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.
• Supporting Early Years transition to school
  Examining the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on early years transition to school, with a focus on children with SEND and children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• 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.
• Integrating Pakistani Migrant Husbands to the UK
  Spouses constitute one of the most significant sources of settlement migration to the UK. Most services for migrant spouses focus on women but 35-45% of migrant spouses from the Indian subcontinent, the largest group of spousal migrants, are men.
• Improving responses to violence against refugee and asylum-seeking women
  Sexual violence against refugee and asylum-seeking (RAS) women is occurring across Europe and the Mediterranean countries. International agencies and institutions including the UN, UNHCR, Council of Europe, and European Parliament have highlighted the urgent need for action to be taken.
• Research leads to licensed training on assessing parents' capacity to change in child welfare cases
  C-Change was designed by researchers in Bristol's Children and Families Research Centre and successfully licensed to partner Interface Enterprises to deliver national training.
• 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.
• Protecting consumers from weight-loss claims
  Food giant Unilever abandoned plans to incorporate Fabuless into its slimming products following a study by experimental psychologists at the University of Bristol.
• Rebuilding civil participation post conflict
  Academic findings have led national and international organisations to place greater emphasis on civilian capacity building in post-conflict states.
• 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.
• Measuring social influence for business and government
  Developing new analysis tools that determine the extent to which social networks influence decision-making.
• 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.
• Street-play model copied nationwide
  Bristol has more street-play schemes than any other city in the UK, due in part to University research.
• Focusing healthcare competition on quality not price
  Bristol research leads to hospitals competing on quality - not price - for elective care, improving patient experience without increasing resource use.
• 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”.
• Pinpointing poverty in Latin America
  There are 170 million people living in poverty in Latin America – but we don’t know exactly where, or even why.
• 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
• Multi-dimensional approach to tackling poverty takes off worldwide
  Countries as far afield as the Solomon Islands, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and Uganda are turning to research carried out by Bristol experts to change how they define and tackle poverty.
• Changing the way domestic abuse is policed and tracked
  In March 2014 the new Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, more commonly known as ’Clare’s law’, was rolled out by police forces across England and Wales.
• Defining poverty in the 21st century
  The Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE:UK) project provides policy makers with impartial, accurate and reliable evidence with which to measure poverty.
• Advising HM Treasury on pension policy
  HM Treasury officials used algorithms created by Dr Edmund Cannon and colleagues to inform government pension policy.
• Changing constituency boundary rules
  Bristol's impartial expertise on representation in the House of Commons has helped shape legislation, inform debate and improve public understanding.
• Shaping suicide prevention initiatives
  Research has helped shape local, national and global suicide prevention initiatives, leading to subsequent reductions in suicide rates.
• Revolutionising access to financial services
  Research has shown that financial exclusion is determined by more than just geography, helping shape policies to halve the number of people without a bank account.
• Changing policy on second eye cataract surgery
  Research into good practice have reduced waiting times for second eye cataract surgery, meaning UK patients get the benefits of surgery sooner.
• 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.
• Bristol's international role in torture prevention efforts
  Researchers in the School of Law play a central role at the UN, establishing national and international efforts to prevent torture.
• Mixed treatment comparisons inform clinical guidelines
  A new technique for comparing healthcare treatment options is helping policy makers in the UK, Canada, Germany, and South Korea.
• Changing attitudes towards British Muslims and multiculturalism
  For over 30 years, Professor Tariq Modood has influenced public, political, academic and media discourse, promoting deeper understanding of multiculturalism and driving improvements in equality standards.
• Benchmarking financial capability
  Findings from the Personal Finance Research Centre shaped an international model for assessing financial capability.
• Tackling climate, crime and salmon
  The statistical methodology that's helping solve commercial, social and scientific problems around the world.
• Catching up with corporate bribery
  Research from the Law School means that the onus is now on commercial organisations to show that they have adequate anti-bribery procedures in place.
• Increasing active travel to school
  Research proving that walking or cycling to school results in health benefits has informed national and international policy.
• Improving life expectancy for HIV positive people
  Research showed that antiretroviral treatment dramatically increases life expectancy and should be started as early as possible, leading to a major change of approach by policy makers, clinicians and insurers across the world.
• Gold standard for measuring child poverty
  UNICEF is among several key organizations to adopt the scientific estimates of child poverty developed at Bristol’s Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research.
• Helping prevent and treat bowel cancer
  Identifying apoptosis (cell suicide) as a plausible scientific mechanism for how a high fibre diet and aspirin may prevent and treat bowel cancer.
• Influencing legislation on care of children
  More children in the UK are now cared for by relatives or friends (kin) than unrelated foster carers since a ground-breaking study revealed how successful it can be for all concerned.
• Influencing the design of government intervention strategies
  Applying research into political reform in Vietnam to government intervention strategies in the UK and international donor behaviour.
• Tackling teen relationship violence on TV
  Research into violence within teenage intimate relationships has highlighted the importance of challenging the attitudes and behaviours that foster an acceptance of abusive relationships as early as possible.