2023 Finalists

A Force for Good: Enabling media and governments to tackle global challenges

Dr Martin Scott (School of Global Development)

This research is helping international media organisations and governments tackle some of the world’s biggest global challenges.

Dr Scott's ‘media freedom’ research establishes how to improve government-led international advocacy for media freedom – to ensure that their actions better meet the needs of journalists in different countries.

To do this, Dr Scott identified clear recommendations for media freedom initiatives in general – with particular impact on the Media Freedom Coalition, an inter-governmental partnership of over 50 governments, represented at the highest ministerial level. These recommendations were shared in presentations, policy briefs, news coverage and private conversations – and they are now directly informing the design and decision-making of the Media Freedom Coalition.

As a result of Dr Scott’s research, the MFC has improved its communications, clarified their aims and objectives, improved the speed, focus and support of its public statements and changed their terms of reference to make it easier to remove members who violate media freedom. This research is ultimately helping to better protect journalists, enabling them to play their role in supporting democracy and human rights.

Dr Scott’s research into media’s influence on aid is also helping to ensure that the media can play its role in promoting transparency and accountability within government’s foreign policies.

His work has revealed when and how the media can influence governments’ humanitarian aid budgets to ensure they are spent where there is greatest need.

Specifically, his research shows that sudden-onset national news coverage of humanitarian crises can increase levels of humanitarian aid to under-funded crises. This has direct implications for charities, and UN agencies seeking to influence aid spending – helping them to identify how to produce more effective communications.

This work has already influenced how the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – and others - ‘target and time’ their communications to ‘maximize the potential of influencing donor decisions’. 

*WINNER* Improving global crop disease diagnosis to reduce economic loss and improve food security

Prof Sophien Kamoun (School of Biological Sciences and The Sainsbury Laboratory)

Prof Kamoun’s research resulted in novel genomics-based tools Field Pathogenomics (sequencing technology), and OpenWheatBlast (a web platform). These innovations have transformed plant pathogen diagnosis by providing tools that enable a quick response time to tackle crop disease disasters.

In 2016,wheat crop in Bangladesh failed dramatically due to a completely new disease to Asia. Bangladeshi officials were burning government-owned wheat fields to contain the fungus and telling farmers not to sow seeds from infected plots. Kamoun’s work was put into practice and enabled the rapid and accurate diagnosis of a specific strain of devastating wheat blast, originating from wheat imported from South America. Field Pathogenomics has subsequently diagnosed further crop disease outbreaks. The impact of this research was:

1. Immediate changes to farming practice in affected areas in Bangladesh preventing most severe crop losses and minimising the consequent humanitarian and societal disaster; 

2. Rapidly improved biosecurity measures that included capacity building in Bangladesh and more globally (Australia, Ethiopia, Europe, India and the UK) to alleviate yield and associated economic losses, by preventing the further spread of emerging crop diseases, such as wheat blast.

Transitional Safeguarding: Transforming the way young people are safeguarded

Prof Christine Cocker (School of Biological Sciences and The Sainsbury Laboratory)

Transitional Safeguarding is an approach to safeguarding young people aged between 15-25 that has developed in response to the ‘cliff edge’ that many young people experience at 18 years where they are no longer able to access children’s services safeguarding support and are instead referred to adult services. Many young people who are homeless, care experienced and/or who are involved with youth justice including those who may be victims of different forms of exploitation such as County Lines or modern slavery, do not meet the adult eligibility criteria for adult services. Their needs may not have changed overnight after their 18th birthday, but their ability to access services has. 

Along with Dez Holmes (Research in Practice) and Dr Adi Cooper (Partners on Care and Health), we have worked to support organisations in responding to this challenge and develop a Transitional Safeguarding approach.

Our approach argues for a system change that addresses legal and policy gaps and develops services that are based on young people’s developmental needs, not their chronological age. Acknowledging the nuance and diversity of experience and circumstance of young people to avoid 18 as the ‘cut-off’ is vital (Cocker, Cooper, Holmes and Bateman 2021) and our work has underpinned changes now being made across the sector.

