Research and Impact Awards

Celebrating the Very Best of Essex Research: Research and Impact Awards 2024

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On 22 May 2024, the University of Essex showcased its top-tier research achievements at the Celebrating Excellence in Research and Impact Awards ceremony on our Colchester campus. The event honoured individuals and projects that have significantly enhanced lives worldwide through Essex’s ground-breaking work.

In a spectacular ceremony, several prestigious awards were bestowed upon research pioneers, transformative projects, and innovative technical teams. Notably, the Essex Law School secured an impressive four awards across distinct categories, underscoring our commitment to excellence in diverse fields:

Professor Lorna Woods won the award for Best Research Impact in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities for her work on online safety.

The award for Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher went to Dr Matthew Gillett for his research on the use of international criminal law to protect vulnerable groups as well as the environment from grave harms.

Dr Nikhil Gokani, who influenced the approach WHO and civil society have taken on effective laws for food and alcohol labelling, won the award for Best Research Impact by an Early Career Researcher.

Professor Yseult Marique won an award for her piece in The Conversation titled: One in five councils at risk of ‘bankruptcy’ – what happens after local authorities run out of money.

The Essex Law School has previously scooped The Conversation award thrice, in 2020, 2021 and 2023!

Essex Law School colleagues celebrating excellence at the 2024 Research & Impact Awards Ceremony

While not all of our colleagues secured awards, their brilliance shone through nominations in key categories.

Among them, Dr Koldo Casla, Dr Erin Pobjie, Dr Matthew Gillett, and Dr Sabina Garahan jointly received a nomination for Best Research Impact.

Dr Nikos Vogiatzis was nominated in the Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher category (Faculty of Arts and Humanities) for his exceptional work on European law and the award of a Senior Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Cologne.

Dr Elena Sherstoboeva was also a runner-up for the Research Visibility Champion award for her diligence in running research visibility training for our School.

And, last but not least, Melissa King, from our professional services team, was nominated for the Outstanding Research Support award.

Professor Stavroula Karapapa, Faculty Dean Research (Arts & Humanities), at the 2024 Awards Ceremony

Professor Carla Ferstman, Director of Impact at Essex Law School, commented:

“There is so much dynamism and creativity coming from our research community at ELS who are pursuing impactful research that is making a real difference in the world. Congratulations to Lorna Woods and Nikhil Gokani on this important recognition of their work and to our fabulous runners-up: Koldo, Erin, Matthew and Sabina – for highlighting the incredibly impactful work of the Human Rights Clinic.”

Snapping success at the 2024 Excellence in Research and Impact Awards

A full list of this year’s winners will be available here. 

The awards are open to all academics, researchers, and doctoral students each year and signal the University’s commitment to world-class research that makes a difference.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Celebrating the Very Best of Essex Research: Research and Impact Awards 2023

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On 31 May 2023, the very best of Essex research was recognised at the Celebrating Excellence in Research and Impact Awards 2023 ceremony held at the Colchester campus. The annual awards highlighted how the work conducted at Essex is having a positive impact on people’s lives across the globe. 

This year, a total of 27 awards were presented to research champions, impactful projects, and technical teams at a beautiful event. The Essex Law School attracted four awards in four different categories:

Professor Geoff Gilbert won the award for Research Champion for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities for his work on the protection of forcibly displaced persons in situations of acute crisis like Ukraine and Yemen.

The award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher went to Dr. Antonio Coco for his work on promoting a more secure cyberspace for all.

Dr. Andrea Fejős won the award for Best Research Impact by an Early Career Researcher for her work on improving consumer law within the European Union.

Dr. Sahar Maranlou also won an award for her piece in The Conversation titled: Hijab law in Iran over the decades: the continuing battle for reform.

The Essex Law School has previously scooped The Conversation award twice both in 2020 and 2021!

The winners with the awards at the 2023 ceremony (from left to right: Dr. Sahar Maranlou, Prof. Geoff Gilbert and Dr. Andrea Fejős)

Professor Ahmed Shaheed was nominated for an award in the Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher category (Faculty of Arts and Humanities) for his exceptional work in promoting human rights internationally.

The Law Research Visibility Team, namely Fikayo Taiwo, Alexandros Antoniou, Nikhil Gokani, and Carlo Petrucci, was also a runner-up for the Research Visibility Champion award for their diligence in running the ELR blog and its reach.

You can see all this year’s winners here. 

The awards are open to all academics, researchers, and doctoral students each year and signal the University’s commitment to world-class research that makes a difference.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Essex Law School Academics Succeed at the YERUN Research Mobility Awards

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We are pleased to announce that Dr Koldo Casla and Dr Fikayo Taiwo of the Essex Law School made successful applications for the 2022 YERUN Research Mobility Awards!

Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN) is a network of young research universities in Europe seeking to have a true impact on the role and nature of academic pursuit. The competitive Research Mobility awards support early career researchers to establish new research collaborations within the YERUN network while providing a platform to promote multidisciplinary research.

Dr Koldo Casla will work alongside Marion Sandner (PhD candidate at Antwerp University) on the meaning of solidarity and responsibility in global politics and in international law, and the relationship between these two ideas and social rights. 

Solidarity is one of the unifying principles of a society. But does solidarity have a role in the international society? How is solidarity recognised in international human rights law? What are the implications of the recognition of solidarity within nations and between nations? In other words, if we are bound by solidarity, what do we owe each other, and what does this mean for human rights, and for social rights in particular? These are some of the key questions Koldo and Marion will be busy with in the next few months.

