellbeing-related research.4. Display of the co-production process at ¹û¶³Ó°ÔºH.Research Team: Dr Nuala Morse is the project’s Principal Investigator and is an Honorary Researcher at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Culture. She is also the Postdoctoral Research Associate for Not So Grim Up NorthJo Volley is the project’s Co-Investigator and is the Deputy Director (Project) and Part-Time Senior Lecturer in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art.Nir Segal is the project’s artist-researcher and a PhD Candidate at the Slade School of Fine Art.Dr Michael Dean is on the project team and is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Department of Language and CognitionResearch Collaborators: Prof Helen Chatterjee, Professor in Biology ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Biosciences, and Head of Research and Teaching for ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Culture.Dr Linda Thomson is the project’s Senior Research Associate and Cognitive Psychologist at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº.External Collaborators Professor Martin Marshall, Professor of Healthcare Improvement, Department ofApplied Health Research, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº and GP, Sir Ludwig Guttmann Health and WellbeingCentreMr Guy Noble, Arts Curator, ¹û¶³Ó°ÔºH Arts and HeritageNational Alliance for Museums, Health and Wellbeing 

We are excited to introduce the Health and the Public Impact Fellows and their projects.The aim of this scheme is to support a cohort of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº staff as they deliver a research impact project at the interface between health and society. The Fellows come from a broad range of disciplines, career paths and faculties, and the Fellowship will enable them to work at the interface between science and society as a pathway to demonstrable impact on public health and patient outcomes to become confident and skilful communicators of their work to diverse audiences. The fellows are now wrapping up their projects - hear from them in their own words on the Impact Fellowship Podcast  (weblink) or expand below for their own written recollections, individual links to the podcasts, and to read transcripts. Part of their training was also open to all staff at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº - to find out more, visit the Health and the Public Impact Fellowship Training Programme (weblink.) We appointed ten Fellows in the 22-23 academic year.The Fellows are:Amy Harrison - IoE [[{"fid":"15944","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Amy Harrison","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Amy Harrison","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Amy Harrison","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Amy Harrison","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"480","width":"384","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]What is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about? I’m an Associate Professor in Psychology and Clinical Psychologist. I teach final year psychology with education students how to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy and I supervise undergraduate and PhD research projects on eating disorders. My research looks at the social, emotional and cognitive factors that perpetuate eating disorders, novel treatment adjuncts for people with severe and enduring forms and illness and factors that protect people from developing eating disorders.  What is your favourite thing about the work you do? I most enjoy collecting data from participants as I am a real ‘people person’ and love meeting and working with lots of different people and hearing about their experiences and wisdom.Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project. Previous research from my lab has found that in a cohort of 8922 children, decision-making, measured using the Cambridge Gambling Task (Rogers et al., 1999) at ages 11 and 14 predicts eating disorder symptoms at ages 14 and 17 (Harrison, Francesconi & Flouri, 2022, BMJ Open). Teaching advantageous decision-making in childhood may benefit public health by preventing eating disorder symptoms emerging in adolescence.I used the expertise of 14 boys and girls aged 11-14 to co-design a 'serious game' aiming to teach advantageous decision-making skills around food, exercise and body image.Across two 90 minute workshops, we co-designed the virtual environment, characters and game scenarios, exploring how to gamify decision-making skills.Four themes emerged from the data. Next, I'll work with an industry partner engineer to bring these ideas to life in an app-based gameWhat do you hope will be different by the end of your project? I hope I will understand far more about how to engage with policy makers and those in positions of power in order to work on better solutions for vulnerable people in society.  You can hear more about Amy's project at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What three things would you take to a desert island? My two year old son, Joshua, because he would love exploring the beaches and the sea. My phone and some sort of satellite internet provision so that I can keep listening to the podcasts I enjoy while lounging on the beach. My skincare and make-up to protect me from the sun and because, well, you never know who you might bump into on a desert island... Baowen Xue - Institute of Epidemiology and Health CareWhat is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?  [[{"fid":"15943","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Baowen Xue","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Baowen Xue","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Baowen Xue","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Baowen Xue","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"1280","width":"1133","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I’m a Research Associate in Epidemiology & Public Health. I teach MSc module 'Basic statistics for medical sciences'. My current research looks at the influence of informal caregiving on people’s health and socioeconomic outcomes, with a particular focus on young adult carers. What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  I enjoy analysing data and using large datasets to answer different research questions. I love meeting and working with lots of different people. I’m currently working with a consortium of researchers from the UK, Germany, Norway and Spain. I love to hear about their experiences, life and culture. Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project.  Research at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº has highlighted the challenges faced by young carers and young adult carers when leaving school, as well as applying to or attending university, college or apprenticeships. I have planned two workshops for young adult carers, in partnership with the Carers Trust and ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Widening Participation team, to explore this research, their experiences and what needs to change.These workshops provide a great opportunity for young adult carers to have their say about further and higher education and the barriers to accessing higher education and establishing themselves in the labour market. Young adult carers will also get the chance to learn more about studying at higher education and beyond.Young adult carers’ stories will be shared with a wide range of stakeholders. ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº researchers and Carers Trust will work together to engage with key decision-makers and influencers across the UK to bring about the changes needed to transform the lives of young adult carers.You can hear more about Baowen's project at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project?  I hope I will understand more about how to identify and engage with different stakeholders effectively and how to deliver an impact more widely.  What three things would you take to a desert island?  My 3-year-old son. He loves beaches so much. My phone. Can’t live without my phone. A box of matches? BBQ fish sounds great. Anna Byrne - London Centre for Nanotechnology What is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about? [[{"fid":"15938","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Anna Byrne","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Anna Byrne","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Anna Byrne","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Anna Byrne","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"588","width":"588","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I am Science Writer and Communications Manager on a large £11M+ research programme called i-sense at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, funded by EPSRC. Our research aims to build a new generation of digital sensing systems to identify and prevent outbreaks of infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance, much earlier than ever before. My role is diverse and includes supporting with large-scale grant applications, science editing (ranging from scientific journal articles to online content and reports) and managing internal and external communications and public outreach. I am responsible for public engagement events including science festival attendance and various outreach projects (videos, events, online engagement).  What is your favourite thing about the work you do? I enjoy supporting proposals for exciting innovative research within such an important field. I enjoy developing creative and accessible scientific outreach events for varied audiences and supporting PhD students and researchers to communicate their research to audiences, including the public and young people.  Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is often termed the ‘silent pandemic’ and is driven by over-exposure to antibiotics. Antibiotics are sometimes unnecessarily prescribed, and in some cases patient adherence to antibiotic regimes is poor. Training about AMR stewardship is required not only for prescribing clinicians but also for patients. This project aimed to develop accessible and relevant training for young people surrounding AMR, to promote awareness and tackle misinformation.The project involved providing a training workshop at a secondary school in London for around 120 school children aged 14-16 years old (5 separate classes), which reached a diverse audience of young people, enabling them to learn about AMR and instigate behaviour change surrounding antibiotic use.There was also a second workshop in a pub setting for around 40 members of the general public (adolescents and adults).You can hear more about Anna's work on the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project? I hope to reach a diverse audience of young people, enabling them to learn about AMR and instigate behaviour change surrounding antibiotic use. There may also be the potential to widen the programme to different formats (physical or online resources) in different locations (GP surgeries, libraries, universities) with stakeholders (AMR charities or health/education policymakers). Following the major outbreak of COVID-19, it is timely to capitalize on public interest in infectious diseases and address public awareness and misinformation surrounding AMR, a topic which currently receives alarmingly insufficient attention considering the major global threat that it poses.  What three things would you take to a desert island? My piano, a karaoke machine and a bottle of wine. Emma Beard - Institute of Epidemiology and Health CareWhat is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?  [[{"fid":"15945","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Emma Beard","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Emma Beard","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Emma Beard","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Emma Beard","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"1173","width":"933","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I am Lecturer in Statistics and Quantitative methods; I also have training in epidemiology and am a Chartered Psychologist. My research is in the field of behavioural science with a focus on Addiction. I have a particular interest in statistical methodology and the analysis of large data sets, but also work on interventions, meta-analyses, qualitative studies and smaller community-based surveys.  What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  Part of my research focuses on tobacco control. I have had the opportunity to provide expert input and advice to policy makers such as the All-Party Parliamentary Groups, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It is welcoming to see our research have an impact on public health. I am also privileged to have worked with some of the best tobacco control experts in the field from a multi-disciplinary background. Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project.  Officially, smoking prevalence in the UK is 13.3%, a figure derived from household surveys. However, the exclusion of "hidden populations" not residing in households, for whom smoking prevalence is high, means that this may be an underestimate. My research for this fellowship suggests that the "hidden population" in the UK is ~1.9 million and that the true prevalence of smoking may be as high as 15.6%.This coverage error has serious implications because health policies, smoking cessation services and tobacco regulations are all driven by smoking prevalence rates. If we can't see the true scale of the challenge, we also risk leaving many vulnerable populations behind. It is important that this coverage error is reported alongside national statistics and that the public are accurately informed about the margin of error around estimates. This requires a more nuanced conversation about health statistics than usual.My project was about identifying the size of the coverage error for smoking prevalence statistics and to raise awareness though engaging with stakeholders in government, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other relevant bodies, and the public themselves. The long-term goal is to devise a correction error and to explore new ways of explaining statistics to the public. Covid-19 brought all this sharply into popular awareness; I aimed to build upon this to help scientists and government officials to communicate about the errors around risk more effectively.During the fellowship I have created a report which uses the workbook method to identify the size of the "hidden population" in the UK and the impact of excluding this on smoking prevalence statistics.As part of this project, I have already consulted with tobacco control researchers, those working with vulnerable populations, and statisticians, who have provided feedback on the report. One-to-one sessions have also been organised with members of the general public who have at some point been part of a "hidden population". Consultations will also be planned with stakeholders in the ONS.The plan is to reflect upon what emerges from this consultation and host a public event about communicating coverage error and its' implications to the public.You can hear more about Emma's work on the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project?  The findings will obviously have an important impact on those working with population level surveys in the Addictions field. Although a solution might not be found, it is hoped that this project will highlight the issue. It is also a move towards ensuring that we provide the public with accurate information so that they can make informed decisions. The need for this is evident with the COVID pandemic, where many of the public inferred their levels of risk over time from the ONS published data. I also teach research methods across several degree programs in the institute. These findings will feed into these and also offer opportunities for future student projects. Finally, this will be a step forward in improving the estimation of prevalence in public health and also public health modelling which informs policy decisions. What three things would you take to a desert island? Mobile phone (assuming there is signal), a boat, and a survival expert to get me home.Annemarie Lodder - Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care What is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about? [[{"fid":"15937","view_mode":"small","fields":{"height":"640","width":"551","class":"media-element file-small","format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Annemarie Lodder","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Annemarie Lodder","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"right","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"height":"640","width":"551","class":"media-element file-small","format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Annemarie Lodder","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Annemarie Lodder","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"right","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"640","width":"551","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I work on a research project that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a parenting programme called Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities. This means I am trying to find out whether parents who attended this programme feel better within themselves, have better relationships with their children and feel more confident about their parenting, than those who have not attended the programme yet. I also teach population health students and supervise undergraduate students working on their final year project. What is your favourite thing about the work you do? I love learning about different cultures and speaking to people with different experiences and from different backgrounds. The parenting programme is delivered in a range of languages, and I get to speak (and learn from) parents from all over the world! Luckily, I also like spreadsheets because I spend a lot of time planning and organising data collection too.   Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project. A common limitation of health research is that the people who would benefit most from the research (such as health interventions), are often underrepresented in research studies. Ethnic minority groups, people living in poverty, older people, homeless people are all groups of people who are less likely to take part in research. There is an increased awareness that research should be more inclusive and health researchers and funders are starting to think more about how to do this. One way is to change the way we reach out and recruit people into our research.The TOGETHER Study, is a NIHR funded community trial that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities, a parenting programme designed by the Race Equality Foundation (REF). We hope that by improving family well-being, children health and behavioural outcomes will improve. Because there are stark differences in child outcomes for children from ethnic backgrounds or those living in poverty, the TOGETHER Study aimed to particularly focus on these groups of parents.As part of the health and public fellowship, I organised a participatory event where 50 people who are interested in making research more diverse and inclusive came together to share experiences and learning to collectively prioritise methods that are most successful in engaging, recruiting, and retaining participants from underserved groups into health research. I worked with REF, NIHR, and members from local communities to deliver the workshop. The aim is to encourage a shift in thinking about the importance of diversity in community health research.You can hear more about Annemarie's work on the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project? I hope that I am more confident in knowing how and where to showcase my research’s impact.  