Award
BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award
The BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award recognises and celebrates the impact of research and practice in the education community and how both have demonstrably engaged the public.

This award recognises and celebrates the impact of research and practice in the education community and how both have demonstrably engaged the public.
The award is presented annually and may consist of two awards: one may be given for an individual’s research and a second award may be given for a team of researchers.
Nominations are sought from:
-
Individuals or teams whose educational research work has shown demonstrable public engagement and/or impact
-
Practitioner(s) or researcher(s) whose work is grounded in educational research and has led to demonstrable public engagement
and/or impact -
Persons whose activities have boosted public engagement with educational research and/or its impact, or whose efforts have increased recognition and support for education research in public
For the purposes of this Award, ‘public engagement’ is broadly defined as activities that bring research and/or researchers and the public (or specific groups within the public) together. It is more than just disseminating research – effective public engagement is about two-way communication, with the researchers listening to and learning from participants or other stakeholders at different stages in the research process. UKRI provide a helpful definition of public engagement
‘Impact’ is broadly defined as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia. It includes, but is not limited to, an effect on, change or benefit to:
-
the activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, policy,
-
practice, process or understanding; of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organisation or individuals; in any Geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.
Nominations are scored by a BERA selection panel and are framed by the following criteria:
Judging Criteria
- Relevance of the work to the strategic objectives of BERA
- Quality of the work undertaken to facilitate public engagement/realise impact
- Originality of the approach adopted in engaging the public/realising impact
- Significance and contribution of the work (e.g. evidence of impact for stakeholders/research users – such as children and young people, practitioners, policy-makers)
Prize Details
- £500
- Featured article in BERA’s magazine Research Intelligence
- The recipient will work directly with Emerald Publishing’s marketing and design teams to create a bespoke and engaging research summary
- The award winner will be promoted on BERA’s website, social media channels and in our newsletters to the wider research community.
- The award winner may be asked to play a BERA ambassadorial role. This may include speaking about your research at BERA Conference and/or other events, submitting a BERA blog, involvement on twitter, or being asked to record audio or video for BERA’s website.
2021 Co-winner
University of Oxford’s Teacher Education and Professional Learning Group – The Reform of Initial Teacher Education in Wales
2021 Co-winner
University of Kent’s Centre for Child Protection (CCP) – Keeping Children Safe: Advancing Child Protection Pedagogy, Awareness and Practice through Innovative Simulations
2020 Individual Winner
Leading the Future of Science and Technology Education in Wales

Professor of Digital Education & Policy at Swansea University
Tom Crick is Professor of Digital Education & Policy at Swansea University, a joint appointment between the School of Education, the Department of Computer Science, and the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences. While his disciplinary background is...
2020 Team Winner
The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education – “Tackling widespread myths and misconceptions through transformatory teacher training and sustained support for schools.”

Head of Research Programme and Principal Research Fellow at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Alice Pettigrew is Head of Research Programme and Principal Research Fellow at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. She was one of the principal authors for both of the Centre’s national studies, Teaching About the Holocaust in England’s...

Associate Professor in History Education at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Dr Arthur Chapman is Associate Professor in History Education at the UCL Institute of Education and a member of the research team at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Historical...

Executive Director at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Stuart Foster, in his role as Executive Director, has provided strategic leadership for the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education since its inception in 2008. He recently led the Centre’s ground-breaking national study What Do Students Know and...

Research and Evaluation Officer at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Eleni is a member of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education research team. She is involved in the Centre’s research into teachers’ practices and students’ understandings of the Holocaust, the publication of a series of research...
Senior Research Associate at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Rebecca Hale is part of the research team at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and one of the authors of the Centre’s publication: What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools. She...

Associate Professor in Holocaust and History Education at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Andy Pearce works across all of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education's CPD programmes, and is involved in the Centre's research activities. He is one of the lead authors of our national research into students' knowledge and...

