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Home > WaterR2B > Submission guidelines

WaterR2B submission guidelines

Please read these guidelines before submitting a case study to the site.

WaterR2B is an initiative of the NERC Water Security Knowledge Exchange Programme (WSKEP)

Purpose: The Water Case Studies Website has been developed as a tool:

  • in response to UK government requirements to improve the flow of innovation from the research base out to users, and thereby to drive sustainable economic recovery;
  • to bring together in one place evidences of impact and related case studies that are being prepared by universities across the country; to show how water related research is being used to benefit the UK economy and society; 
  • to show how water challenges affect many different sectors of the UK economy – and the diversity of research expertise that has been developed to address these challenges; 
  • to enable users to find researchers with the expertise they need;
  • to enable existing research outputs to be seen and applied by a wider audience;
  • that demonstrates the on-going financial and social benefits to the UK that flow from the research base; 
  • to illustrate how innovation flows from basic research through to practical application; and 
  • with other tools, to enable researchers to identify collaborators in other disciplines.

WaterR2B supports the argument for a more comprehensive multi-sectoral approach to water research. It demonstrates that past research funding is delivering multiple benefits, and as such this website supports the delivery of more effective and efficient research.

Audience: The target audiences include:

  • People working in industry, government or the third sector who may have a water related challenge – but not be aware of the types of solutions that may be useful; 
  • Media and press looking for researchers with expertise in some issue of public interest;
  • Researchers seeking mechanisms to publicise their work and increase impact;
  • Government departments such as UKTI who may be looking for UK expertise;
  • Research councils, BIS and other government departments needing evidence that the government funds spent on research are returning benefits

Operation: The Water Case Studies website is a dynamic tool, onto which researchers can upload or link their case studies at any time. The website is managed – all material submitted will be checked before being made available through the public website. Case studies will be removed at the request of the lead researcher.

Confidentiality: The Water Case Studies website is an open access website. Any material loaded on the site should be approved for web publication by organisations who have funded the research. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain that approval.

What Research: Case Studies may be the result of a piece of research undertaken for several different research funding bodies, from basic research through to highly applied work commissioned by a company or trade association such as UKWIR. A Case Study should refer to the different funding sources where this is relevant.

Added Value Retailers: Often research does not pass directly from the researcher to the end-user of that research – but passes through an “added value retailer” – an intelligent intermediary company that may combine that research with other materials, models or data and delivers it as a user friendly package designed for specific industry applications and working environment. 

How to Use these Guidance Notes: The following notes are provides as a guide to what information is needed for a Case Study. Hopefully much of this information will have been collected as part of each universities on-going reporting of impacts.

Linking to existing Case Studies: If researchers already have Case studies on their university websites – then a link to these existing Case studies can be made, without needing to be reformatted.

Contents: Each Case Study should:

  • when printed from a website – comprise no more than two sides of A4 paper.
  • be written from the perspective of the problem owner – its starting point should be the demand pull – and not written from the perspective of the researchers describing how interesting his/her science is (supply push); 
  • be written in simple English – understandable to someone not expert in the field (ie try to keep the sentences short, and don’t use long multi-syllable technical words). The target reader will know something about the subject – but not the technical detail.
  • include suitable graphics to improve the attractiveness of the Case Study – photos of a graph showing manifestation of the challenge being addressed, photo, graph or diagram that relates to the solution provided (if possible some graphic which captures the essence of the solution)

Resources needed

Before submitting your case study you must have the following -

Case title

Maximum eight words, and preferably in the form of a question

Customer name

Name of company (or sector) or Government Dept requesting the work/using the research, or if customer name is confidential, then just refer to the sector eg “a UK water utility”, or Water Availability and Quality Group within Defra, DG Environment, UNEP etc )

Logo of primary funding body (or company receiving an applied product of service)

Full contact details of the PI

Including name of organisation, direct tel. no., email, a portrait image (passport style), web link for organisation and personal (staff page) web link

Description of the challenge (100 words max)

The need for new policy to take into account some issue, need for new method or tool by regulator – profit or cost saving, compliance with regulation, sustainability-social responsibility issue for industry;

Written from the perspective of the problem owner (as if it was written by someone from industry or a policymaker/regulator or NGO) – how they see the challenge – NOT from the researcher's perspective.

Written in language understandable by someone not expert in the field – use industry language rather than research language.

Some graphics illustrating the problem – a photo, or some graph showing increasing scale of problem if a solution is/was not found.

Link to website illustrating challenge – eg BBC News, Company website/strategy document.

Description of the solution provided (200 words max)

Solution need not be just technological, but could also be changes in methods, social engagement, economic model.

Written in colloquial language – to be understood by someone NOT expert in the field.

Some form of graphics which illustrate the solution – photo, graph, table of reduced costs, increased productivity.

Note – this is a description of the nature of the solution – not the benefit from it (which is in next section).

Description of resulting benefits to users (100 words max)

Tangible benefit – Text should be as specific as possible (even though it is usually difficult to show direct benefits from a specific piece of research). Mention diverse contributing research if this is relevant.

Quote / Endorsement of the solution from the problem holder - possible via YouTube clip.

Future Directions (50 words max)

Suggest possible areas where this work may /is likely to deliver benefits over the next five-ten years
(This text should include thinly veiled argument for more research funding) .

Statement should be convincing to the non-expert that future developments in this field will deliver significant benefits to the UK – better policies that protect ecosystem services/more sustainable approaches in the UK, or new technologies/approaches that increase competitiveness of UK companies on global markets.

Sources of funding for underpinning knowledge (list contributing funding sources – 5 max)

EPSRC Grant xxxx Title Value Duration (2008-2011) (Link to project/programme website)
NERC Grant zzz Title
Defra/ or EU FP6/7 project (link to Envirobase or project website) etc

Links to other Case Study webpages (max of 3 links) 

Similar cases / issues / solution – including for other sectors

Links or references to peer reviewed papers – (Max 3 papers)

Title and oline link.

Links to articles in either conference papers/ trade or popular press/ media (Max 3 articles)

eg BBC website

 

Go to the submission form >>