A Transitional Safeguarding approach involves working across children and adult services. This is an essential component underpinning successful system change and something we have modelled in the work we have done. Dr Cooper is an adult safeguarding specialist (and Independent Chair of two Safeguarding Adults Boards), and Prof Cocker is a children’s safeguarding specialist. Learning from the other and working together is core to challenging existing system silos, improving and changing services and practice, to transform the ways in which young people can get support to keep themselves safe.

Communication Access Project (CAP)

Lauren Flannery (School of Health Sciences)

CAP’s mission is to create an accessible communication space for all at UEA, including
both staff and students. The project began in November 2022 when the project lead was planning for
the Norwich Science Festival and decided to promote the Communication Access UK (CAUK) initiative.
CAUK aims to improve the lives of people with communication difficulties by a variety of means from
providing online courses to enhance communication confidence to institutional accreditation.

To promote the initiative, the CAP team have produced a film with UEA staff and
students, to raise awareness about the Communication Access Symbol and online training, to highlight
the importance and to demonstrate how it aligns with UEA’s ongoing work on inclusivity. Filming was
complete by December 2022 and the film is now available to view.

As project lead, the initial ambition was quickly achieved when accreditation was
awarded, UEA are the first university to receive this accreditation. As project lead, Lauren is now working
with various departments to roll the communication training out across all schools and professional
services. She has ethics approval to collect data and report on impact. Further case studies, interviews
and focus groups are planned to capture the voice of our campus.

As well as sharing this project across the UEA, I am promoting this work in our
local community and will be presenting at the Norwich Science Festival in February 2023. I have secured
500 lanyards which promote the CAP film. The festival is an ideal opportunity for UEA to engage at a
local level, in the heart of the city, to promote CAP, showcase the work that is underway at UEA, and
invite our partners to complete the Communication Access training. This aligns to our civic duty and
our ongoing work around supporting health equality.

Compassionate Communities: Implementing a Citizen-led Learning Network to Support Palliative and End-of-Life Care

Dr Guy Peryer (School of Health Sciences and Norwich Medical School)

Due to expanding demand, challenges to workforce and workload capacity in health and social care we must increase social cohesion at a societal level to improve experiences of care. These ideals are at the centre of transitioning to Integrated Care Systems in 2022. In end-of-life care, if appropriate levels of support are absent, experiences of distress can affect families long-after a family member has died. There is only one chance to get it right.

This is a growing challenge. Trajectories of functional decline are longer and shallower than ever before — meaning many older age people have high support needs for longer periods at the end-of-life. It is estimated that by 2040, 75% of people with life-limiting illness will benefit from palliative care.

We must devise suitable bespoke solutions to support an effective interface between care systems and the community sector to increase capacity whilst maintaining quality and safety standards.

We were funded by Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group to form a citizen-led learning network to support NHS England’s ambition: ‘Each Community is Prepared to Help’. Achieving this ambition involves:

• Increasing public awareness of death literacy and community-based end-of-life care support; 
• Finding new ways to provide practical support and information that enables fellow citizens to get involved; 
• Preventing avoidable care crises through enhancing community networks; 
• Integrating volunteers and community organisations to work alongside health and care professionals.

Members of the learning network included representatives from: local charities, schools, volunteer groups, funeral homes, faith groups, artists and dramatists, town/county councils, and health and social care.

We established a broader network of stakeholders across the East of England. The Compassionate Communities East network will expand their activities between 2023-2076 via national funding awarded to Dr Peryer.

*WINNER* Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP)

Prof Morag Farquhar and Dr Carole Gardener (School of Health Sciences)

Person-centred care is increasingly seen as a means of improving care for people with chronic, progressive and long-term conditions. This approach emphasises identification of patient-defined needs, priorities and outcomes to inform care and support, with the active role of patients in the identification and decision-making process. However, guidance on how to deliver person-centred care is scant.