Programme Director at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Ruth-Anne Lenga offers strategic leadership and management to the Centre and directs the innovative Masters module, The Holocaust in the Curriculum. This is the first of its kind in the UK and is rooted in the Centre's ground breaking research...
We are delighted to partner with Emerald Publishing to present the prize for the 2020 award.
The 2020 award is a partnership with Emerald Publishing who will be working with the winners to publish digital research summaries.
“Emerald Publishing is delighted to support the 2020 BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award. We are thrilled to extend our congratulations to Professor Tom Crick for his work “Leading the Future of Science and Technology Education in Wales” and to the team at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. Each of these winners have made a profound impact on education policy and practice within Britain, and have produced world-class research that can inspire and inform similar outcomes in other contexts. Emerald are deeply committed to supporting and mobilising the real world impact of research and look forward to working with the winners to create bespoke dissemination pieces about their research.“
Emerald Publishing is one of the world’s leading digital first publishers, commissioning, curating and showcasing research that can make a real difference. They work with thousands of universities and business schools across the world to share knowledge and provoke the kind of debate that leads to positive change.
https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/
2019 Individual Winner
The importance of adjusting for pupil background in school value-added models:
A study of Progress 8 and school accountability in England

University of Bristol
George Leckie is a Professor of Social Statistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling at the School of Education, University of Bristol, UK. His substantive interests focus on design, analysis, and communication issues...
2019 Team Winner
The Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (MITA)

UCL Institute of Education
Rob Webster is an Associate Professor at UCL IOE. He is the MITA programme director and team lead for the MITA efficacy trial, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). He worked on the ground-breaking Deployment and Impact of Support...

UCL Institute of Education
Dr Paula Bosanquet is a senior teaching fellow and leads the Maximising the Practice of Teaching Assistants (MPTA) professional development strand of MITA, which focuses on developing pupil independence. She is lead author of The Teaching...

UCL, Institute of Education
Sally Franklin is a Senior Teaching Fellow and delivers the MITA school improvement course for school leaders and the MPTA training for school staff, including as part of the EEF-funded MITA trial. Sally has worked on a range of SEN projects,...

UCL Institute of Education
Matthew Parker is a Senior Teaching Fellow and delivers the MITA school improvement course for school leaders and the MPTA training for school staff. He has worked as a teaching assistant, a teacher, strategic lead for SEN, a primary...

UCL, Institute of Education
Professor Jonathan Sharples is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Education Endowment Foundation, seconded from the EPPI-Centre at UCL IOE. He works with schools and policymakers across the sector to promote evidence-informed practice, and...

UCL, Institute of Education
Marina Kipfer leads on day-to-day project management and administration for the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants programme. She also works in the Centre for Inclusive Education’s communication team. She holds a Masters degree in...

UCL, Institute of Education
Kelly Golding was a MITA Coordinator (2017-18) and delivered the MITA school improvement course for school leaders and the MPTA training for school staff as part of the EEF-funded MITA trial. Kelly was previously an Assistant Head in an inner...

UCL, Institute of Education
Aimee Shaw was the MITA Project Manager (2017-19) and led the operational and logistical delivery of MITA activities, including the EEF-funded MITA trial.
2018 Winner

Karl Mannheim Professor of sociology of education at UCL Institute of Education
Louise Archer's research focusses on educational identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to social class, ethnicity and gender. She has conducted research on a wide range of issues, including British Muslim young people’s...
2017 Winner

King’s College London
Dr Sue Sentance was awarded the winner of the 2017 BERA Public Engagement and Impact award for her work on removing the barriers to effective computing education. Dr Sentance conceived and developed a model of professional learning for...
2016 Winners

UCL Institute of Education
Alice Bradbury is Associate Professor in the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London, and Co-Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years). Before moving into...

UCL Institute of Education
Guy Roberts-Holmes was awarded the 2016 BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award for his work in challenging the goals set out for Baseline Assessment for assessing and tracking the progress of 4-5 year olds within the primary system, which...
2015 Winner

Universities of Cambridge and Warwick and Director of the Cambridge Primary Review
Robin Alexander was awarded the 2015 BERA Public Engagement and Impact award for his initiation and ten-year leadership of the Cambridge Primary Review and its successor the Cambridge Primary Review Trust. The Review remains the biggest, most...