Date: 13/10/2025
The ESRC SCDTP is delighted to announce the winner of the 2024-25 SCDTP Impact Prize.
The first prize goes to Nikki Smith (Education, University of Brighton). Nikki found a wonderful opportunity to make impact through her Research in Practice placement (the new kind of internship for SCDTP2 students). Nikki was working for a research group at the University of Birmingham on the Neurodivergence Task and Finish group for the Deportment for Education. This enabled her to join in contributing findings from a pilot of a Neurodiversity Profiling Tool in educational settings to make recommendations to the DfE for the Schools and SEND white paper, due to be published in the autumn. She also provided a case study for the appendix of what can be done to turn a school around through holistic support in understanding the difficulties that young people face in deprived areas. If DfE accept the recommendations, the impact will be wide reaching, with strengths and needs assessments done in educational settings alongside formal diagnostic services.
There is second prize for Max Dixon (Area Studies, University of Portsmouth) whose PhD is on Democratic Taiwan and British foreign policy. Max facilitated considerable discussions with/between policymakers via publishing findings in The Diplomat and Taiwan Insight magazines and roundtable discussions on the UK’s Indo-Pacific policy at the Taipei Representative Office in London and meetings with think-tank analysts at the Institute of National and Security Defence in Taipei.
It was a difficult choice this year and so we also want to commend some runners up: Holly Radford for impactful work with Autism Hampshire and Avenues groups on strategies to improve the way that autistic people are understood and supported within their services. Holly also impacted on the Serendipity Social group via the service evaluation recommendations to ensure that a peer- and volunteer-led model is sustainable with new funding from the National Lottery. Sadie Rockliffe made impact – and the news – with her work on enabling new inclusive leisure access for visually impaired swimmers in both open water and indoor environments via collaborated with Sea Lanes Brighton and South Downs Leisure, co-designing and delivering permanent VI-only swim sessions. Sixtus Cyprian Onyekwere for holding a 2 day workshop in Nigeria in collaboration with the Centre for the Studies of Economics of Africa (CSEA) Abuja. He provided 40 participants from Think Tanks, Civil society, NGOs, CBOs, Universities, government, United Nations, and GBV advocacy groups with critical insights into how to approach sensitive topics, particularly related to gender-based violence (GBV), while working with vulnerable populations.
Congratulations to the winners who have undertaken outstanding work towards making impact.
