ISSUES’ collection of Impact Success Stories show how knowledge created by the EPSRC’s £45m Sustainable Urban Environment programme (SUE) has successfully impacted upon the world beyond academia. From an internationally recognised sustainable masterplanning tool, to a socially inclusive online journey planner, SUE’s dissemination and engagement efforts are yielding significant benefits. The case studies provide a useful resource for researchers and practitioners alike.

Using the lessons learned from the Impact Success Stories, the ISSUES Guide to KT is a series of one page guidance notes designed to help researchers understand the methods to creating impact beyond academia and the reasons why knowledge exchange should be an important consideration at all stages of a research project. Aimed primarily at early to mid stage researchers, the Guide uses real life examples of successful KT from SUE and ISSUES.

You can download the ISSUES Guide to KT and Impact Success Stories from the ISSUES website:

Impact Success Stories: http://www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk/ISSUESSueIMPACT.html

Guide to KT: http://www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk/ISSUESGuidanceNotes.html

There are a limited number of Guides and Success Stories available in printed form. If you would like to order a copy email kt-sue@hw.ac.uk with ‘ISSUES Guide’ in the subject line.

ISSUES is keen to hear you feedback. Send any comments or queries to kt-sue@hw.ac.uk.

https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/sustainabilityktn/esktn-tv

Taking in the panoramic view from the 29th floor of Millbank Tower in central London, IMPACT 360°will focus on a selection of 360° Impact Success Stories, as told by the SUE researchers themselves, set alongside messages from key figures about the importance of ensuring research impacts in the ‘real world’.

Speakers:
Sir Brian Fender (President of Institute of Knowledge Transfer)
Peter Heath (Atkins’ Technical Director of Public Realms)
Declan Mulkeen (Chair of the RCUK KTEIG)

We look forward to seeing you there
The ISSUES Team

IMPACT 360°will focus on a selection of 360° Impact Success Stories, as told by the SUE researchers themselves, set alongside messages from key figures about the importance of ensuring research impacts in the ‘real world’.

Speakers:
Dan Epstein (former Head of Sustainable Development at Olympic Delivery Authority)
Sir Brian Fender (President of Institute of Knowledge Transfer)
Peter Heath (Atkins’ Technical Director of Public Realms)
Declan Mulkeen (Chair of the RCUK KTEIG)

Attendance is by invitation only but extra audience places will be available. If you are interested in attending contact Annabel: a.cooper@hw.ac.uk.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 28 posts. There were 44 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was August 17th with 49 views. The most popular post that day was Professor Paul Jowitt becomes ICE President.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk, cordless-homephone.info, d2forex.com, cheaptravelstyle.com, and 123people.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for professor paul jowitt, paul jowitt, sustainable urban enviroments blog, paul morrell uk construction, and brave new city london.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Professor Paul Jowitt becomes ICE President November 2009

About the ISSUES Project October 2009

ISSUES Brave New City London event shaping up February 2010

UK Government’s Climate Change Targets: Missed the mark in 2010, but all set for 2020? February 2010

Top civil engineer back in Scotland to mark ICE Presidency November 2009

ISSUES presents IMPACT 360°: Success Stories from the Sustainable Urban Environment.

IMPACT 360° presents research findings from the EPSRC’s £45m Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE) research programme to stimulate discussion amongst the researchers, decision makers, practitioners and policy makers about urban futures, urban sustainability and pathways to achieving impact.

Taking in the panoramic view from the 29th floor of Millbank Tower in central London, IMPACT 360° will focus on a selection of 360° Impact Success Stories, as told by the SUE researchers themselves, set alongside messages from key figures about the importance of ensuring research impacts in the ‘real world’.

Attendance is by invitation only. The number of places available is limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested in attending the event contact Annabel: a.cooper@hw.ac.uk.

Read a selection of SUE IMPACT STORIES here

The latest Success Stories feature two projects from SUE 1′s AUNT SUE:

AMELIA: A METHODOLOGY FOR ENHANCING LIFE BY INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY

HADRIAN: HUMAN ANTHROPOMETRIC DATA REQUIREMENTS INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS

Read the Success Stories now: http://www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk/ISSUESPublications.htm

The event will showcase a selection of ‘Success Stories’ from SUE1 and SUE2. These case studies highlight instances where the SUE consortia have successfully impacted upon the world beyond academia and present some great lessons and useful learning for future research in the context of the impact agenda.

