RESEARCH EXCELLENCE POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS
Loughborough University
Contents The foundations for the Living Wage 03 The science of talk 05 A lasting legacy 07 A powerful partnership 09 Leading a healthcare revolution 11
Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
Research excellence at Loughborough As Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough, I am often asked to define the University, to explain what makes it distinct. I think it’s a combination of factors: world-class research, our enterprising outlook, a record of unparalleled sporting achievement and the provision of an excellent all-round student experience. Together they give rise to something that I believe is truly special. Life at Loughborough also has a strong community feel. It’s something we pride ourselves on and it’s all down to one key element – our people. Our students, graduates and staff are at the heart of all we do. They’re the key to our ongoing success. Within this close-knit community there is an atmosphere of determination and a will to succeed, which creates an environment that inspires everyone to be the very best they can be. The cornerstone of the University’s success dates back to 1909, when Loughborough was one of the UK’s foremost technical institutes focused on meeting society’s needs. Those early days set in train an ethos that is still evident today. Now, more than a century later, we have flourished into a truly exceptional university, internationally-renowned for the excellence and relevance of our research, which contributes at the very highest levels to new knowledge and understanding. It helps business and industry to compete more effectively, shapes public policy and, ultimately, helps to improve the quality of people’s lives. We’ve highlighted in this publication just a few examples of the work we are doing. Our achievements owe much to our partnership approach, and throughout our history we have worked with some of the world’s leading
organisations, responding to the issues they face now and in the future. Such powerful partnerships are making a real difference to the world. Our students and graduates benefit too. We work with influential thought leaders and creative innovators to embed enterprise into the curriculum, enabling our students to gain the skills and experience they need, either to start up their own companies or to help them as they move into the world of business and industry. This entrepreneurial approach is a particular feature of Loughborough University London, our postgraduate campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Having first been the home of the celebrated London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Park is now at the heart of a thriving creative and collaborative community of thousands of start-ups, makers and innovators, who are driving growth and investment in the UK and beyond. It is the perfect additional home for Loughborough, allowing us to build on our passion for technology, enterprise and innovation. I hope you find the following pages of interest and are inspired to find out more about Loughborough University.
Professor Robert Allison Vice-Chancellor and President Loughborough University
Loughborough University
THE FOUNDATIONS FOR THE LIVING WAGE By Professor Donald Hirsch
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Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
Some people ask me if I’m the founding father of the UK Living Wage. I have to say that’s not quite true. It started before me. I can’t take credit for inventing it – but I have helped to shape it. I’ve helped to make it work, and I am proud of that. The present crusade for a living wage started organically, through local community groups rather than national bodies, first in the United States and then here. I became involved because my research at Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) has been focused on minimum incomes.
Wage, then set at a cautious £5.52 an hour, wasn’t enough; that even if you were a single person, working full time, you wouldn’t earn enough to buy the minimum basket of goods and services that our research considered to be essential. The Minimum Wage wasn’t doing what it needed to do. There needed to be something more.
CRSP is a respected research centre, with a first rate team of researchers: our findings and analysis rest on a collaborative effort, not just my own expertise. I’m a former journalist. I worked at The Economist before moving to the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), then into consultancy and later academia. It’s an unusual career path, I suppose; a wiggly line from journalism to here, but I’ve always been interested in policy, analysis, good writing and the fortunes of the most disadvantaged people in our society. In that respect, you can hopefully see a common thread.
The idea of a Living Wage has been around for more than a century, and has been revived in the past 20 years. At CRSP we provided the tools to quantify it. The basis for rates set in different parts of the country was often vague or inconsistent. We wanted to be more exact. So in 2011, at the request of the newly formed Living Wage Foundation, we used our research to calculate a UK rate, which became the basis for being recognised as a ‘Living Wage Employer’.
