C2D2 primed project wins research impact award

Posted on 26 June 2015

Department of Sociology Professor Celia Kitzinger has won joint first prize in the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Outstanding Impact in Society Award for 2015.

Professor Kitzinger, who is Co-Director of the Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre (CDoC), won the award alongside her colleague and sister Professor Jenny Kitzinger, Cardiff University. The award recognises their work conducted on family experiences of coma, and the vegetative and minimally conscious state.

Prompting public debate, discussions of medical ethics and informing policy documents including new National Clinical Guidelines on prolonged disorders of consciousness, the two researchers also worked with Oxford University and the DIPEx charity to create a multi-media, online resource providing information and support for families and practitioners.

Launched in September 2014, the resource on healthtalk.org has reached over 4,000 people and is also being used in training healthcare and legal practitioners.

With the support of public engagement funding from C2D2 the work was also translated into a programme for Radio 3's 'Between the Ears' entitled 'Coma Songs' which reached around 59,000 people.

In addition to the ESRC award, the research received national recognition earlier this year coming joint-runner-up in the Guardian University Awards 2015 and winning Cardiff University’s Innovation Policy Award earlier this month.

Notes to editors:

The ESRC’s Celebrating Impact Prize recognises and rewards the successes of ESRC-funded researchers who have achieved, or are currently achieving, outstanding economic and societal impacts.
Original University of York Press Release

C2D2 primed project wins research impact award

Notes to editors:

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