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Research from Pembroke Academics included in the REF 2021 Impact Case Studies
NEWS |
In 2020, Higher Education Institutions submitted a total of 6,718 case studies to the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) in order to demonstrate the impact their research has had beyond academia. REF 2021 assessed each of these submissions to produce evidence of the benefits of public investment in research. The process was carried out by expert panels made up of senior academics, international members, and research users. Further info can be found here and FAQs here.
The impact case study database was recently made available by the REF. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring case studies that involve our academics, starting with Professor Amy Dickman, Kaplan Senior Research Fellow in Wild Field Conservation.
Professor Dickman’s case study, titled Mitigating human-lion conflict through conversation policy and community-based actions, is conducted with Professor Loveridge, Kaplan Research Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall and Professor Macdonald, Director of the University of Oxford Wildlife Conversation Unit (WildCRU). It aims to better understand the threats facing both lions and people, and to develop appropriate methods to improve conservation and livelihoods in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, two of only seven countries that still have over 1,000 lions.
Since 2000, this research has monitored lion populations in the Ruaha and Hwange ecosystems, tracking animals with GPS and radio collars. It has quantified and demonstrated the negative impact of unsustainable trophy hunting and focused on understanding the intensity and drivers of human-wildlife conflicts.
This research has informed government policies in several countries, namely Tanzania, Zimbabwe, the UK and the USA. It was instrumental in the International Union for Conversation Nature (IUCN)’s recommendations on trophy hunting and human-wildlife conflict. It has also improved the livelihood of the local people through employment, education, healthcare, livestock protection and more. Since 2013, WildCRU has employed local women and men in Hwange as ‘lion guardians’ to establish and improve livestock husbandry practices.
To read more about this research, you can download the complete impact case study here.