The Living Wage calculation derives from our research, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, on the Minimum Income Standard. This aims to find out precisely what kind of income people need to live on. The research involves real people, living real lives, in identifying minimum household needs. This matters because it makes the findings credible and tangible. We listen to what people deem to be an acceptable standard of living. It’s more than just the food they could buy and the house they live in – it’s about the opportunity and choices life offers them. It’s carefully researched and it resonates. It works. And because of that, it has credibility. It has influence. When we first did this research in 2008, we discovered very quickly that the Minimum
When we started doing our Minimum Income Standards research, we’d hoped it might have a general influence, for example as a benchmark taken into account when setting benefits. But its use for the Living Wage calculations made its influence far more direct, particularly as a growing number of employers signed up to it. The Scottish Government signed up. The Church of England. Large local authorities and universities. John Lewis. Ikea. And then, in the summer of 2015, the Conservative Government jumped on the bandwagon. Their competing, but not evidence based, National Living Wage was more about politics than social policy, but nevertheless its announcement marked an important moment. The Conservative Party opposed the creation of a Minimum Wage when it was introduced 17 years ago, so for a Tory Chancellor to introduce a ‘Living Wage’ – even though it fell short of what we
were proposing – was a huge shift in policy. I know our work has influenced that. The Government estimates that about six million people’s pay will be higher as a result of this policy. It’s a rare moment for an academic to know that their research has had an influence on so many people’s lives. What will happen from here? I don’t know. We’ve succeeded in providing tangible evidence for setting the annual accredited living wage rate, and will continue to update this research. But there’s also much to do in thinking how improved wages and state benefits should interact. I’m developing new analysis of how the Government could ensure that working families can enjoy an adequate living standard, without having to work all hours. This requires pay and tax credits to be looked at together. Finding a solution is not beyond us, if we’re willing to work on both fronts. Am I optimistic about that? Well, I’m not sure. We can develop blueprints; whether governments follow them is another matter. But 10 years ago I never thought a Conservative chancellor would announce a Living Wage. So let’s wait and see…
Professor Donald Hirsch Director Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP)
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The science of By Professor Liz Stokoe
I’m Professor of Social Interaction at Loughborough University. I study ‘talk’. When I say that to people, I sometimes spot a look of creeping bemusement on their faces, as if they’re thinking: Why do we need a science of ‘talk’?
talk My work revolves around understanding conversation and how we’re influenced by the words we hear every single day, often without realising it. We don’t just analyse talk – pouring over thousands of recorded reallife conversations in different settings – we discover what works and what doesn’t. And then we take the research into the real world, showing people how to communicate more effectively using a technique I’ve developed called the Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM). It’s interesting, it’s useful and, most importantly, it works. I’m lucky. I fell into this work by accident. I took Psychology as an extra A level in my final year at night class because I feared I might flunk physics, which I did. I loved the Psychology course. I did well in it and decided that’s what I’d do my degree in. I went to the old Preston Poly. It was an inauspicious beginning, I suppose – Preston isn’t known for its dreaming spires – but it was a good course and from there I found myself on a PhD studentship, where I discovered, quite by accident, that I was good at analysing social interaction. So how does that work? It’s probably best to explain with examples. I was approached by a group of GPs who wanted to improve the patient experience when phoning their surgeries. Everyone seems to have a view on doctors’
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Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
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“We’re fully booked for Thursday – but shall I check for next week?” It’s a very small and no-cost intervention, but it makes everyone’s lives – theirs, those of their staff, the patients’ – a little easier.” —
receptionists. They get a pretty bad press, but they have a difficult job. A huge part of their role is saying no, telling people their GP can’t see them. However, we found striking patterns across the calls we analysed. When patients asked: “Do you have an appointment for Thursday?” receptionists often responded: “No, we’re fully booked,” and then moved to end the call with a curt: “Thanks, goodbye.” I couldn’t shake this mental image of a giant telephone handset coming down on the receiver as the faint voice of the patient could be heard pleading: “Wait, wait – what about Friday…?” My research team and I spotted this phenomenon early on. We called it ‘patient burden’, where the emphasis and effort to get service of various kinds shifts to the patient, not the receptionist. Better receptionists removed the burden from patients: “We’re fully booked for Thursday – but shall I check for next week?” It’s a very small and no-cost intervention, but it makes everyone’s lives – theirs, those of their staff, the patients’ – a little easier. We found a direct link between the amount of ‘patient burden’ and national GP patient satisfaction scores. It worked. My brilliant research associate, Rein Sikveland, and I have also been working with Metropolitan Police negotiators to refine communication training for talking with suicidal people in crisis. What we discovered was interesting. For instance, when
negotiators tried to build rapport by saying, for example: “Hi, it’s Clive here, thank you for taking time to talk to me, I’d like to talk to you about what’s happened, it’s important to you and to me” – the person in crisis just hung up. Professionals from doctors to salespeople are trained to build rapport but the people they were talking to – even in terrible circumstances – can see through it. Scripted talk is the opposite of genuine rapport.
We need to get the research out there. I was fortunate to appear on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific in 2013, which has opened up many other audiences to the science of talk, from TED and New Scientist Live, to Latitude Festival and the Royal Institution, to change what people think they know about talk. People are pushed and pulled by language every day. We know this. We’ve studied it. Talk matters.
