College of Social Sciences

Impact Acceleration Funded projects 2022-2023

Nuran Acur (£11,000)

Transforming Mobility: Business Model Innovation and Scale-Up Strategy in the Age of Autonomous Vehicles

The purpose of this project is to develop and deploy a proof-of-concept Connected Mobile Health Clinic (CMHC) in the Glasgow region to support the national strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic.
This would result in the collation of real-time disease information, reduced exposure of vulnerable groups and enhanced utilisation of NHS personnel through reduced travel time, while offering high levels of adaptation to the diverse tasks required in the national strategy against COVID-19.

Josephine Adekola £10,000)

What is the science and data behind COVID-19 vaccines": Addressing concerns and curiosities of African, Caribbean, and Black communities in Scotland

This project aims to generate high-impact, evidence-based resources to inform COVID-19 vaccine engagement in Scotland's African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities. Public Health Scotland (PHS) has identified ACB communities with very low vaccine uptake. Through community workshops and a co-produced video around vaccine concerns and curiosities, the study will raise public awareness and understanding of the science and data of COVID-19 vaccines.

Scotland African Voices: COVID-19 Vaccine Debate  https://youtu.be/h1yNAZffpOg

Panelist discussion following Scotland African Voices: COVID-19 Vaccine Debate film screening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-akC8rL_yFA

Huseyne Aliyev & Taras Fedirko (£8,460)

Actors and networks in the political economy of war in Ukraine

This project will build a pilot database of social media posts and other open-source evidence to map evolving relations among main non-state, pro-government actors and political and economic elites in the political economy of war in Ukraine. The data will be analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to reveal shifting patterns of financial flows, alliance and enmity, among the actors, resulting in a policy brief.

Leyla Amicis (£2150)

How can we make people eat less or no meaty? Exploring feasible strategies to make the world eat less or no meat and the planet to live longer.

Meat consumption reduction brings benefits to the environment, animals’ welfare and people’s health. However, most people struggle to reduce meat consumption and/or adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet.
Following on from a Festival of Social sciences event, this project aims to disseminate knowledge around the beneficial effects of meat consumption reduction, to contrast negative false information around meat -free diet, and provide the general public with a critical view on this topic.

Adina Dudau (£4,910)

Thriving through collaboration for children and families: strengthening UK and international public & nonprofit interorganisational networks

This project seeks to build the capacity of frontline professionals working with vulnerable children and families to work together effectively.
It aims to help professionals, organisations and policy-makers in the area of children and families identify and exploit opportunities for joint action, with the ultimate aim of improving policy, governance and service experience in this area.

Paul Lynch, Wasim Ahmad & Muhammad Imran (£4,840)

A study of blind and partially sighted people’s use of spatial representations and their engagement in the co-design and evaluation process of a multisensory independent travel aid

The project will support the engagement and development of visually impaired people's spatial representations and travel aids such as white cane, GPS, etc, as well as engaging them in the co-design and evaluation of a multisensory independent travel aid.

Rhys Machold (£4,990)

New Horizons for Justice and Policing in India

This project will chart new horizons for responding to the challenge of police violence in India. It will do so by facilitating impact-generation activities between the Rhys and Indian end-users involved in legal advocacy and human rights protection. Building on Rhy's publications on policing in the
global South, this project will share recent advances in understandings of police power to end users in order to enable such advances to inform struggles for police justice.

Neil Munro (£10,000)

Inspiring social accountability for water provision in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Our project publicises and proposes solutions to problems of public trust in the water utility, DAWASA, in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We will produce policy briefs providing positive suggestions for change in the policies and practices of the water utility. We will also engage a nationally famous political cartoonist  to produce a series of four cartoons for publication in the Mwananchi newspaper and to host a discussion with DAWASA on his highly regarded and popular PowerBreakfast radio show.

Mia Perry (£10,000)

Whose crisis? Responding to overshadowed experiences of the COVID-19 crisis

Research underpinning the: Whose crisis? The global COVID-19 crisis from the perspective of communities in Africa exposes unseen aspects of living with COVID-19 by co-curating representations and understandings of the social and cultural crisis generated by the pandemic in Africa.
The overarching aim of this project is to increase the impact of the “Whose Crisis?” research findings on policy formation, community development, and public awareness.

