Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change at the University of York

The collaboration is designed to deepen the existing partnership between Bradford and York to leverage evidence, innovative policy engagement, and community-driven approaches to address societal challenges.

The Centre aims to drive meaningful social change by bridging research and policy through sustained collaborative efforts. Its focus is on accelerating and amplifying the health, social, and economic research and impact generated through the longstanding partnership.

Central to this mission is the creation of new collaborations and opportunities, including internal funding for the University of York community, designed to stimulate interdisciplinary projects and innovative solutions.

The Centre has three key thematic workstreams: Citizen Science, Policy Impact and Crossing Disciplines. 

Citizen Science

The Centre aims to work in collaboration with local and national partners to develop and support opportunities for the public, including children and young people, to engage in research. Abespoke engaged research programme will be developed to inspire the young people participating in BiB’s Age of Wonder study (~ 20,000 teenage citizen scientists). This includes supporting young people to become peer researchers, and working with teachers in Bradford secondary schools to support the development of research skills for teachers and the use of BiB research data dashboards. An exciting new partnership with the National STEM Learning Centre will support this theme.

Policy Impact  

Supported by The York Policy Engine, the Centre aims to enhance the mobilisation of evidence developed through the UoY-BiB research partnership to inform policy and practice at national, regional and local levels. 

The Centre’s strategy for policy engagement is underpinned by existing collaborations and focuses on creating impact at local, regional, and national levels. These include building on: 

1. local engagement with Bradford, including the Health Determinants Research Collaboration to co-produce evidence with partners on what works to improve public health, by leveraging staff access to specialist advice within the UoY/BiB partnership, and supporting skills-building in the routine use of evidence in policy.
2. regional connections with the West Yorkshire Scientific Advisory Group to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WYHCP).
3. national engagement through robust collaboration with Health Equity North and the APPG Child of the North where the Centre will work with partners to share evidence in national policy spaces about creating fairer futures for children and families in the North.

Crossing Disciplines

The Centre supports novel projects to drive the development of the inter-disciplinary expertise needed to address complex social issues and social change. This includes supporting the development of novel data collection approaches, for example, using digital and sensor techniques and connected large data sets. The Centre is working with the Department of Computer Sciences to develop social media data donation protocols and further research based on these data.

The Team

Professor Kate Pickett is the Centre Director and Dr Amy Barnes is Deputy Director. The Centre is supported by two Associate Directors, Professors Maria Bryant and Simon Gilbody, and The York Policy Engine who will underpin the Centre’s policy engagement and impact activities.