Our Group has been recognised for our work on the COVID-19 pandemic at the 10th annual Celebrating Impact Awards, hosted by UK Research & Innovation.
Presented at a ceremony last night, the prestigious awards celebrate social science research with an outstanding social impact – and were awarded in recognition of researchers’ work with communities across the UK and globally.
We took home the award for Outstanding Societal Impact for our work tracking the real time impacts of the pandemic on individuals and communities across the UK. Led by Dr Daisy Fancourt, the project tracked more than 70,000 participants from the start of lockdown in March 2020 over the course of two years, to understand the impact of the pandemic on people’s daily lives, and how differences in age, socioeconomic background and other factors affected the impact of the pandemic on their lives.
Dr Fancourt said: “I’m delighted that the efforts of our team, and of course our 70,000 participants, have been recognised by the ESRC in this way. To be able to track the psychological and social effects of the pandemic in real time and inform government policies was an absolute privilege for us. I’m proud of the team and want to thank them, our participants and our funders for their support”
Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement), added: “I’d like to extend my warmest congratulations to the winners for these outstanding achievements. From widening access to education in developing countries, to informing COVID policy and addressing social inequality, this is a prime example of how research can make a tangible and lasting difference to the lives of people across the world.”