Title

PI / Paul Gready
Department / CAHR / Politics
Work order
Type of award and if appropriate highlight scheme / York laboratory
R&E contact / Jennifer Chubb
Start date
Award amount / £11,876
Total Spent / £11,876
Finish date / 31/07/2017

Project Summary

Please insert a summary of your final project (not more than 150 words).

Human rights is under siege in the UK from many political and media actors. The York Human Rights City Network (YHRCN) is an innovative attempt to reframe the discourse on human rights as relevant to everyone, to local and everyday concerns, and as enabling rather than simply punitive. A core instrument of this approach is a participatory indicator project in the city, which used survey methods to identify 5 local priority rights (education, non-discrimination and equality, health, an adequate standard of living, housing), and associated indicators e.g. hate crime as an indicator for non-discrimination and equality. The IAA grant has helped us to hold a two day workshop for stakeholders in York/Yorkshire and selected European cities; conduct training with the York City Council and York CVS; finalise the selection of indicators and develop a draft baseline report; and create a human rights city ‘model’ of interest to other cities.

Final Project Review

Please provide a summary of the activities and benefits

The IAA grant has supported the following activities and benefits:
1) Two day workshop, ‘The Rise of Human Rights Cities: Why Cities? Why Now?’, 13-14 January 2016
Our plan has always been to establish York as a human rights city, but also to work with other like-minded cities in our region, nationally and across Europe. With this in mind we organised a two day workshop to build contacts with representatives from cities in Yorkshire (Bradford, Hull, Leeds and Kirklees), and other UK and European cities (Belfast, Dublin, Utrecht, Graz). In addition strong links were made with the Scottish Councils Equality Network. Several York City Council staff attended as well as the lead Cabinet Member responsible for this area of work.
Since this meeting YHRCN has received two invitations to present its human rights city ‘model’. First, to a group of 12 national and local politicians from the Netherlands visiting York – the only city they visited outside London. Second, YHRCN has also been asked to present its model at a conference organised by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions in September 2016.
2) Conduct training with the York City Council and York CVS
This training was provided by CAHR postgraduate students (under the supervision of the PI), and the British Institute of Human Rights. Senior managers at York City Council received half a day of training on the Human Rights Act and YHRCN indicator project on 6th July. The focus was on ways of making human rights relevant to local priorities and policy processes. A similar training took place at York CVS on July 14th.
Each of the training sessions attracted 20-25 participants and was well received. The training was envisaged as the start of a process of embedding the indicators in the practice of local actors. Further training is planned in the coming year.
3) Finalise the indicators and develop a draft baseline report
The finalisation of indicators proved to be a complex task, and their selection was ultimately informed by consultation, expert input and the availability of data. A draft baseline report has now been produced and the final report will be launched in December 2016.
In the coming year we will use the launch of the baseline report, and the report itself, as key elements in our drive to have York declared as the UK’s first human rights city. The current Green party mayor, Dave Taylor, has agreed support this initiative during his term of office.
Sadly, we lost our Network Co-ordinator in early 2016. Harkirit Boparai went on extended sick leave in late 2015 and eventually resigned in 2016, suffering from severe depression. I am pleased to say he is in better health now. As such, we had to deliver the above activities using a combination of the PI, YHRCN Board members, CAHR students, and some external support (BIHR). Although some elements of the project as initially envisaged were not possible e.g. we could not support the secondment element, we have delivered on the key objectives of the project and grant.

Capturing the benefits and KPIs from your ESRC IAA project

Please complete the table below indicating numbers and providing as much detail and evidence as possible of activities and impact resulting from your IAA project.

