Impact, Knowledge Exchange and Partnerships
CDW engages with a wide range of organisations with the aim of ensuring that our research delivers benefits to workers, employers, policy bodies and practitioner organisations in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
Impact and knowledge exchange are vitally important activities. We have particularly strong links with Acas and the International Labour Organisation. We are also building an international network of academic collaborators, working with colleagues at Griffith University (Australia), Nelson Mandela University (South Africa), the University of California, Berkeley (USA), and University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School (Denmark).
We pursue impact and knowledge exchange in a variety of ways:
Research and consultancy: CDW members have conducted research projects on behalf of a variety of policy and practitioner bodies, including the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), BEIS, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the European Commission, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the Low Pay Commission, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Unison, the Ministry of Justice/Department for Constitutional Affairs, BEIS and the Welsh Assembly Government/National Assembly for Wales.
Advice and support: CDW members have acted as advisors or provided support to various bodies, including the International Dockworkers Council and the Civil Mediation Council Workplace & Employment Group.
Practitioner tools: CDW members have developed tools to assist businesses and governments in tackling problems. Examples include a training toolkit for labour inspectors, created on behalf of the ILO, and the SCA-Emp diagnostic toolkit for employers to evaluate their HR, accounting and supply chain management practices and those of their suppliers.
Media engagement: members of CDW have published in publications such as the Conversation, the European Financial Review and Financial Management. Their work has been cited in practitioner publications such as the UK Mediation Journal, Tribunals, and newspapers including the Independent, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. Research findings produced by the Centre have also been referred to in the UK and New Zealand Parliaments.
Academic engagement: CDW’s members publish regularly in highly regarded journals. In addition, CDW organises regular academic seminars and events, including the 2017 International Labour Process Conference and a 2019 joint conference with the ILO on the Future of Work.
CDW also hosts the International Labour and Logistics Research Network, which regularly brings together an international community of researchers to discuss the complex challenges impacting workers in the global logistics industry, while simultaneously producing collaborative research advancing international workers’ rights, solidarity, and worker power.