ERSC Celebrating Impact Prize 2022 Winners Announced

Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) announced winners in six categories of its Celebrating Impact Prize 2022 earlier this month. Now in its 10th year, the prize celebrates the success of ESRC-funded researchers in achieving and enabling outstanding economic or societal impact from excellent research. The ESRC is the UK’s largest funder of research on social and economic questions.

The Celebrating Impact competition recognizes and rewards researchers who have achieved impact through outstanding research, knowledge exchange activities, collaborative partnerships, and engagement with different communities – and who received funding from Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council.

“This year’s Impact Prize finalists, and especially the winners, exemplify the insight and support that social science research can produce, helping make a genuine difference at the local, national and international level,” ESRC’s interim Executive Chair, Professor Alison Park CBE, said.

This year, the John Hills Impact Prize category was created, recognizing a social scientist whose work has benefitted society and has encouraged lasting changes in the quality of the lives of a significant number of people over a sustained period.

Winners were awarded £10,000 to be put towards the exchange of knowledge, public engagement and promoting the impacts of their work.

The winners and their focuses of study are:

Outstanding Business Impact: Professor Susan Durbin (University of the West of England), empowering women in the aviation and aerospace industry

Outstanding Early Career Impact: Dr Pamela Buchan (University of Exeter), harnessing people’s passion for the ocean to protect the marine environment

Outstanding International Impact: Team application: Electoral Psychology Observatory, led by professor Michael Bruter (London School of Economics), improving election fairness and participation

Outstanding Public Policy Impact: Team application: Project 2.5: Issues in the financing of Higher Education, Centre for Global Higher Education, led by professor Lorraine Dearden (University College London), transforming university access for poorer students in Colombia

Outstanding Societal Impact: Dr. Daisy Fancourt (University College London), shaping community responses to the psychological and social impacts of COVID-19

John Hills Impact Prize 2022: Professor Heather Joshi CBE, IOE (Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University College London), exposing social inequalities and working to break the cycle of disadvantage