Collaboration is at the heart of the SWDTP. We facilitate lasting and meaningful ties between researchers and organisations (big or small); we share best-practice initiatives between five universities and we support student-led programmes including the South West Research COOP, The Open Review Journal and the SWDTP Conference Committee.
What is Collaboration?
Collaboration changes its meaning according to context and partner; from the research perspective it can mean working with a wide variety of organisations and individuals from private, public and civic sectors. Forms of collaboration may vary from an entirely co-organised and co-produced project, to a workshop, design of a specific data-gathering exercise, participation in a policy review, conference, placement or internship.
What is Impact?
The ESRC defines research impact as ‘the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy’. This can involve academic impact, economic and societal impact or both .
Our collaboration and impact work currently has these main priority areas:
Information for Partner Organisations
Are you an organisation looking to form a collaboration with the SWDTP? Whether you’re a multi-national corporation; a small-scale charity or a new start-up, if you have research-needs, we’d love to hear from you!
Our students are keen to undertake social-science-based research placements and we can support this in a number of ways. To find out more about becoming a partner organisation, you can click on this link, or email our Collaboration Facilitator, Molly Conisbee, to start forming a connection.
Found out more on the our Information for Partner Organisations page
Collaboration and Impact that SWDTP Students have Undertaken:
Our students have been in collaboration with or have impacted many different partners, including:
Rosie Walters collaborated with Oxfam among others in her event ‘ Young Feminisms‘ using the SWDTP Impact Fund
We’ve had 7 students on placement with the Welsh Government!
Lydia Medland and Maria-Teresa Pinto collaborated with FabRiders to design and deliver a workshop at the University of Bristol .
And loads more through the Student-Run Research COOP!
Dr Abi Dymond Impact Interview
Dr Abi Dymond was an ESRC funded PhD student from 2013 to 2016. Abi’s PhD research drew on elements from criminology, sociology and law, used quantitative and qualitative techniques, from binary logistic regression to actor-network theory, to examine the controversies around tasers and less lethal weapons in the UK.
Abi won the ESRC Impact Prize for Outstanding Early Career Impact in 2018 and is now a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at the University of Exeter.
Have a look at the video below with Abi detailing the impact of her research.
GW4 Benefits for Students at Bath, Bristol and Exeter
If you choose to do your PhD at the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff or Exeter, you will be part of a globally competitive research network: the GW4 Alliance.
GW4 offers a variety of benefits to postgraduate research students registered at any of its four institutions, including access to a collaborative research network, expert training opportunities and shared resources.
Found out more on the GW4 website.
Have you undertaken collaboration or impact?
If you’re an SWDTP student and you’ve undertaken a collaborative project during your studentship that you haven’t told us about, then please get in touch! We love to hear about everything that our students get up to! Please email Eloise Ames (e.ames@bristol.ac.uk) with any updates