Social justice

Dedicated to championing human rights we are demanding a more just world by supporting vulnerable communities get heard by governments and intergovernmental organisations, policy makers and global justice networks.

• Enabling young Nigerian entrepreneurs to thrive
  A co-produced peer support, training and mentoring programme for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria is boosting participants’ business success and wellbeing.
• Promoting oracy in educational settings
  A knowledge-exchange programme between the University of Bristol and educational settings in southwest England is developing practice to support children’s oracy.
• Oral language support is key for covid recovery
  Covid-19 school closures are threatening children’s oral language skills: but whole school universal language interventions could help.
• COVID-19 and the 'forced culture change' in higher education
  Our research captures the lives and views of those working in higher education during the recent mass online migration.
• International student mobility and climate change
  Estimating the environmental costs associated with the internationalisation of higher education.
• FGM-safeguarding and race inequality
  Improving policy responses to FGM-safeguarding and race inequality through co-produced knowledge.
• Improving scientific understanding of learning
  Our research is incorporating neuroscientific understanding into educational theory and practice.
• Helping students from rural communities in South Africa to access and succeed in higher education
  Supporting changes in institutional practice and national policy to widen participation in higher education for under-represented and marginalised groups in Southern Africa.
• Strengthening teaching and learning in schools in Tanzania and Rwanda
  Our research is strengthening English-medium school education in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Building more inclusive collaborations between universities and communities
  Supporting universities to forge research partnerships with communities – especially those who face barriers to participation in research.
• Research helps define and improve the management of ‘medical manslaughter’ cases
  Dr Oliver Quick is a recognised authority in Criminal Law and Medical Law, with a special interest in patient safety. His recent research has focused on how prosecutors and experts negotiate criminal law and process in these controversial cases.
• Improving the quality of life of older people
  Using objects and storytelling in care homes helps residents build social connections and improves their quality of life.
• Colombian truth commission and educators using research to build peace
  Research into how truth commissions have worked with education around the world informs approach of Colombian truth commission as they work to recover from decades of conflict.
• Bridging Gaps in primary healthcare for women with complex needs
  A co-produced intervention that not only successfully increased the number of women with complex needs accessing mainstream healthcare, but also empowered the women concerned to act as champions and advocates in their community.
• Changing public understanding of league tables
  Our improved school performance measure is reframing school accountability policy debates.
• Everyday Maths resources
  Supporting teachers’ engagement with parents around children’s mathematics learning.
• Schools as shared spaces
  Promote community relations in school classrooms through research informed practice.
• Delivering equality of support for parents with learning difficulties
  Without early and on-going support these families often face extremely complex difficulties resulting in concerns about neglect by omission – not knowing how to look after their children, rather than deliberate abuse.
• Taking action on mortality reviews of people with learning disabilities
  Bristol is now a leading institution for the study of mortality of people with learning disabilities, not only nationally but also internationally.
• Supporting spoken language in the classroom
  School of Education collaboration with primary schools enhances vital spoken language skills in the classroom.
• Helping to enable children’s rights to citizenship
  Numerous children are in precarious life situations despite being born or having lived in the UK for years and being eligible for the secure status of citizenship.
• Creating inclusive care home environments for older LGBT+ people
  Sexual orientation as a social and cultural dimension to older people's lives is often obscured within health and social care policy and practice settings. This situation is even more problematic for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) individuals.
• Putting mental health research into practice
  Charities might not be the first thing people think about when they hear the word ‘industry’. However, third sector and charitable companies like Second Step contribute tens of billions of pounds to the UK economy each year - Dr Myles-Jay Linton
• Mental Health and Personal Finance
  Research suggests that one in four people with mental health problems are in debt, while one in two people in debt have a mental health problem.
• Inclusive walking for Bristol’s transport planning and public health
  Walking is a convenient and free form of exercise, and a carbon neutral mode of transport. In Bristol there are both reasons and opportunities for walking to both improve people’s health and to address local transport issues.
• Testing a new approach to dietary changes for type 2 diabetes
  There are only around 9,000 registered dietitians in the UK and not all have expertise in the prevention and management of diabetes. Dr Anne Haase and Dr Clare England developed a specific approach to help set relevant goals and to support diet behaviour change for type 2 diabetes patients.
• Research leads to practical support for young people with continence problems
  Bladder and bowel problems are very common and can be affected by psychological issues and stressful life events in a child’s life. There is also strong evidence that bladder and bowel problems affect the mental health of children, young people and their parents.