The Support Needs Approach for Patients (SNAP) is a healthcare intervention designed to address this through two key components:

1. The SNAP Tool –a set of evidence-based questions for patients to help them consider and identify their support needs, presented in a patient-friendly booklet called the “How are you?” booklet
2. A needs-led conversation between the patient and healthcare professional to prioritise and address support needs identified through the patient’s self-completed SNAP Tool.

Modelled on the internationally recognised evidence-based Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool Intervention (CSNAT-I) for unpaid carers,but grounded in an evidence-base of patient support needs, the SNAP Tool was first developed and validated in advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD). However, patients and healthcare professionals told us the tool was not just relevant to patients with advanced COPD, it was also relevant for patients earlier in their disease trajectory and relevant to patients living with other chronic, progressive long-term conditions. 

SNAP enables proactive identification of support needs, facilitating conversations between patients and healthcare professionals to potentially ameliorate crises. It enables comprehensive support need identification by helping patients to identify and share with healthcare professionals what’s most important to them, at that time, and what might help. It stops healthcare professionals making assumptions about the patient and what they may need; it helps patients to problem solve. It makes care and support person-centred and visible. 

The SNAP website hosts free, online training in SNAP, as well as SNAP Tool licensing options.

Confronting the Indigo Giant

Ben Musgrave (School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing)

During the colonial period, to meet the world's insatiable need for blue, vast swathes of the Bengali countryside were given over to the cultivation of the indigo plant. But indigo cultivation was only possible under appalling conditions created by British planters. The atrocities committed by the planters triggered an extraordinary revolution that changed Bengal forever. But does the memory of indigo cultivation still haunt Bangladesh? And how can Bangladesh reclaim the tainted history of indigo cultivation for a more sustainable future? 

Since 2019, playwright and Lecturer in Scriptwriting Ben Musgrave has been working on an interdisciplinary research project that brought together UEA Lecturer and playwright Ben Musgrave, with an ethnographer from Dhaka University (Professor Sir Syed Jamil Ahmed), a Soil Scientist from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU – Professor MMR Jahangir), and Living Blue, a social enterprise in Bangladesh that has the led the revival of sustainable natural Indigo in Bangladesh.

You can find out more about the project on the Indigo Giant website.​

In September 2022, Ben’s play Indigo Giant premiered in Dhaka, Bangladesh to critical acclaim, produced by British-Bangladeshi Arts Company Komola Collective. The production was accompanied by a series of impactful events, including: a theatre-for-development performance workshop with indigo farmers and artisans in Rangpur, (the location of heavy historical indigo cultivation); a presentation in Dhaka of our developing theatre, ethnographic and soil science research strands to policymakers, students, and cultural activists; a scriptwriting workshop exploring the indigo story at British Council Bangladesh.

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Gender and the Film Archive: Making Women Amateur Filmmakers Visible

Prof Keith M Johnston and Prof Melanie Williams (School of Art, Media and American Studies)

The project created the UK’s first digitised and accessible collection of films made by ground-breaking women amateur filmmakers, via a partnership between UEA researchers, the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC), Talking Pictures TV, and UK festival programmers and cinema exhibitors.

Phase One of the project digitised the work of 48 pioneering women filmmakers, made 144 films accessible via a public-facing website, and screened them in cinemas and on national television, generating interest and raising awareness among multiple audiences.

In Phase Two, Film Archives UK (FAUK) – the sectoral body for film and screen archives - commissioned the project leads to prepare a report on national holdings of women filmmakers’ work. Published in 2020, the report’s recommendations have informed archival strategies and policies on how to increase the visibility of women filmmakers’ work.

In the ongoing Phase Three, a new curated film programme used project films to expand our impact internationally with a premiere screening at Le Giornate de Cinema Muto, Pordenone, the world’s leading silent film festival; while the project team’s expertise in women amateur filmmakers has led them to consult with three film archives in the UK and Ireland on the cataloguing of important women amateur film collections.

*WINNER* International Chair of Creative Writing Africa Year (2021-22)

Prof Jean McNeil (School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing)

The ICCW Africa Year was a unique, inaugural year-long project of creative writing and cultural development across the African continent. It was programmed and implemented by Prof Jean McNeil, working with the acclaimed Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga as figurehead.