What three things would you take to a desert island? If it was just for a day, I would take my bikini, a book and sunscreen, but any longer then I would take my children and partner as I would be very lonely on my own! Jo Blodgett - Department of Targeted Intervention What is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?  [[{"fid":"15939","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Jo Blodgett","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Jo Blodgett","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Jo Blodgett","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Jo Blodgett","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"1424","width":"1214","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I am a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health and my main research area is physical activity. I primarily work with ProPASS, a large international consortium of cohort studies, aiming to understand how movement across the full 24-hour day (e.g. sleep, sedentary behaviour, various activity intensities) is associated with various health outcomes. My other work includes women’s health, cognitive and physical function, frailty and life course epidemiology.  What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  Hard to pick just one! As a lifelong athlete, I love all physical activity and am passionate about approaching it through a public health lens. I also really enjoy working with large datasets and learning new stats methods. Finally, I am fortunate to work with excellent colleagues including those at my institute who are just as excited about activity as I am and international collaborators from Canada, Australia and Europe!  Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project.   My Fellowship project addresses the need for personalized physical activity recommendations that consider the 24-hour day and its impact on health outcomes. My research uses complex modelling techniques to explore how replacing one activity with another affects diverse health outcomes. However, translating this research into practical recommendations for the public has been challenging.In June 2023, I collaborated with a research colleague to host a co-production workshop with Time & Talent, a community organization in East London. Our objective was to develop an accessible and effective tool that provides personalised physical activity recommendations. Twelve participants, primarily aged 65 and above, joined the workshop. . Engaging with older adults highlighted considerations like digital literacy, with mixed responses to the use of a digital tool.Moving forward, our next steps involve creating a blueprint for an online, interactive tool that offers personalised physical activity recommendations for adults of all ages, with a particular focus on those aged 40 and above. We will refine the prototype by seeking further input from the public, including returning to Time & Talent but also involving new groups.You can hear more about Jo's work on the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.)  What do you hope will be different by the end of your project?  I want to create sustainable and positive collaborations with the public as this is a big gap in our research area. I also hope to develop a tangible tool (whether complete, proof of concept or blueprint stage) that allows physical activity guidance to be delivered in a personalised way. This is an important step in shifting the UK CMO’s and WHO’s Physical Activity Guidelines towards a 24-hour approach recognising that one size does not fit all.  What three things would you take to a desert island?  Running shoes, snacks and company! Libby Sallnow - Marie Curie Palliative Care Department and St Christopher's Hospice What is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?  [[{"fid":"15946","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Libby Sallnow","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Libby Sallnow","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Libby Sallnow","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Libby Sallnow","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"588","width":"431","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I am a palliative care doctor and clinical academic. My clinical work is in the community, and I support people and their families living with life-limiting illnesses and dying at home. My academic work asks how experiences at these times could be better. Though death, dying and grieving are universal events, affecting everyone in a population, they are seen as medical rather than public health challenges. This means attempts to improve experiences are often limited to health care interventions, missing opportunities to work across society. I have helped develop and lead the field of public health approaches to palliative care to address this.  What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  I enjoy looking at a problem from multiple perspectives. I have worked with projects in death, dying and grieving around the world and I link those insights with conversations I have with people dying at home in London, alongside population-level data, to devise new interventions to improve experiences at these times. It is gratifying to see how these new approaches translate to tangible differences for people as they die. Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project.  