• Generation Snowstorm – a Social Change Summer School as a mental health intervention
  Off The Record (OTR) Bristol is an innovative young people's mental health charity with a focus on engaging young people in service design and delivery. Over 2017-18 Dr Nathan Eisenstadt collaborated with OTR on a Knowledge Exchange project funded by Bristol's ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
• Informal governance and achieving sustainability – the next steps for Bristol Pound
  Launched in 2012, the Bristol Pound (£B) is the UK’s largest local currency, operating in both digital and cash forms. It aims to create a more resilient and sustainable independent business sector in Bristol, and a fairer and more inclusive local economy by changing how individuals and organisations behave financially.
• Embedding research findings into teaching and learning primary maths
  A successful Knowledge Exchange project funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account has embedded Bristol research findings into new materials for Maths teachers
• How academia informs migration policy and data development
  The need to improve knowledge and understanding of migration data is now acknowledged globally to be essential for informing and challenging policies on migration and asylum and to encourage balanced debate.
• Developing Professional Learning Communities in Chinese and East Asian Schools
  Major research collaboration with the National Institute for Educational Sciences in Beijing actively supports teacher development and learning tailored to East Asian contexts in China and Vietnam.
• Reducing the Poverty Premium
  In 2016 the Personal Finance Research Centre measured for the first time how many current low-income households are actually affected by poverty premium, and by how much.
• A better way to evaluate schools
  Value-added measures of performance look beyond basic exam results, helping give a much clearer view of how schools perform within their regional and social context.
• Closing the educational attainment gap
  Research has helped shape new initiatives aimed at closing the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.
• Raising school attainment and informing parent choice
  The Welsh Government's abolition of school league tables in 2000 provided an opportunity to test whether such information is important to school performance.
• Promoting educational equity in Chilean schools
  In a country of widespread inequality, good education can help close the gap. But first, we need to decide what we mean by “good”.
• Understanding and promoting the educational progress of children in care
  Research led by Bristol and Oxford Universities has concluded that, contrary to popular belief, children in care make better educational progress than children living at home receiving social work support (‘children in need’): the care system, therefore, operates as an educational protective factor
• Policy changes improve education standards for minority groups
  Research-led changes to policies, programmes and practices have helped raise the school performance of students from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
• Reshaping migration laws in South America
  Immigration regulation has long been a legal and political challenge in South America. Professor Diego Acosta has produced extensive research on the issue that has decisively influenced several articles of major new immigration laws adopted in Brazil and Ecuador.
• Using evolutionary anthropology to improve women's health in Ethiopia
  Bristol research has helped to influence policy and create a blueprint for development interventions in remote communities.
• Discoveries lead to better and safer hip and knee replacements
  Research profoundly changes the practice of joint replacement globally.
• A radical advance in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration
  Research leads to increased availability of lower-cost treatment for a major worldwide cause of sight loss.
• A radical advance in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration
  Research leads to increased availability of lower-cost treatment for a major worldwide cause of sight loss.
• Improving implementation of human rights in Africa
  Bristol’s Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC), supported by ESRC funding, carried out a programme of research that provided new evidence on what affects the implementation of human rights law. This has helped to bring about improvements to policies and practices in Africa to support the implementation of human rights law.
• Helping policy makers create an effective vaccination strategy for meningitis B
  Research by the University of Bristol supported the UK government’s decision to introduce a new vaccine for UK infants that has led to a 75% reduction in cases.
• Building the bridge: Muslim community engagement in Bristol
  Levels of personal debt and financial hardship are rising, leading many to resort to payday lenders. In a context of welfare retrenchment and increasing financial exclusion, faith organisations, including from minority faiths, are not just plugging the gaps, but setting out alternative and often innovative approaches to welfare and economic justice.
• Transforming healthcare for women experiencing domestic violence and abuse
  Bristol leads evaluation and rollout of IRIS programme that improves training and support in GP practices.
• Optimising treatment for prostate cancer
  Bristol has contributed to research that provides a new evidence base for improving care and reducing harm caused by treatments.
• Discoveries lead to better and safer hip and knee replacements
  Research profoundly changes the practice of joint replacement globally.
• Reforming abortion law in Northern Ireland
  Prior to October 2019, abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland with very few exceptions. Research by Professor Sheelagh McGuinness and Dr Jane Rooney supported the campaign to decriminalise abortion and informed legislation that has enabled Northern Irish women to access legal and local abortion services.
• Protecting UK employment rights
  Over the last forty years, the UK has witnessed a gradual erosion of workers’ rights through labour market deregulation that has been balanced, at least to some degree, by the guarantee of fundamental rights through the EU.
• Confronting worker exploitation in electronics manufacturing
  Better migrant workers' rights at the world's biggest consumer electronics manufacturer, thanks to study which highlights the effects of 'just-in-time' manufacturing on staff.