Dr Fikayo Taiwo will work with Martin Munu (PhD candidate at Maastricht University) on access to justice, regional economic integration and electronic commerce (e-commerce).

As access to justice is a sustainable development goal (SDG), the researchers will investigate the extent to which the nascent Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) dispute resolution mechanism advocates this SDG for e-commerce disputes. Given the increasing popularity and complexity of e-commerce and the societal peculiarities on its availability and use across the continent, as well as the inspiration drawn from the World Trade Organisation Dispute Settlement Understanding (WTO-DSU), the researchers will consider any gaps in WTO rules and case law covering e-commerce with the objective of drawing any possible lessons for promoting access to justice under the AfCFTA, and contributing towards sustainable, inclusive socio-economic development in Africa.

The collaborations will last until the end of 2023. We look forward to announcing their findings. Watch this space!

Celebrating the Very Best of Essex Research: Research and Impact Awards 2022

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The very best of Essex research was recognised at our Excellence in Research and Impact Awards 2022 ceremony at Colchester Campus on Wednesday 25 May 2022. The annual awards highlighted how the work conducted at Essex is having a positive impact on people’s lives across the globe. 

This year, a total of 21 awards were presented to research champions, impactful projects, and technical teams over the course of a three-hour event. The School of Law attracted four awards in four different categories:

The award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Research went to Lorna McGregor (School of Law), Ahmed Shaheed (School of Law), Peter Fussey (Department of Sociology), and Human Rights Big Data and Technology colleagues for the world-leading Human Rights, Big Data, and Technology Project.

Alexandros Antoniou received the Research Visibility Champion award for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Julie Hannah won the award for Best Research Impact by an Early Career Researcher for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The award was for her project titled Closing Protection Gaps in International Drug Control: The International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy.

The award for Best UK Public Policy Research Impact went to Wayne Martin (School of Philosophy and Art History), Sabine Michalowski (School of Law), Aaron Wyllie (School of Health and Social Care), Emily Fitton (School of Philosophy and Art History), Margot Kuylen, Vivek Bhatt and Thomas Hartvigsson for their AHRC project Ensuring Respect for Human Rights in Locked-Down Care Homes.

Tara Van Ho was a runner-up for Best International Research Impact for her work that helped Twitter devise new content policies for tackling online misinformation about the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict and other humanitarian crises.

“These awards are another fantastic indicator of how Law School research is having an enormously important impact at so many levels of society beyond the academic world. This was recognised by the recent Research Excellence Framework which rated over 70% of the Law School impact work from 2014-2021 as being world-leading. With these awards, we see that there has been no let up. The Law School continues to strive to be world-class at using its research to make a real difference to law, policy and people.”

Prof. Chris Willett, Director of Impact, School of Law

You can see this year’s winners and runners-up for each of the ten award categories here.

The awards are open to all academics, researchers, and doctoral students each year and signal the University’s commitment to world-class research that makes a difference.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

University of Essex 2021 Research and Impact awards

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As the academic year comes to an end, we want to take a moment to recognise the incredible work and successes of our researchers in the School of Law at the University of Essex.

Colleagues continue making important contributions to the University’s research mission through exceptional performance and we have plenty to celebrate this year.

Staff from across the University were recognised at the 2021 annual Excellence in Research and Impact Awards, which took place on 29 June 2021. The awards showcase some of the best examples of how our University’s research positively influences people’s everyday lives.

The School of Law was strongly represented with three winners and a runner-up, demonstrating the School’s breadth of work and commitment to world-class, transformational research.

School of Law prizes

Dr Haim Abraham won the award for Best Research Impact by an Early Career Researcher for his project Access to Surrogacy in Israel which addressed discrimination in Israel’s surrogacy law. Dr Abraham commented:

‘The nomination and award are a great honour and a privilege. The support of my colleagues in the School of Law and the University for a project aimed at advancing LGBTQ+ rights demonstrates our deep commitment to equality and diversity, and our drive to bring about positive change in the world.’

Judith Bueno de Mesquita received a joint award for Best International Research Impact for her project titled Realising the right to health. Her research examined the expectations (or norms) in relation to the right to health, in the context of specific health issues, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights. The award was shared with Professor Thankom Arun from the Essex Business School. Judith stated:

‘The Human Rights Centre and School of Law are famous for their commitment to and history of engagement in human rights practice, through research-informed partnerships with governments, international organisations and activists. My research is shaped by this tradition and commitment to improve human rights on the ground. I dedicate this award to my outstanding research partners at the national human rights institutions in Azerbaijan and Kosovo and at the UN Population Fund, whose knowledge and commitment was incredible and made change possible.’

Dr Emily Jones was a runner up for the Outstanding Early Career Researcher award for the Faculty of Humanities. Dr Jones’ work spans the areas of feminist approaches to international law, international environmental law, science and technology and international law, gender and conflict and the regulation of contemporary and emerging military technologies. Dr Jones, who was recently elected to Senate (the supreme academic authority of the University) said:

‘The award is a recognition of my contribution to the research environment at Essex, including my work in fostering interdisciplinary links across Departments and Faculties at Essex’.

Dr Alexandros Antoniou won The Conversation Award for the Faculty of Humanities for his article titled The Johnny Depp libel trial explained. His piece looked at the Hollywood actor’s defamation claim against The Sun over the publication of an article characterising him as ‘wife beater’. The Conversation awards go to the writers of the best-read articles over the last 12 months. More than 102,265 readers accessed Dr Antoniou’s article which was published on 3 November 2020.

Congratulations to all! Onwards and upwards!