Academics involved / Numbers and information / Evidence[1]
Number of academics involved in the project. Please list names and departments / Caroline Hunter (York Law School)
Several academics at other Universities:
Paul Hunt (Essex)
Wolfgang Benedek (Graz)
Barbara Oomen (Utrecht)
Edzia Carvalho (Dundee)
Michele Grigolo (Nottingham Trent) / Caroline was Co-I on the IAA application – otherwise attendance at January workshop.
Amount of matched funds (in cash) raised from department(s) / N/A
Amount of ‘in kind’ leverage raised from department(s) / N/A
Partners and Stakeholders’ Engagement / Numbers and information / Evidence
Number and type of (private, third, public sector) of organisation(s) engaged.
Please list the name of the organisation(s), as well as name of the place they are located / @30 in total. These range from city councils (York, but also others, notably in Yorkshire), to statutory bodies (Scottish Councils Equality Network) and civil society groups (York Racial Equality Network, Peasholme Charity, York Advocacy, Learning Disability Forum, etc.). / Attendance at workshops and training events.
Number and type of new organisation(s) engaged. . Please list the name of the organisation(s), as well as name of the place they are located / About half of the 30 are new.
Please record any consolidation of existing activity / The indicator work consolidated relationships with existing partners, such as York City Council and York CVS. / Ongoing partnership and plans for future work together.
Please record any new areas of interaction and exploration / The indicator project will open up new areas for interaction and exploration. / Over the next year(s) we will monitor ways in which the indicator report becomes a ‘living documents’ within York.
Number and detail of any secondments/fellowships with partners/stakeholders? Movement in either direction, either into the University or the partner organisation should be recorded. Please list the name and location of the participating organisation / N/A – see narrative.
Amount of matched funds (real cash) raised from each of the partner organisations / N/A
Amount of ‘in kind’ leverage raised from each of the partner organisations / Partners supported YHRCN’s work by hosting training free of change, for example.
Number of partnership agreements signed?
Please note any formal recognition of the relationship / N/A – although we do hope that the indicators will serve to ‘formalise good intentions’, and as such they may become something that actors can sign up to by way of an ‘agreement’.
Policy Makers, Practitioners and Lay communities Engagement / Numbers and information / Evidence
Number, name and location of organisations involved within each of the areas of policy, practitioners and lay communities / I do not understand this request. See above
Number, name and location of new organisations involved within each of the areas of policy, practitioners and lay communities / See above
Please record any consolidation of existing activity / See above
Please record any new areas of interaction and exploration / See above
Number and evidence of references to research activity in Hansard on as result of IAA project / None as yet
Number and evidence of references to research in other policy documents as result of IAA project / None as yet
Events / Training / Numbers and information / Evidence
Number and details of events organised as part of your IAA project.
Please provide numbers of attendance and an indication of which departments and sectors were involved / Three main events were organised – the January 2016 workshop, and two July training events.
Jan workshop @35 attendees
July workshops 20-25 attendees at each.
Who these were is outlined in the narrative above. / Events happened!
Number and detail of any strategic events you and/or your team were invited to and/or participated in? (e.g. select committees, all party working groups) / Consultations with Dutch and Swedish local politicians and local authorities. / Invitations received
Number and detail of any policy and advisory you and your team sit on as result of IAA project / YHRCN was invited to become a member of the York City Council Equalities and Fairness Committee / Seat taken up.
Was there any follow up from the above events? Did they generate useful activity or impact? Please provide detail / The training will be followed up by other activities (focus groups, additional training). We will also follow up with other cities in Yorkshire and beyond. / Ongoing discussions about future collaboration.
Public Engagement / Numbers and information / Evidence
How many of the events as part of your IAA project could be classified as public engagement?
Please provide detail / Probably only one, the York CVS indicator training which was open to all civil society groups in York. / Publicity through York CVS newsletter, etc.
If yes to the above question, please let us know if there was any evaluation undertaken as part of the event, and tell us about the results
Attachment of survey is fine / N/A
Please record the mechanism for engagement (social media, website development, traditional media, public lecture), and quantify its success if possible (number of hits for example). / Training workshop. / A strong turn out from a diverse range of groups.
Is it possible to demonstrate growth in public engagement following your IAA project (increased followers / hits for example)? / Not yet.
Tool and market development / Public Engagement / Public Engagement
Did you develop any online tools, systems, games, apps as part of your IAA project?
Please provide detail / No
Did you undertake any market research as part of your IAA project?
Please provide detail / No
Other / Public Engagement / Public Engagement
Have there been any joint publications/outputs or academic publications as a result of your IAA project?
Please clarify which are publications with external non-academic partner / Reports have been produced for various events e.g. the January workshop, and the forthcoming event in Sweden. These have been written by the PI.
Have any joint funding applications been submitted with partners?
Please provide detail, funder, amount, title of project etc / No
Have any funding applications been submitted without partners? / No, but further funding applications will be submitted in the autumn of 2017.
Please summarise anything not captured above that is of value

Please find below the York KPIs as outlined to the ESRC in our business plan. Full details of the ESRC KPIs are attached to this document as Annex 1.

