{"id":9551,"date":"2018-07-13T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T10:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=9551"},"modified":"2018-07-13T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T10:57:10","slug":"awards-recognise-global-impact-of-ou-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/around-ou\/university-news\/awards-recognise-global-impact-of-ou-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Awards recognise global impact of OU research"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday 11 July 2018, the OU held its first ever Research Excellence Awards<\/em> to celebrate\u00a0the University\u2019s research and academic achievements, and the global impact and breadth of the University\u2019s research portfolio.<\/p>\n

Researchers from across the University were in the running for five awards, whose winners were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Professor Kevin Hetherington, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Academic Strategy. Kevin said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our first ever OU Research Excellence Awards scheme. The Awards are a great way of recognising the importance and quality of our research, and the excellence of our academics. We had a high-calibre of submissions, which made the choice of winners hard to make.\u00a0Well done to all those who won.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The winners and runners up<\/h2>\n

Outstanding Contribution to Research Award <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"PhotoOU Chair of International Development,\u00a0Professor Giles Mohan<\/a> from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, was the worthy winner of the coveted Outstanding Contribution to Research Award<\/em>, for his world-renowned work on African development over the last 25 years.<\/p>\n

Giles\u2019 work straddles human geography and international development, and focuses on how international agencies have made progress in Africa, despite huge structural constraints.<\/p>\n

Giles explains:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my work, I have always tried to look at the ways that Africans themselves are driving their own development.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more about this award winner and runner-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Early Career Researcher Award <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"PhotoOU Postdoctoral Research Associate,\u00a0Dr Jenna Mittelmeier<\/a>, from Learning and Teaching Innovations, won the Early Career Research Award<\/em>. Since completing her PhD at the OU, Jenna has been working on large-scale psychological instruments to determine how international students at the University of South Africa develop strategies to cope and adjust to changes in their academic and personal life.<\/p>\n

The judging panel praised Jenna as a real all-rounder, whose research is already generating substantial impact beyond academia.<\/p>\n

Jenna said:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I feel really honoured just to be nominated and I am very proud of the hard work I have put in this year.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more about this award winner and runner-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Outstanding Impact of Research on OU Learning and Teaching, Curriculum and Students Award<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"PhotoSenior Lecturer in Psychology,\u00a0Dr Ilona Roth<\/a>, from the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) won this award for her track record of research in autism, which she has applied to innovative curriculum and learning materials. The judging panel described her work as \u201can exemplary demonstration of research-informed curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of this century, Ilona\u2019s research has ranged from documenting unusual cognitive traits in autism to addressing autism awareness and stigma in Ethiopia, to dementia. This work has inspired her to create a range of innovative curriculum, training and informal learning materials for those interested in autism and mental health, and has enhanced the way staff teach and support students with autism.<\/p>\n

Read more about this award winner and runner-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Outstanding Impact of Research on Society and Prosperity Award<\/h3>\n

\"PhotoProfessor Shailey Minocha<\/a> and her team in the faculties of STEM (Duncan Banks, Catherine McNulty, Ana Tudor) and WELS (Caroline Holland), and Kate Hamblin from the University of Oxford won this award for their research investigating how wearable monitoring technologies can support active and healthy ageing.<\/p>\n

With Age UK Milton Keynes<\/em>, Carers MK<\/em>, University of Oxford<\/em>, and Samsung UK<\/em>, they are working out how these devices can help older people self-monitor and self-manage their health, and alleviate social isolation and loneliness. The research has informed activity monitor design and is providing the evidence that could underpin policy for active and healthy ageing and caring.<\/p>\n

The judges described the programme as \u201can excellent example of research that is shaped by its users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about this award winner and runner-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Outstanding Research Project Award<\/h3>\n

\"PhotoThe Rosetta team from the Faculty of STEM, whose research enabled the first ever landing on a comet, has won the Outstanding Research Project Award<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Many colleagues in the team have worked on the project for 20 years, and were involved in shaping the scope of the Rosetta Mission from the very beginning, developing and constructing scientific instrumentation<\/a> to take it on its journey around the sun, and to construct the Philae Lander, which landed on the comet\u2019s surface. Rosetta and Philae have revolutionised our understanding of cometary science and boosted the OU\u2019s research profile, by publishing many academic papers, attracting grant funding, and contributing to public outreach and teaching activities.<\/p>\n

Professor Ian Wright, a member of the team explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spent our lifetime on Rosetta \u2013 this allows us to convey our sense of excitement to our undergraduate students and encourage them to rise to almost impossible challenges too.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more about this award winner and runner-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Find out more<\/h2>\n

Read mor<\/a>e about research at the OU<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday 11 July 2018, the OU held its first ever Research Excellence Awards to celebrate\u00a0the University\u2019s research and academic achievements, and the global impact and breadth of the University\u2019s research portfolio. Researchers from across the University were in the running for five awards, whose winners were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Professor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,1130,1904,1906],"class_list":["post-9551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-academic-excellence","tag-impact","tag-research","tag-research-excellence-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}