McNeil collaborated exclusively with African individuals and organisations. The project was funded by an anonymous philanthropic donor and was the first of its kind UEA has undertaken. With a modest budget (£80,000 for implementation) and no dedicated administrative support, McNeil established five formal project partnerships in five African countries with organisations UEA had never worked with before.

Each sub-project was also a first of its kind: in Uganda a short story writing workshop was facilitated by MIFUMI, focussing on themes of gender and human rights. In Kenya we held the first-ever residential bilingual writing workshop in Africa, in Kiswahili and English. In Namibia, working closely with Doek Arts Trust, we programmed and mounted the first ever literary festival dedicated to Namibian writing. Partnering with the Zimbabwean theatre training organisation ZTAT, ICCW funded and facilitated the first months-long writing laboratory culminating in staged productions from emerging writers; in Botswana we funded and delivered the first-ever workshops/literary festival focussing on writing for young readers.

Our projects built capacity in each country and each organisation, opening new avenues for teaching and learning and dissemination of African writing. ICCW was widely covered in national presses and attracted the support and attention of national and international entities such as the Goethe Institut and the British Council.

The impact of the array of projects, from writing workshops to literary festivals to public events and readings, is evidenced by the effect on direct participants and audiences worldwide for our outputs into the 10,000s. The ICCW raised UEA’s profile on the African continent as well as having a significant cultural impact.

*WINNER* Cellexcel Ltd

Prof G Richard Stephenson (School of Chemistry)

Biocomposites are materials made from resins strengthened with natural fibres. They are increasingly being used in a variety of uses, due to their lightweight and other properties, but conventional biocomposites have a tendency to take up water, so making them unsuitable for external parts. Through a novel treatment of the fibres, or the fabrics made from them, Prof Stephenson’s group in the School of Chemistry has been able to patent a method for making these versatile materials more water resistant.

The method has been scaled to production scale through close collaboration with industrial partners and a spin-out, Cellexcel Ltd, was formed to commercialise this technology platform in several sectors including in the automotive sector.

While the chemical treatment provides a technology platform applicable in many sectors, Cellexcel will start with the automotive and transport industries, since these are industries in rapid change, accelerated by external drivers (in the UK, for example, the need for all new cars to be electric by 2030). The Cellexcel strategy is to form partnerships with route-to-market parties, through multiple field-specific licensing agreements to bring new products to market using our fabric treatment capabilities. Cellulose is a biopolymer with great strength (it holds up trees) and is found in all plants worldwide. Changing cellulose at the molecular scale is an approach to improving resistance to water up-take and hence product durability that is distinct from, and more capable than, conventional materials-science methods. The exact treatment process can be modified for specific purposes/clients, hence the ‘platform’ approach, and is scaleable across many sectors and applicable to cellulosic materials worldwide – cellulose is the same everywhere, so the same chemistry can be used universally, that’s where the impact starts.

Virilitas: Improving male fertility diagnostics and interventions

Prof Simone Immler and Daniel Marcu (School of Biological Sciences)

Human fertility has seen a continuous decline over the past 20-30 years, and the
use of artificial reproductive technology (ART) is increasingly common. However,
since their invention 30+ years ago, most ARTs have seen little to no further
development. Most current fertility diagnostics and interventions are focusing on
female fertility. At Virilitas we aim to disrupt the fertility industry by i) developing
innovative at-home diagnostic options for male reproductive health and ii)
commercialising state of art interventional research to improve pregnancy
outcomes and the health of the resulting offspring.

Our at-home test kit will provide diagnostic information about male reproductive
health and ejaculate quality at home within minutes of sample production. The
product is to be used as a first step towards understanding a man’s reproductive
health. This kit provides results that allow the gradual evaluation of potential
issues around ejaculate quality. The customers will be able to read the results
themselves based on our detailed instructions or get further support for the
interpretation.