Death, dying, and grieving are complex social events but today we manage them as clinical problems. The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death (2022) presented a new model of how we can understand these universal events, using a complex systems perspective. Through this fellowship, I explored what a systems approach to death, dying and grieving meant to people, what these complex systems look like in practice. and what that means for policy and services.I worked with St Christopher's Hospice to create a systems approach to death, dying and grieving across their training and development courses and within their strategic programmes. We extended this work to include the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre in Community Participation in Palliative and Long Term Care in Kerala, India. A series of workshops were conducted in which volunteers, community activists and clinicians mapped their own local death systems. Through this project, we have been able to explore the concept of complex systems and understand how it resonates with participants. Our next step is to work with a group of people with lived experience and a designer in SE London to explore and capture this system as a basis for stimulating local change.You can hear more about Libby's work on the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº MInds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project?  I hope that death, dying and grieving will be understood as complex social processes, requiring interdisciplinary and cross-sector input, rather than just as health care challenges. Death, dying and grieving should be seen as a part of health and wellbeing and not just their failure.  What three things would you take to a desert island?  A big umbrella, all the books I would love to read but never have time, and I think a box of matches. Lion Shahab - Institute of Epidemiology and Health CareWhat is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?[[{"fid":"15940","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Lion Shahab","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Lion Shahab","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Lion Shahab","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Lion Shahab","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"2796","width":"2156","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]  I am a Health Psychologist and Epidemiologist, focusing on non-communicable diseases and addictions. Essentially, my work seeks to help people lead healthier lives, so – as a colleague of mine once said – they die of absolutely nothing. The primary field I work in is in tobacco control. As smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death, it is essential that we find new ways to help smokers stop and to prevent young people from starting to smoke. What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  My favourite thing about the specific area of work that I am in is that everyone has an opinion on it! Most people either smoke, used to smoke or know someone who smokers. This means my work is something that others can relate to. I also love the fact that the work our team does can have real-world impact and improve population health: for instance, when we evaluate a new policy or intervention, and this is shown to be effective, it may become part of government policy or treatment plans to reduce the burden of tobacco use. Tell us a bit about your Impact Fellowship project.  Research conducted in the NHS can face significant hurdles, including in relation to administrative tasks, recruitment and getting buy-in from services. In addition, there is a long-time lag between conducting research and translation into clinical practice. Using the field of tobacco research as an example, this project seeks to obtain insights from the following key stakeholders to enable successful impactful research: 1) academic researchers undertaking trials in the NHS; 2) those working in the NHS who support research (including clinicians); and 3) who commission research and services; 4) those who formulate, influence and implement policy (including civil servants, those working in NGOs and politicians); and 5) those with expertise in media and communication who engage with the public to share findings.Using two ongoing smoking cessation trials of e-cigarettes as case studies (ESCAPE and SCeTCH trials), we will run a one-day workshop with above-named key stakeholder groups to a) identify challenges and opportunities within the existing framework of conducting clinical trials, b) pinpoint misalignments between aims/methods adopted by those conducting research (e.g., in terms of trial design/key deliverables) and the information needs of those formulating policy, commissioning services and those communicating findings to the wider public, and c) develop a step-by-step guidance document to maximise successful translation of research ideas, into intervention evaluation implementation in clinical settings, aligned with tobacco control policy. The workshop output, a transparent toolkit for designing smoking cessation trials in clinical settings to maximise impact, will be hosted online on the UTARG website.You can hear more about Lion's work at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project?  I hope to improve existing (e.g., communication) and gain new (e.g., implementation/stakeholder and public engagement) skills that I can apply to new projects, disseminate to my team and colleagues as well as integrate in teaching. Of course, I would also hope to have made new connections, learn collaboratively from other staff on programme and build new complementary partnerships at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº. What three things would you take to a desert island? Books; Mobile Phone; Sunscreen! Rana Conway - Institute of Epidemiology and Health CareWhat is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about?  [[{"fid":"15941","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Rana Conway","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rana Conway","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Rana Conway","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rana Conway","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"3072","width":"2048","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I work in the Obesity Policy Research Unit (OPRU) on several projects relating to infant feeding, including looking at the labels on formula milk and baby foods. In the OPRU we’re also looking at the potential effects of adding calorie labels to alcohol, and how obesity policy might inadvertently impact eating disorders and disordered eating. I’m a Registered Nutritionist and as well as working on OPRU projects, I’m the nutrition lead for a lifestyle intervention called ASCOT, for people living with and beyond cancer.   What is your favourite thing about the work you do?  