Our training interventions are based on what other officers do that works. In this case, they stopped the scripted small talk for something more direct, like: “Can you tell me what you need so I can do something about it?” No flannel. No insincerity. Just straight to the point. And in our research on cold calling for a technology company, we found similar rapport fails at the start of telephone calls. When salespeople say, “How are you doing today? How’s the weather with you?” there’s no evidence it works. We told salespeople to stop building rapport. They did, and their sales improved. Lots of organisations persist with insincere cheeriness, in phone calls and on email. But I’d like to think, in five or six years this will gradually die out. Would I be pleased to be at the forefront of that? I suppose so.
Professor Liz Stokoe Professor of Social Interaction and Associate Dean for Research School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences
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Loughborough University
By Professor Mike Caine
Loughborough University London
A lasting legacy “And the Games of the 30th Olympiad, 2012, are awarded to the city of… London.” Those were the words of the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, on 6th July 2005. I remember exactly where I was and how I felt – surprised and elated. Surprised because I thought Paris were favourites to get it and elated because I knew how special it was and what it meant. Back then I was part of a growing team of Sports Technology academics at Loughborough University. I knew that London winning the 2012 Games would mean an increase in investment in sports technology, which would be good news for Team GB – and good news for Loughborough. It was much more than that, however. A decade on, it’s bigger than we could have hoped. Today, Loughborough has a campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which was the home of the London Games. It’s a fantastic environment, with outstanding academics, excellent facilities and talented, creative students. That didn’t happen by chance. It was down to hard work, vision and a determination to
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ensure there was a tangible legacy from the 2012 London Games. A legacy that would not only benefit British sport and the students who come here but this corner of London too, which was long-overlooked and has already been transformed by the investment made and the people who have come here to join such a culturally diverse and innovative community. Our involvement began in the days after the 2005 London announcement. Because of Loughborough’s reputation – we have a long and proud tradition of expertise in sports policy, management and leadership – we were invited by the Government and the Mayor of London to see what the Higher Education response might be towards creating a lasting legacy from the 2012 Games. Even seven years before the Olympics were staged the legacy was already being conceived. What was originally a half-a-day-a-week job for me became more time-consuming. I became more and more involved in the strategic planning. The more involved we got, the more we were asked to do. Our voice
became more influential. I could see what was happening: Loughborough University would have a presence here, in London, on the Olympic Park. It was a genuinely thrilling time. What we needed, clearly, was our own building. We have that now. We’re part of the Here East complex, in the former International Broadcasting Centre building, which we share with BT Sport, Infinity and Wayne McGregor Studios, with a host of other amazing organisations soon to arrive. More than £1 billion has been invested in creating and upgrading the buildings and surrounding infrastructure. It’s already making a difference. Jobs are being created. Good jobs. Well-paid jobs. This activity is growing the economy and creating opportunities for those living and working locally. We’re offering scholarships to local students from boroughs such as Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets, some of the most vibrant and dynamic districts in London and the UK, so they can study with us. We’ve offered 30 scholarships so far and there will be many more. It’s part of our enduring commitment to this area.
Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
Although the legacy of the Games is important, so is the location. This corner of East London might have seemed like an odd choice for some people, but it wasn’t. It was a very shrewd choice because the Games and the environment we are helping to build are rejuvenating the area and enabling local talent to thrive and prosper. We are quickly becoming part of one of the most exciting places to live, study and work. We have students here from 45 different countries, taught by academics from all over the world. Our ethos is simple: connecting the best students – local, national and international – with this global community of exceptional academics. There’s real, life-changing power in that for all involved. Innovation and entrepreneurship are embedded in all that we do. We aim to foster citizenship and creativity. We are open and inclusive, attracted to partnership building and collaborative working. What we have achieved so far with our partners and collaborators has been impressive. But this is just the start. These are the foundations we have laid.
Our reach and reputation will build. Hopefully we can become a hub for students, academics and partner organisations wanting to co-create an inspiring place, where impactful research and outstanding postgraduate education collide to create life shaping experiences. When I look back on that day 11 years ago and I remember how excited I was when it was announced London would host the Olympic Games. Did I expect this? I didn’t, no. It’s perhaps one of Loughborough’s biggest and most unexpected wins!