Our interventional test relies on selecting sperm based on genotypic approaches
to improve pregnancy outcomes. This product is suitable for fertility clinics which
currently perform little to no selection on male sex cells. The technology can be
used in combination with flow cytometry or microfluid devices, relying on the
selection of desired cells based on cell surface markers. The technology is
currently being developed with the aid of cutting-edge‘ omics technologies for
clinical and aquaculture applications.

Virilitas has been founded based on our extensive scientific research and
expertise in reproductive biology and genetics. We have been the first lab to describe the link between sperm phenotype and genotype. Developing both
technologies within Virilitas strategically positions among one of the most
disruptive biotech companies within the healthcare system.

Weather and Climate Risks and Opportunities in the UK Wine Sector: Vinescapes Ltd

Prof Stephen Dorling and Dr Alistair Nesbitt (School of Environmental Sciences)

Wines from Great Britain now regularly win international prizes and are exported to 30 different markets. Opportunities exist to grow to a retail value of £1billion by 2040, generating >20,000 additional jobs. This potential is supported by a warming climate but is also threatened by climate variability and poor vineyard site and grapevine variety selections.

To increase the resilience of this fledgling sector to weather and climate risks our research, beginning with Nesbitt’s PhD supervised by Dorling (2012-2016), developed the first English and Welsh Viticulture Suitability (EWVS) model, successfully applying GIS modelling techniques to integrate viticulture relevant climatic, terrain and soil data. Our findings highlighted the sub-optimal setting of many existing UK vineyards and the land opportunities for more resilient viticulture. Our model revealed 33,700 ha of prime viticulture land in the UK, equivalent to the scale of the Champagne region in France. Our research enhanced investor confidence by highlighting the crucial link between observed trends in climate and grapevine varietal suitability. GB Vineyard hectarage has approximately doubled since 2016 to 4000ha in 2022.

UKRI then funded our Climate Resilience in the UK Wine Sector (CREWS-UK) research (2019-2021), a collaborative project with the London School of Economics and WineGB involving extensive interaction with industry stakeholders to elicit attitudes to climate change and adaptation. Our CREWS-UK research mapped the near-term (to 2040) changes and opportunities for GB vineyard locations and variety shifts and provided an investment relevant analogy with Champagne, Burgundy and Baden where Pinot Noir is grown.

Dr Nesbitt commercialises this knowhow through the spin-out company Vinescapes Ltd, supplying ~£1.1m of Vineyard and Winery services in 2021 including field scale suitability assessments, in support of a more climate resilient GB wine sector and in collaboration with Weatherquest Ltd (UEA-based SME; Prof Steve Dorling CEO).

A climate mural for our times: global science, local expression

Dr Michael Taylor and Prof Trevor Davies (School of Environmental Sciences)

A powerful combination of scientific and artistic creativity, involving continuous dialogue between scientists, artist and civic leader over two years. The soul of the mural was created from innovative analysis and visualisation of climate data.

Prof Davies’s suggestion of a painting for City Hall, featuring the work of CRU, was enthusiastically welcomed by Alan Waters (then leader of Norwich City Council). A mural was commissioned for the Council Chamber to constantly remind decision-makers to address climate change. It is also the focus of continuing community projects and a rallying call for other local authorities.

Although artist Gennadiy Ivanov’s mind would motivate his brushstrokes,it was agreed that interpretation would be based on – and depict – the very latest science.

The keystone of the mural is its skyline; the temperature record from 65 million years ago through two possible scenarios for the next 200 years. The cataclysm of the Chicxulub asteroid is the starting point because of the relevance of the resulting mass extinction of species and the next 200 years may see temperatures climb towards the highs of this geological period.

This presented huge scientific challenges. The resolution/range of temperature reconstructions vary enormously over time. Information for periods of societal experience and future needed to be represented in detail. One of the six mural panels would span 62 million years and >10oC; another only centuries and 1oC, yet still enough to have enormous impacts on human societies.

Dr Taylor sourced temperature reconstructions for each panel, including the CRU instrumental record for the 1850-present panel, compiled/combined them, and iterated with Ivanov to represent them as coloured stripes but with novel choices of gradations to account for disparate resolutions/ranges. Ivanov used these to remarkable effect in his skyline above the Norfolk coastline. This crucial information makes the mural a powerful messenger for the impact of climate change and pinpoints the now-or-never moment for action.

