University of Leicester selected to support policymaking by government departments across Europe

New framework contracts established with UK and EU government departments

LEICESTER, 01-Apr-2016 — /EuropaWire/ — Research expertise at the University of Leicester has been selected to support policymaking by government departments across Europe.

The University of Leicester has been appointed to provide policy advice to UK and EU government departments via three new framework agreements, establishing the University’s College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities as one of their key suppliers of research services.

A framework agreement is how public sector organisations select a limited number of qualified organisations who can then bid for individual pieces of work from a large budget. The contract agreements run from one to four years and in total millions of pounds of research and consultancy work can be allocated to the organisations, hence they are very competitive.

To be successful with the three framework agreements the University had to put forward a team of academics and prove their expertise in a certain field.

The three framework agreements will involve:

• A team made up of the Schools of Management, Education, Economics, Sociology and Health Sciences will be providing Research and Evaluation projects for the Department of Business Innovation & Skills;
• A team from the Leicester Law School, headed by Professor Adam Cygan, will be providing advice on civil law to the European Parliament;
• Dr Giuseppe A. Veltri (Department of Media & Communication) and Dr Briony Pulford (School of Psychology), who will be working with the London School of Economics and other partners supplying research and consultancy in Behavioural Studies to the Consumer Protection Programme run by a Directorate of the European Commission.

Professor Julie Coleman, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, said: “I’m delighted with our college’s success in these three Framework Contracts. It demonstrates not only the excellence of our research, but also our commitment to ensuring that it feeds into policy-making and into improving people’s lives both in the UK and throughout Europe.”

Caroline Quest, Director of Research and Enterprise Division, said: “The University’s expertise in social and economic policy and human behaviour has led to our being appointed to give advice at national and EU level. We are looking forward to the individual projects which will now come our way.”

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For more information contact Clare Hudson on ch328@leicester.ac.uk or Tristram Hughes on teh13@le.ac.uk.