STRATF
Professor Mike Caine Dean of Loughborough University London
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Loughborough University
A POWERFUL PARTNERSHIP Collaboration with industry has long been a hallmark of Loughborough University, and its partnership with Rolls-Royce is one of its most enduring. Having begun in the early sixties, when Professor Stan Stevens joined Loughborough from RollsRoyce, the relationship was firmly cemented within the decade when the company approached Professor Stevens to research diffuser flows in the RB211 engine, the forerunner to Rolls-Royce’s flagship Trent family of engines. This research laid the foundations for the establishment in 1991 of the Loughboroughbased University Technology Centre (UTC). UTCs grew out of an idea by several of the technology leaders at Rolls-Royce at the time, amongst them Dr Stewart Miller, who worked for Rolls-Royce for more than 40 years and rose to become Director of Engineering and Technology at the company. “Stewart Miller and his peers were really quite visionary,” says Mark Jefferies, Chief of University Research Liaison at Rolls-Royce. “They saw the benefits that a close working relationship could have for both Rolls-Royce and universities, and supported a set-up that has transformed the way we research, design, test and ultimately deliver cutting-edge new technology.” Loughborough’s UTC was one of the first wave that Rolls-Royce established. There are now 31 worldwide, with each addressing a distinct key technology; at Loughborough the focus is on the combustion system aerothermal process – ultimately the research being undertaken enables Rolls-Royce to develop new and improved technologies for gas turbine engines that will meet future environmental and economic targets. The UTC model brings benefits to both the University and Rolls-Royce. 09
“Working in true close collaboration with university partners such as Loughborough gives the company access to a wealth of talent, creativity, and diversity of thinking,” says Mark. “The Loughborough UTC has grown considerably over the many years I have been working with them, reflecting the success of the partnership and the considerable impact that the team has had on our business.” By the same token the Centre allows the University to work hand-in-glove with one of the world’s leading aerospace companies, and enables it to undertake cutting-edge research that is driven by real-life industrial challenges and has a tangible impact. And there numerous examples that illustrate this. For instance the team has established ways to improve fuel efficiency whilst identifying novel test and numerical methods to study complex flow physics that now support Rolls-Royce engine design processes. “The resulting technology has been used by Rolls-Royce to enhance the performance of their entire Trent engine family,” says Professor Jon Carrotte, who is Rolls-Royce and Royal Academy of Engineering Professor of Aerothermal Technology and Director of the Loughborough UTC. “To date, five engine types – operating on more than 900 aircraft – have benefited. The Trent XWB – the world’s most efficient and fastest-selling wide-body aero-engine, which powers the Airbus A350 – uses the latest Loughborough development and it’s estimated that savings of 20,000kg of fuel per aircraft will be made each year.” This year marks the 25th anniversary of Loughborough’s UTC. “When the UTC was established in 1991 it had just ten staff – three academics, five researchers
and two technicians. Now there are 51 people,” Professor Carrotte says. “In our first year of operation we had seven projects running; this year we have more than forty. Our facilities have expanded significantly too, as you’d expect, to accommodate this growth.” So what lies ahead for the Loughborough RollsRoyce partnership? In February 2016 the Government announced £9.8 million of funding towards the establishment of a new facility – the National Centre of Excellence in Gas Turbine Combustion System Aerodynamics – that will position Loughborough as a primary UK hub for aerospace engineering and technology. With Rolls-Royce as a lead partner in the project, the Centre will focus on the development of future low emission aerospace combustion systems that will reduce the environmental impact of aircraft. “The new Centre will allow our industrial partners to work even more closely with our academic researchers to ensure that new technologies are translated from theory to practice as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” explains Professor Carrotte. “The boundaries between research, design, development and manufacture are becoming increasingly blurred, so it makes absolute sense to bring the researchers and engineers together to ensure the fast pull through of technology to industry. “The Centre will also be a training ground for current and future aerospace engineers in a critical skill area for the UK. If we’re to retain our position at the forefront of technological development, we have to make sure we have a pipeline of talent who are capable of driving innovation – and it’s absolutely right that Loughborough plays a big part in that. “All in all it’s a really exciting time. We’ve come such a long way over the last 25 years. We’re certainly looking forward to the next!”