More details and official invitations to follow soon but please save the date in your diaries!

Based in Westminster, close to the Houses of Parliament and Whitehall, the LGA lobbies and campaigns for changes in policy, legislation and funding on behalf of member councils and the people and communities they serve.

The LGA consists of 422 member authorities, including county councils, metropolitan district councils, English unitary authorities, London boroughs and shire district councils, along with fire authorities, police authorities, national park authorities and passenger transport authorities.

‘SUE: A Project in Posters’ is on display in the Open Council, a forum where members can meet colleagues from local and national government, industry and academia.

This latest move follows a successful stay at the BRE Innovation Park, the world leading demonstration development designed to give a glimpse of how the future delivery of sustainable buildings and communities can be achieved.

Read all about it in Building for Change magazine: http://www.building4change.com/page.jsp?id=512

Where should the exhibition go next?

Do you know of any high profile venues where you would like to see your research represented?

Send your ideas to Annabel a.cooper@hw.ac.uk

Still only half way through, the EPSRC-funded Urban Futures project can already boast some success in producing impact on the world around us. In accordance with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Impact! Campaign, the Urban Futures team has been monitoring how their research could impact beyond academia and has found that the team’s close involvement with external steering group partners has led to the uptake and adaptation of the project’s outputs in the real world.

Urban Futures, part of the EPSRC’s Sustainable Urban Environment (SUE) programme of research, selected four future scenarios (Policy Reform, Market Forces, Fortress World and New Sustainability Paradigm) from the wide variety of scenarios that are currently available that will enable them to future proof today’s sustainability solutions (things done today in the name of sustainability, for example greywater recycling or passive solar design). The futures are not built upon probabilities or predictions, but instead bring together a number of factors to create varyingly disparate pictures of the world in 2050. Selecting futures in this way is necessary if the robustness of sustainability solutions is to be fully tested. The project team’s decision to work closely with the Environment Agency and environmental consultants CH2M HILL has ensured that both organisations are already introducing aspects of Urban Futures’ devised methodology into their work.

The team has just finished the challenging task of refining the scenarios to the UK Urban context. This has required defining numerous characteristics of the very different urban properties of each of the scenarios, with input from the complete range of discipline backgrounds represented within the project.   Work now focuses upon identifying, testing and optimising sustainability solutions to ensure they deliver their intended purpose no matter what the future holds.

The ISSUES project, the team tasked with improving the transfer of knowledge and uptake of SUE research, has produced a report that examines Urban Futures’ pathway to successful impact to date.  The report investigates the dissemination and engagement efforts that have yielded significant benefits, both for the researchers and for sustainability practitioners, as well as promoting environmental sustainability throughout the UK and beyond. You can read the report now by visiting the ISSUES website: http://www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk/ISSUESPublications.htm.

Urban Futures and ISSUES (Implementation Strategies for Sustainable Urban Environment Systems) are both part of the SUE Programme, an EPSRC funded portfolio of research looking at ways of improving sustainability in the urban environment. Spanning 30 different UK Universities, this programme has funded 18 consortia in different areas including waste, water management, transport planning and strategy, spatial planning, regeneration and stakeholder engagement.

For more information and for the latest research outputs from Urban Futures visit www.urban-futures.org. To find out more about SUE and the knowledge transfer work undertaken by the ISSUES project, visit the ISSUES website: www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org

The Sustainable Urban Environment digital poster exhibition was on the move again earlier this month, making its way to the world renowned BRE Innovation Park.

The BRE Innovation Park is a world leading and ground breaking demonstration development designed to give a glimpse of how the future delivery of sustainable buildings and communities can be achieved not only in the UK but around the world.  It features seven of the world’s most sustainable houses, a health centre of the future and over 300 different construction innovations and emerging technologies, as well as a state of the art community landscape design.

World Renowned BRE Innovation Park hosts SUE exhibition

The site boasts approximately 24,000 visitors each year, including anyone from architects, developers, surveyors, corporate clients (M&S, B&Q, Toyota), students, landscapers,  product manufacturers, government ministers, national and trade press. The Sustainable Urban Environment digital poster exhibition is on display in the visitor’s centre and on various big screens around the venue.

For more information about the BRE Innovation Park and to arrange a visit go to: www.bre.co.uk

View the exhibtion online now.