*WINNER* Coastwise – the North Norfolk Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (North Norfolk District Council)

Dr Sophie Day (School of Environmental Sciences)

England has some of the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. Coastal erosion is a natural, ongoing process that has been happening for thousands of years, but with sea levels continuing to rise into the next century, and the legacy of past management interventions, the rate of coastal erosion in some places will accelerate. For some coastal locations that are being acutely affected - including North Norfolk - it is no longer be technically or economically feasible to provide protection from flooding and coastal change, yet there is no alternative framework for managing the consequences of acute coastal erosion for the communities affected.

There is therefore a need to explore now how local authorities can work with and support people living, working and using coastal areas that cannot sustainably be defended in the long term. The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP) will explore how we can adapt to the effects of climate change on the coast. From 2022 to 2027, North Norfolk will receive funding to work with communities on the coast that cannot sustainably be defended from coastal erosion.

UEA researcher Sophie Day has worked alongside Coastal Partnership East, North Norfolk District Council and other regional stakeholders on a number of projects over the past few years to embed contemporary thinking to drive innovation and forward thinking in the future delivery of integrated sustainable management and economic growth in coastal and marine environments. Projects include:

• The BlueFutures project
• The Bacton Sandscaping Project
• The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme

In 2022 Sophie was seconded to North Norfolk District Council, part of Coastal Partnership East, as an embedded researcher, to support a range of projects and activities in developing the mechanisms for delivering coastal adaptation and transitions, by embedding contemporary thinking on coastal adaptation and transitions into the end-user context. Sophie co-wrote the Outline Business Case which underpins the design and structure of North Norfolk’s £15m Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme – Coastwise. This project is funded by Defra and the Environment Agency and runs until 2027 and Sophie is the lead on Evidence and learning for the project.

The Good Jobs Project

Dr Helen Fitzhugh and Dr Ritchie Woodard (Norwich Business School)

The initial study for the Norwich Good Economy Commission identified low pay as a specific issue for the local economy, as well as a greater than average dependence in the city on low paid and precarious work. 

The Good Jobs Project built on existing work by academics at the UEA’s Norwich Business School which aimed to scope and develop ways to help managers and employees in frontline work to improve their own and their colleagues’ jobs.

Working in sectors like retail, hospitality and care has always posed challenges, but the pandemic has made this even harder. It has threatened the security of businesses and employment and placed new pressures on managers and employees, as well as exacerbating old inequalities - factors which impact on both the wellbeing and performance of workers at all levels. 

In response, the Good Jobs Project developed resources to support managers and employees to embed good employee experiences of work into the way they build back after the crisis. The team brought together general academic findings on what supports wellbeing and performance with first-hand accounts of the challenges and successes facing organisations and their staff, gathered through interviews, focus groups and workshops with Norwich employees and employers. In Phase 1 of the project the team produced the 4 boosts model and team created the infographic, handbook, evidence supplement and video – which can all be found online. They were disseminated widely via the PrOPEL Hub website, the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing website (no longer live), social media and word of mouth.

In Phase 2 of the project the leads took this work around Norfolk in events, interviews and media appearances to spread the word. In Phase 3 it was discussed and promoted in Mile Cross via an open space event and multiple walkarounds to local businesses.

Best Practice and Barriers on the Road to Net Zero: Evidence from Companies in Norfolk and Suffolk

Prof Naresh Pandit, Dr Usha Sundaram, Dr Vanya Kitsopoulou (Norwich Business School)

This £70,000 UEA-led consultancy project was funded by the UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF) and is one of the products of a wider £1,182,520 Road to Net Zero CRF Partnership led by the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership for Norfolk and Suffolk (NALEP). The project ran from October 2021 to October 2022.

The Net Zero CRF Partnership has engaged key regional actors working in the areas of climate policy and business support to provide evidence-based recommendations, business support, and grants towards a Net Zero future. Delivered across both Norfolk and Suffolk, Partners include the UEA, the NALEP, Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils, Suffolk and Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, and the University of Suffolk.