Images reproduced with the permission of Rolls-Royce plc, copyright Š Rolls-Royce plc
Loughborough University
LEADING A HEALTHCARE REVOLUTION It was a day after the official opening of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine East Midlands (NCSEM-EM) building on Loughborough University’s campus when Professor Mark Lewis felt proudest. “I remember walking round and seeing it all working,” says Professor Lewis, who is Director of the NCSEM-EM, Dean of Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, and a leading expert in musculoskeletal biology. “There was discussion of the case of a well-known England cricket international receiving medical advice on protecting his lower back. A class of older people, all of them with heart or lung problems, were taking part in an exercise class. Other individuals were having an MRI scan at the Centre. Elsewhere, academics were discussing their latest research with visiting health professionals from the East Midlands’ biggest hospital trusts. “I thought to myself, this is exactly what this place is supposed to do. It was a satisfying moment.” The concept for the NCSEM was initiated in 2012, as part of the legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Its three constituent centres – based in Loughborough, Sheffield and London – were collectively tasked with improving the nation’s health and preventing the onset of disease. The East Midlands Centre is providing a brand new model in healthcare delivery, allowing academics to work in close collaboration with clinicians and, perhaps most importantly of all, with the members of the public who’ll benefit directly from the academics’ research. 11
“We have patients here on campus for the very first time. We’re able to see our research in action, and the effect it has on people and their lives, more easily than ever before. Universities today are increasingly asked to show the impact of their research, and this is a perfect example of that.” The NCSEM-EM is a joint initiative between Loughborough University, the universities of Nottingham and Leicester, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. It brings together experts from around the region who specialise in conditions such as chronic disease, sports injuries and musculoskeletal health. Those experts are working together to treat and prevent injuries caused by exercise and to tackle conditions associated with a lack of exercise. They’re also contributing to the ’exercise is medicine’ agenda – helping those with diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Alzheimer’s and Osteoarthritis to alleviate their symptoms through exercise and enjoy a better quality of life. “The universities undertake the research and teaching, and the health trusts do clinical practice,” says Professor Lewis. “We’re finding that if you can gather robust evidence through research then you can make a bespoke programme of exercise; the results, for all kinds of people with an array of conditions and ailments, are startling.
“If you could deliver so many positive outcomes with a single pill it would be so expensive it would bankrupt the NHS. And yet the answer is out there. It already exists.” All we need to do, says Professor Lewis, is learn how to utilise it better. “People are living longer and experiencing more of these chronic conditions, but they do respond well to exercise. We need more evidence of the correct prescription for each condition and then to embed this into society. We need to educate our children, our town planners and architects to make it easier to walk and cycle to places. In the past, buildings were designed around staircases. Now it’s lifts. Let’s bring the stairs back – we’ll all benefit from that. “I’m very optimistic about a future where sport and exercise can deliver some of the things that medicine can’t.” A similar story is emerging at the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport within the University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences. There, under the expert guidance of Professor Vicky Tolfrey, academics are studying our Paralympic athletes – not only to help their athletic performances, but to help other people with disabilities. “I think the story of our Paralympians, and the journey they’ve been on, is inspirational,” says Professor Tolfrey. “By analysing their skills, their techniques, their hard-won
Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
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“We’re able to see our research in action, and the effect it has on people and their lives, more easily than ever before.” —
knowledge, we can make life better for all people with disabilities. “So we have strength and conditioning coaches, lifestyle managers, physios, a host of experts, finding integrated solutions for a variety of problems. And then we throw our doors open to pass on our findings. “For example, it might sound strange but people don’t often get wheelchair skills training, so we show them the optimum way to use their chair that will minimise stress on their body. We disseminate findings to people who have recently had an amputation and show them the benefits that working on their upper body strength can bring.” But it’s not just about helping them physically, according to Professor Tolfrey. “From the feedback we get we’re helping to give them back some identity – and that’s so important.”
Professor Mark Lewis Director of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine East Midlands and Dean of the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Professor Vicky Tolfrey Director of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport
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Loughborough University
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A DYNAMIC INNOVATION COMMUNITY FOR BOTH ESTABLISHED ORGANISATIONS AND START-UPS
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Through our Global Challenges themes we are developing multi-disciplinary solutions to the biggest societal challenges of our time
ENERGY HEALTH AND WELLBEING SECURE AND RESILIENT SOCIETIES CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
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MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ROLLS-ROYCE, THE RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION AND TATE MODERN
Research Excellence, Powerful Partnerships
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We are Loughborough’s biggest employer with over 3,000 members of staff
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Optimising performance for wheelchair participants in the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport
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Over the next two years we plan to appoint up to 100 new academics across a wide range of disciplines. We are able to do this because of our unparalleled recent success. There will be opportunities for individuals and also for world-leading research groups to join us at our Loughborough or London campuses. Visit www.lboro.ac.uk/jobs in the New Year to find out more.
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