1 / To increase the degree of stakeholder engagement with Social Sciences at York and more specifically to expand engagement with the City of York and the wider region.
i / Number and type of (private, third, public sector) organisations engaged with in Yorkshire and Humber
ii / Number and type of new organisations engaged with in Yorkshire and Humber
iii / Number of academics engaging with each organisation
iv / Number of external fellows through the Fellowship Scheme
v / Amount of leverage/matched funds raised from stakeholder organisations
2 / To expand engagement with policy makers, practitioners and lay communities outside the University and to increase the impact of our Social Science research on policy regionally and nationally.
i / Number of organisations involved with in each of the areas of policy, practitioners and lay communities
ii / Number of references to York-related activity in Hansard
iii / Number of references to York research in policy documents
iv / Number of policy and advisory committees with York participation
v / New areas of interaction and exploration with partners
3 / To promote Co-production of knowledge through diverse collaborative links with non-academic partners.
i / Number of co-production projects undertaken
ii / Number of organisations engaged in co-production
iii / Amount of funding brought in through co-production activity
iv / Amount of funding applications resulted from co-produced projects
Activity / Outputs / Outcomes / Impacts
Secondments, Placements, Visits (see above)
Reporting must include information on the sector of the non-academic partner (and the size of corporate partners) / OP1- Number of secondment projects (inward/outward)
OP2- Cash and in-kind contributions from non-academic partners
OP3- Joint publications with non-academic partners / OC1- Number of partners who go on to pursue further collaborations with RO following secondment/ placement/ visit
OC1- Investment in further engagement following secondment
OC1- Future employment destination of secondee or others from the RO / IMP1- Jobs and/or increased turnover, profit and exports from/of new products and/or processes
IMP2- Policy and/or practice change
IMP1- Increased R&D expenditure of non-academic partner
Early Stage Commercialisation This can include social enterprise, joint ventures and spin outs / OP4- Number of patents filed and disclosures received
OP5- Number and value of licensing agreements
OP6- Number of Proof of Concept (PoC) projects
OP7- Value of co-produced research
OP8- Number of market assessments completed
OP9- Number of prototypes/ tool kits/ test beds/ beta software produced
OP10- Number of CPD Programmes developed / OC1- Investment gained in activity
OC1- Number of spin-outs/ social enterprise/ joint ventures established
OC1- External investment in spin-outs/ social enterprise/ joint ventures
OC1- Number of PoC projects funded by others
OC1- Licenses completed
OC1- Income generated (included through consultancy fully funded by non-academic organisation)
OC1- Extent and reach of CPD Programmes / IMP3- Jobs and/or increased turnover, profit and exports from/of new products and/or processes
IMP4- New business models in non-academic organisations
IMP5- Cost savings in non-academic organisations
IMP6- Policy and/or practice change
User Engagement
Reporting must include information on the sector of the non-academic partner (and the size of corporate partners) / OP11- Number of collaborative projects supported by IAA (and number not supported)
OP12- Agility and rapidity of funding for time-bound activity
OP13- Number of new partners participating in collaborative projects/ proposals
OP14- Number of new collaborative projects/proposals following engagement through IAA funding
OP15- Cash and in-kind contributions from partners
OP16- Number of strategic events participated in (both ways)
OP17- Joint publications (academic and other) with non-academics / OC1- Increase in range of research investors in the RO
OC1- Increase in research investment and engagement with non-academic organisations
OC1- Increase in the number of projects that continue beyond initial engagement
OC1- Increase in volume and value of collaborative activities (e.g. TSB, KTP etc) / IMP7- Jobs and/or increased turnover, profit and exports from/of new products and/or processes
IMP8- Increased R&D expenditure of non-academic partner
IMP9- New business models in non-academic organisations
IMP10- Cost savings in non-academic organisations
IMP11- Policy and/or practice change
Driving Culture Change
Reporting must cover all research career stages and career types (including professional services) as well as all areas of knowledge exchange (from Public Engagement to engaging with the Private Sector). / OP18- Number of enquiries received from staff
OP19- Value of joint investment in IAA activities from within the RO (financial and broader resources)
OP20- Number of academics trained
OP21- Number of staff engaging (success rates for opportunities)
OP22- Case studies developed
OP23- Number of events and attendance
OP24- Number of people completing surveys/ interviews
OP25- Engagement with other institutions (with without IAAs)
OP26- Complementarity between multiple IAAs and other funding, including between structures and processes / OC1- Increase in number of researchers participating in KE/ Impact/ commercialisation activity
OC1- Increased income from impact activities
OC1- Increased number of engagements
OC1- Increase in resource requested from ESRC for Pathways to Impact / IMP12- Increased number of secondments
IMP13- Increased co-produced research
IMP14- Increase in range of research investors in the
IMP15- Increased commercialisation and business/stakeholder engagement

[1] Please provide emails, links, or other information you think important. Please feel free to use appendices.