Professional Excellence in Research and Knowledge Exchange - Celebrating our Research and Knowledge Exchange Awards 2025

First Prize: Katherine Moss (School of Health)

Katherine was nominated for her outstanding support on the school's National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Adult Social Care Research Partnership, where LBU's School of Health is leading the Community Involvement and Engagement (CIE) strand of the project.

Speaking about her role in the CIE project team, Katherine explained: "I am responsible for ensuring the smooth running of administrative processes that enable meaningful participation from people with lived experience of adult social care and people with experience of working in adult social care. This includes arranging and managing online meetings, tailoring communications to meet privacy preferences and access needs, supporting the preparation and structing of meeting documentation and agendas, ensuring that papers/communications are circulated in a timely manner to give group members the opportunity to prepare for meetings, and developing accessible formats for meeting notes.

"I created systems for tracking and processing remuneration that respect individual preferences and significantly reduce delays, and established secure, efficient document-sharing systems across institutions including LBU, Kings College London, and the National Care Forum. I've also worked closely with researchers to ensure their contributions are well-prepared and aligned with the needs of the group, helping to foster trust and inclusivity."

Reflecting on the highlights of the project, and winning the award, Katherine said: "Working on this complex and multi-institutional project has been deeply rewarding. I've particularly enjoyed collaborating with a diverse group of researchers and participants and playing a part in amplifying the voices of those with lived experience. One of my proudest achievements has been building strong working relationships with colleagues across the partnership.

"Winning the Professional Excellence Award is a real honour. I'm proud to have helped create systems that make it easier for people to share their experiences and contribute to important research."

Second Prize: Juliet Harrison (Research and Enterprise Services)

When Juliet Harrison took on the new role of Research Impact and Policy Engagement Manager in September 2024, one of her primary objectives was to put a more structured framework in place for capturing, monitoring and reporting on impact focused activity across LBU.

She explained: "Over the past 14 months, I have started to make great headway in integrating a more robust framework for impact at LBU, which in turn is helping to raise the profile of impact across the institution. I hope to be able to develop this further to provide more wide-ranging support for researchers at all career stages over the next 12 months, so watch this space for lots more training and events coming up!

"I've also been working hard to capture all of the amazing policy engagement activity that is happening across the university, and developing a network of researchers that policymakers can draw on where they need support. This is still a work-in-progress, but it's an area where I feel there is huge potential, and where the Research and Enterprise team can really add value through the fantastic networks that have been built up by the team over the past year/decades(!), so am excited to see how this evolves."

Speaking about how it feels to be shortlisted for the award, Juliet added: "It's absolutely fantastic to have been nominated, as it really demonstrates that there is recognition across LBU for the value of this work. People often think about impact under the umbrella of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), but it's so much more than that - it's all about how the research that Leeds Beckett produces creates good in the world. I feel very lucky to be working in a role where I get to support researchers who are doing this great work every day, and to sit within such a supportive and collaborative team."

Third Prize: Dr Ollie Jones (Leeds Business School)

Dr Ollie Jones is the research lead for Leeds Business School's impact programme for the Research Excellence Framework (REF). He explained: "I'm responsible for crafting the school's strategy for developing our research impact, not only for our submission for the next REF, but increasing everyone's engagement, and helping them ensure that their individual research can have impact."

Some of his key achievements in the role so far include:

• Getting over 50 impact pathways submitted for review and designing a quality framework for assessing them
• Providing training and guidance to colleagues and engaging them in doing impact assessments - as an education for the whole school team as well as helping to decide what the school's REF Impact Case Studies will be
• Leading the school's first Impact Summit and developing a coherent long term strategic plan for impact in the school

Speaking about being shortlisted in the award, Ollie added: "I am pleased that all the sustained collective effort over the last few years that we have made in the Business School has been recognised across the university."