Research impact and knowledge exchange

Our research makes a difference to society and the economy. We work with partners at a local, national and international level to create a positive impact on the world.

Our research impact

We are proud that 90 per cent of our research is rated in the highest two categories in the REF 2021, meaning it is classed as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Our impact submission is rated 8th nationally, showing our research is instrumental in tackling the greatest challenges of our time and making a real-world difference to organisations and societies around the world.

A collection of flags representing the countries in the European Union, with 2 EU flags at the front. The sky behind the flags is blue with very few clouds.

Tackling undeclared work in the European Union

Colin Williams is working to build capacity across 29 countries to tackle undeclared work.

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Project FPSCRS

Lenny Koh is leading Project FPSCRS with Rolls-Royce to develop a resilience index scorecard system for high value manufacturing industries.

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Achieving ethical HR and procurement practices and transparency through the supply chain in advanced and emerging economies

Pauline Dibben, alongside others, is part of the SCA-Emp team who have developed a toolkit to self-assess HR, accounting and procurement practices.

A computer screen displaying numerous tables and graphs showing financial data.

A Just Transition to Circular Economy

Andrea Genovese's work on JUST2CE aims to address shortcomings of Circular Economy literature and practices and develop more comprehensive and contextualised initiatives.

A wad of cash, wrapped in a rubber band, in a person's hand — "Money" by 401(K) 2013 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse&atype=rich

Transforming policy approaches towards undeclared work in the Western Balkans

Colin Williams is organising the Western Balkan Network for Tackling Undeclared Work.

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Evaluating Sheffield’s Primary and Community Mental Health Transformation Programme

Damian Hodgson’s work has been used to inform the roll out of the Programme.

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Improving the working lives of NHS staff

Jeremy Dawson is working with NHS England to improve how the NHS measures the experience and wellbeing of its staff, and how this connects with outcomes for patients.

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Fleet energy optimisation in the Sheffield City Region

Erica Ballantyne’s work with Veolia and Sheffield City Council to create a new approach to modelling fleet vehicle energy use, which has shown it would be possible to run Sheffield’s refuse collection rounds on purely electric vehicles.

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Implementing Sustainable Development Goal 8

Colin Williams worked with the ILO to develop an “inclusive strategic integrated” approach to help achieve progress on SDG 8.3.

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Determination of customer water price ceilings in England and Wales for 2020-25 and 2025-30

Anthony Glass is working on water supply, retail services and sewerage services cost models for water companies, whilst industry regulator Ofwat develops its own cost models. After consultation with companies, Ofwat settles on the models to use to set caps on the prices companies can charge.

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The Productivity Forum for Yorkshire, Humber and the North East

Jason Heyes provides academic leadership to the Productivity Forum for Yorkshire, Humber and the North East, which is part of the ESRC-funded The Productivity Institute (TPI).

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Building cross-sectoral collaborations to enable social action

Jon Burchell is working with local authorities and their voluntary and community sector partners to explore ways of building social action in place.

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Manchester: The Centripetal City?

Adam Leaver investigates the growth of 'Build-to-Rent' property development in Manchester in the context of emerging tensions between Manchester's city-first, property-led 'agglomeration' model of urban regeneration, and the disparities of wealth experienced in peripheral 'left behind' towns.

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Productivity Outcomes of workplace Practice, Engagement and Learning (PrOPEL)

Find out more about Paul Latreille’s involvement with the PrOPEL Hub.

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Improving transparency around the reporting and decision-making processes of tax systems

Richard Murphy and Andrew Baker are working with GIFT to improve transparency around the reporting and decision-making processes to do with tax.

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Unlocking productivity in the SCR through changes to the transport network

Academics from Sheffield University Management School and the Faculty of Engineering are working with SYPTE to develop a decision-support tool which will be used to identify potential new routes to maximise connectivity and regional productivity.

In the image is a sheet of paper with lots of numbers. One corner is seen through a magnifying glass. On top of the sheet of paper is a calculator and a pen.

Audit reform and capital maintenance provisions

Adam Leaver and Richard Murphy are working with colleagues in the Department of Politics (Sheffield), Organisation (Copenhagen Business School) and BEIS to improve the capital maintenance provisions in audit reform.

CLEAR IDEAS: increasing creativity and innovation skills to improve organisational performance

The research-based CLEAR IDEAS training workshops and digital toolkits developed by Professor Kamal Birdi are being used by hundreds of organisations to develop the creativity and innovation skills of their leaders and employees and produce significant improvements in performance.