Patrizia Riganti (£9,980)

Valuing cultural capital for inclusive sustainable development

This project builds on previous and ongoing funded research led by Prof Riganti on the valuation of cultural capital. It embraces the current momentum within the cultural sector aimed to find consensus on how to assess the social benefits and costs of culture and heritage, both for the private and public sector. It aligns with the ambition set by the DCMS Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC) Programme to develop a systematic approach through which culture and heritage can be valued.

Bilge Serin (£9,900)

From Charity to Solidarity: Covid-19 Mutual aid Groups in Scotland

The project explores the role of mutual aid groups as a community response in mitigating everyday life challenges emerging under the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a qualitative explorative study based on interviews with mutual aid organisers and volunteers.
It project aims to widen the impact by reaching out to mutual aid groups nationally and internationally to facilitate open forum about the future of mutual aid practice.

Deirdre Shaw (£10,080)

Video, Podcast and Live Research Dissemination Event Series: Consumer Clothing Longevity, Disposal and Circularity

The purpose is to advance and disseminate key findings and recommendations from recently awarded PhD research, addressing clothing longevity, circularity and disposal, to an international audience. This will advance knowledge, where progress is currently hampered by a lack of insight and understanding into consumer practices essential to support the circular economy, key to addressing the environmental crisis.

Emiline Smith (£9,450)

Inspiring Nepal’s Future Generation to Protect Cultural & Natural Heritage

This innovative project aims to increase custodianship of cultural and natural heritage in Nepal by way of a book aimed at children aged 10-12. The educational book will be developed with and for communities in the Lower and Upper Himalayan regions, in order to increase effectiveness of local and national crime prevention strategies that target illicit trafficking of cultural and natural resources in Nepal.

Amy Thomas (£9,378)

You Can Play

This project is concerned with the legal regulation of video game user-generated content (UGC). The project aims to improve communications between game creators and their users, who create UGC, and clarify their legal position, through the development of UGC policies. In doing so, the project’s ultimate aim is to empower game creators to make decisions which achieve a balance between protecting their valuable game assets, whilst also encouraging downstream creativity by their user base.

Dania Thomas & Jeanette Findlay (£10,000)

Post Brexit procurement policy for lifeline ferry provision in Scotland: the case for a stakeholder managed and public-funded model as an alternative to ad-hoc and piecemeal privatisation.

With the CalMac tender coming up for renewal at the end of 2024 and in the absence of stakeholder-managed and publicly funded (SMPF) alternatives, there is evidence that ad hoc and piecemeal privatisation is fast becoming the default. This project aims to explore and develop a costed alternative for our trade union partners for discussion in the public domain.

Oscar Valiente & Srabani Maitra (£9,410)

Towards a human development perspective on the international transfer of dual apprenticeships: Knowledge exchange with bilateral and multilateral cooperation organizations.

The project aims to support bilateral and multilateral organizations to improve the impact of international transfer of dual apprenticeships (DA)s on the human development of young people.

Joanne Wincenciak (9,100)

Nurturing Schools - Supporting children’s emotional resilience and teacher’s self-efficacy using puppetry.

There is concerning evidence suggesting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on an increased risk of children developing emotional dysregulation, behavioural problems and poorer social skills, all of which can negatively impact their educational outcomes (ScotGov, 2020). Since 2018 we have been running a Puppetry and Emotional Resilience program which is providing an intervention for developing socio-emotional competence, emotional self-regulation, and positive relationships in young children using puppetry. The current project will a involve a series of participatory workshops with education and social care providers enabling them to implement the programme in their settings.

Graeme Young (£3,220)

Financial Inclusion for Street Vendors in Cali, Colombia.

As a consequence of the pandemic, the local government of Cali has designated a large sum of public resources to promote financial inclusion programs for informal workers. Nevertheless, there is little knowledge about the implementation, partnerships, and delivery mechanism to implement those programs locally. We seek to provide a toolkit that will address, step-by-step, the implementation process for publicly supported programs, considering the local capacities and resources.