The main product of the project is a report that identifies decarbonisation best practise and barriers on the road to Net Zero for companies in Norfolk and Suffolk. Online questionnaire, one-to-one interview, and focus group data were triangulated to produce a comprehensive evidence base for a set of 23 findings and a set of 24 recommendations. A presentation based on the report was given to Partnership members on 5 October 2022.

The findings and recommendations in the report will inform advisory focal points, directly contributing to county-level Climate Emergency Plans and strategy generally,and will provide the foundation for a Net Zero Communications Plan across both counties.

*WINNER* Safeguarding Natural Assets: Working with the Norfolk & Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership

Prof Andrew Lovett, Gilla Sūnnenberg, Dr Trudie Dockerty, Dr Sophie Day (School of Environmental Sciences)

The UEA Team were commissioned by Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils to work with the Norfolk & Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership (N&SNRP) to provide research evidence and expertise to feed into a Local Nature Recovery Strategy and local 25-year Environment Plan. The N&SNRP comprises ~70+ representatives from local organisations concerned with farming, conservation and management of natural resources, making them a powerful vehicle for meaningful action and impact.

The first key requirement for developing these local strategies was to have an inventory of the extent and status of natural assets and to identify priorities for their protection. The UEA Team was contracted for this task.

In the first phase of work, the UEA Team mapped and assessed the wealth of natural assets present in Norfolk and Suffolk (the land, coast and sea, soils and below-ground assets, habitats & species, freshwater & coastal environments, and atmosphere). In addition, a review was carried out of current and potential future risks to these assets, resulting in the identification of seven key priority objectives for protection of these assets, to be addressed in the continuing work.

The results of the first phase of work were captured in an Evidence Compendium that made the information and data easy to access and has been well received by the N&SNRP and other local interested organisations. This has formed the foundation for a subsequent ‘roadmap’, currently under development. The team continue to collaborate with the N&SNRP to provideadditional advice, research and support in their objectives.

The full economic cost of delayed diagnosis of Axial Spondyloarthritis in the UK

Dr Georgios Xydopoulos, Dr Stephanie Howard Wilsher, Dr Fernando Zanghelini, Oyewumi Afolabi (Norwich Medical School)

Axial Spondyloarthritis (Axial SpA) is an umbrella term for a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and sacroiliac joints. Axial Spa is characterised by inflammatory pain and functional impairment and can have a devastating impact on the lives of those living with it. Onset of axial SpA typically starts between late teen years to early twenties, with an average age of symptom onset of 26. Hence, this condition can have a life-long impact and long-term complications if left untreated. Diagnosis is difficult and often delayed several years after the appearance of symptoms – on average patients wait 8.5 years for a diagnosis from the moment of symptom onset.

Previous studies have focussed mainly on costs associated with the diagnosis of axial SpA and the treatment costs. However, the costs incurred prior to diagnosis and in particular costs borne by the patients or their caregivers, such as transportation and over-the-counter medications, or the productivity losses arising from work absence, inability to work or early mortality, have received little attention to date. Given the average delay from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis is around 8.5 years, considerable costs incur, both at societal and individual level and these are larger over longer delay periods.

Health Economics Consulting (HEC) in collaboration with National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society (NASS) analysed data from 2,827 anonymised patient records over the last 10-15 years developing a health economics model in accordance to NICE standards that adopts a broad societal perspective for estimating the burden of delayed diagnosis, up to the point of diagnosis for those living with axial SpA in the UK, including out of pocket expenses, medical costs, productivity losses and broader social costs.

Our findings suggest that the average life-time cost per annum is around £9,000 (CI 95%: £5,300-£13,300). The costs are higher for younger ages and decrease each year as more people from the cohort modelled are getting diagnosed. With a symptom onset at the age of 26 and an average time to diagnosis of 8.5 years we estimate that the cumulative costs of delayed diagnosis per person living with axial SpA is £ 193,512(CI 95%: ££108,354.71- £313,670.53)