I really enjoy working on several different projects at the same time and working with great colleagues. It’s also enormously rewarding to think the research we do could have a real impact, by providing the evidence needed to bring about policy change. There is increasing recognition of the importance of legislative change in bringing about changes in the food environment, which ultimately affects the way we eat and our health.Tell us a bit about your impact project?  I work on several projects looking at the marketing of baby formula and foods – our findings highlight a need for change but food policy discussions, including the National Food Strategy, barely mention babies. In many cases the information presented on labels doesn’t match government advice.The aim  of my project was to raise awareness among key stakeholders and the public of the need for policy change to ensure baby formula and food is marketed in a way that supports parents to make healthy choices.I set out to do this using research findings from an experiment looking at the effect on parents’ choices of changing baby food labels. I considered forming a group with others, including third sector organisations, with an interest in this space. However, following discussions with third sector organisations and a lobbying expert I have taken a more opportunistic approach to raising awareness of these issues.Working with ¹û¶³Ó°Ôºâ€™s media relations team and attending the APPG on Infant Feeding Inequalities, I publicised our formula research. I also built relationships and shared research findings and future plans with First Steps Nutrition Trust and The Food Foundation, who advocate for change by working closely with the civil society coalitions, policy makers and the media.You can hear more about Rana's work at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different at the end of your project?  My hope is that this project will bring us a step closer to getting the labels on baby food changed, which will ultimately make it easier for parents to choose healthy foods for their babies. I would like to raise awareness of current problems with baby food labels among key stakeholders and the public. This is an important step in garnering support for policy change.What three things would you take to a desert island?  My phone, for podcasts and photos.  My dog, as she’s good company, loves water and she can live without technology, unlike my children.  Following in the footsteps of Desmond Tutu on Desert Island Discs, I’d also take an ice cream maker - who doesn’t like an ice cream on the beach?  Sharon Cox - Institute of Epidemiology and Health CareWhat is your work at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº about? [[{"fid":"15942","view_mode":"small","fields":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Sharon Cox","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Sharon Cox","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Sharon Cox","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Sharon Cox","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"none","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"6240","width":"4160","class":"media-element file-small"}}]]I am a psychologist with an interest in addictive behaviours. My particular interest is in smoking and smoking cessation, particularly among people who experience extreme social disadvantage (e.g., homelessness, substance dependence) and those with a low-income. Along with many colleagues, I investigate changes in smoking at a population level by using large survey data, I also lead a clinical trial helping people using homeless services to quit smoking and am developing materials to help people who support people experiencing homelessness to quit smoking.  What is your favourite thing about the work you do? Smoking remains one of the single largest causes of premature death and disease, so being able to assist in any way to help people quit is a privilege. Also, being able to work with other academics, policy makers, clinicians and public members who also care about helping save lives gives me immense pleasure. I particularly love my work on homelessness, because it shines a light on a group often understudied in research. Tell us a bit about your fellowship impact project. Research conducted in the NHS can face significant hurdles, including in relation to administrative tasks, recruitment and getting buy-in from services. In addition, there is a long-time lag between conducting research and translation into clinical practice. Using the field of tobacco research as an example, this project seeks to obtain insights from the following key stakeholders to enable successful impactful research: 1) academic researchers undertaking trials in the NHS; 2) those working in the NHS who support research (including clinicians); and 3) who commission research and services; 4) those who formulate, influence and implement policy (including civil servants, those working in NGOs and politicians); and 5) those with expertise in media and communication who engage with the public to share findings.Using two ongoing smoking cessation trials of e-cigarettes as case studies (ESCAPE and SCeTCH trials), we will run a one-day workshop with above-named key stakeholder groups to a) identify challenges and opportunities within the existing framework of conducting clinical trials, b) pinpoint misalignments between aims/methods adopted by those conducting research (e.g., in terms of trial design/key deliverables) and the information needs of those formulating policy, commissioning services and those communicating findings to the wider public, and c) develop a step-by-step guidance document to maximise successful translation of research ideas, into intervention evaluation implementation in clinical settings, aligned with tobacco control policy. The workshop output, a transparent toolkit for designing smoking cessation trials in clinical settings to maximise impact, will be hosted online on the UTARG website.You can hear more about Sharon's work at the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Minds Podcast (direct link) or read a transcript (pdf link.) What do you hope will be different by the end of your project? I hope that I will be able to interest a wider network of individuals into the issues and importance of smoking and homelessness. I hope to be able to secure valuable networks by which knowledge can be shared but also communicated effectively, and with compassion.  What three things would you take to a desert island? A cheeseboard, a pillow, and a kayak