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EU Rights and Brexit Hub project wins the ESRC Celebrating Impact Award for Public Policy

Posted on 22 November 2024

Great news for Professor Simon Parker and team

picture of the letter showing the award has been won

At a ceremony held at the Royal Society on 20 November a research team led by Professor Charlotte O’Brien of the Law School including Professor Simon Parker and Dr John Evemy from the Department of Politics and International Relations were awarded the ESRC’s 2024 Celebrating Impact Prize for Outstanding Public Policy Impact for their research on the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union on the rights of EU citizens.

The EU Rights and Brexit Hub EU was designed to navigate this new frontier of law through the establishment of a specialist legal action clinic led by Dr Alice Welsh, which has helped to shape and secure the rights of more than 6 million EU nationals residing in the UK. By influencing the direction of strategic litigation, EURBH has helped shape government policy through the courts and improved the legal and economic circumstances of millions of people. For example, EURBH evidence helped persuade the High Court that:

  • pre-settled status should not automatically expire after five years
  • vulnerable EU nationals should receive welfare support
  • more than six million EU nationals in the UK should be protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights

The Politics research team led by Professor Parker focused on how MPs, Peers and local government officials and NGOs responded to the emerging policy gap as well as presenting evidence to Parliament and the Independent Monitoring Authority on the persistent problems and ‘rights gaps’ that emerged with the roll out of the EU Settlement Scheme. The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford led by Professor Madeleine Sumption helped to identify the problems with ‘unsettled status’ and the numbers of people in different population groups who were likely to find themselves without leave to remain by having failed to apply in time or lacking evidence to make a successful claim.

Photo of Professor Simon Parker at the ESRC awards ceremony

EURBH Co-Investigator Professor Simon Parker said, ‘this award recognises the vital importance of interdisciplinary work across the social sciences that has been a real feature of the ESRC UK Governance after Brexit Programme. We are fortunate at the University of York to have outstanding researchers that instinctively recognise this and a research environment in the Faculty of Social Sciences that nurtures public engagement and long term societal impact for the public good.’

Professor Tony Heron, Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations, added, I’m delighted to see EURBH recognised in this way.  This award is a fitting acknowledgement of York’s commitment to interdisciplinary, applied research, demonstrating how cutting-edge research can be purposely combined with policy engagement and positive societal impact’.