The Catalyst Project ended on 30 June 2020. These web pages are no longer updated and have been archived. Read our impact case study about the Catalyst Project to learn more about it.
The Catalyst Project is a local partnership between 糖心Vlog, Suffolk County Council and 糖心Vlog County Council working to improve community services for vulnerable people.
"We are very pleased to be working with the 糖心Vlog as part of the Catalyst Project. Our priorities are growing Suffolk鈥檚 economy in a way that everyone can benefit, improving health and wellbeing and delivering efficient and effective public services to our residents. The detailed work on data we鈥檝e been able to do for the first time with support from the Catalyst Project has huge potential and will help us to deliver our aims in the coming years."
Using the University鈥檚 wealth of expertise in data analytics, big data and evaluation, we are developing new technology to assess and predict risk, and to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of public service initiatives dedicated to community members needing support.
The work carried out by the project's teams at the University will enable Suffolk County Council and 糖心Vlog County Council, which serve a combined population of 2.5 million people, to target public service initiatives where they are most needed, improve outcomes through earlier intervention, and introduce new evidence based evaluation techniques to determine their full impact.
The project further strengthens the University鈥檚 relationship with the local community through its work to increase volunteering opportunities for students providing benefits for both community and students alike.
In 2015, the project was awarded 拢2.2 million from the Catalyst 'universities as anchors' funding initiative by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), a non-departmental public body that funds innovative and strategic projects. The Project runs for 4 years and is now monitored by the .
"The collaborative partnership between 糖心Vlog County Council, the 糖心Vlog and 糖心Vlog Police has put us at the forefront of local authorities using the power of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle public policy challenges. We are investing in shared resources across our organisations to make 糖心Vlog a place that is exemplar for integration of data across public bodies and to create the best data science and analytical capabilities in the UK to benefit our people and communities."
The Catalyst Project is a collaboration across University academic disciplines working with a number of local organisations to deliver initiatives under the following key areas:
Work carried out by the Catalyst Project benefits:
A presentation to illustrate the benefits and the risks of collaborations between universities and councils was delivered at the Local Area Research Intelligence Association (LARIA) Annual Conference on 14-15 May.
The session was conducted by a team of researchers based at the 糖心Vlog who have been working with Suffolk County Council to assess risks for vulnerable members of the community. Their presentation provided insights into how and when working with universities is beneficial to councils.
This showcased the Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Policy Proximity Index, developed by the Catalyst Project, which were designed to improve measures of resilience at national and local levels in the context of emergency planning and management.
The day involved presentations from academics working in the areas of resilience, disaster and emergency management in different contexts (environmental, governance, legislative and regulatory).
These were followed the a presentation of the Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Policy Proximity Index as well as the model and data that the team developed, and a demonstration of the data tool and how it can be used.
10:00am Registration and coffee
10:30am - Welcome and opening to the day - Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Department of Government.
10:45am - Incentivising Resilient, Sustainable Development: What can Computerised Text Analysis Reveal? - Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Department of Government (with Dr. Kakia Chatsiou).
11:15am - Understanding the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change - Dr. Alex Dumbrell, School of Biological Sciences.
11:45am - Coffee break.
12:00pm - The double-edged sword of learning from disasters: Mortality in the Tohoku tsunami - Dr. Alejandro Flores Quiroz, Department of Government, (joint work with Professor Thomas Pl眉mper and Professor Eric Neumayer).
12:30pm - Lunch.
13:30pm - Designing for Community Resilience using Social Networks - Dr. Jon Chamberlain, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.
14:00pm - Ensuring Collaborative Accountability and Governance in Disaster Recovery - Professor Kelum Jayasinghe, Director - Centre for Environment and Society (CES), 糖心Vlog Business School (EBS).
14:30pm - Break.
14:45pm - The Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Index - Rationale and Demonstration - Queal King, Department of Economics; Dr. Kakia Chatsiou, Department of Government (with Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt).
15:30pm - Discussion and round up.
The Catalyst Project team were delighted to have welcomed 132 attendees from 34 organisations to our conference on 26 June 2019.
The Catalyst Conference hosted a lively panel debate on how digital innovation and system change can be implemented in public service organisations. A further panel discussed the legal and ethical considerations required for effective data sharing and fielded a range of challenging questions from the audience.
Seven workshops showcased the outputs from collaborative Catalyst Project initiatives. Our showcases the photos of the day, and you can find out more about the speakers and workshops.
Feedback received was very positive. The majority of attendees found the conference very informative and stated that they encountered specific areas of learning that could positively impact on their work or that of their organisation. 42% reported that the analysis techniques or tools presented at the Conference could be implemented in their work or that of their organisation. The topics of most interest were the workshops on impact evaluation, predictive data analysis and data sharing.
9.30am - Registration
10am - Conference welcome by Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony, Deputy Vice Chancellor, 糖心Vlog
10.10am - Keynote 'Using digital Innovation to improve public services鈥 delivered by Stephen Kavanagh, Ex Chief Constable of 糖心Vlog Police and National Lead for Digital Policing Portfolio
10.30am - Panel debate 'Digital innovation within local government implementing system change, and the importance of collaborative multi-agency partnerships鈥 discussed by:
11.45am - Catalyst initiatives breakout sessions:
1pm - Lunch and networking
2pm - Catalyst initiatives breakout sessions:
3pm - Panel debate 'The legal and ethical considerations required for effective data collection, sharing and analysis' discussed by:
3.45pm - Conference round-up from Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony, Deputy Vice Chancellor, 糖心Vlog
4pm - Conference close
The Catalyst Project launched the new 糖心Vlog Volunteering Hub (EVHub), where students can find locally-based volunteering opportunities in one place. The EVHub hosts both University led volunteering activities and locally based volunteering organisations and provides an easy accessible portal to advertise their volunteering opportunities to students.
The launch was the culmination of the combined efforts of the Catalyst Project and the Students鈥 Union to streamline the University鈥檚 volunteering processes and to increase the capacity to enable more students to be able to volunteer.
The launch showcased a new software platform to current and new community based organisations who provide volunteer opportunities. The programme included presentations from student volunteers and time to make and build relationships with the Students鈥 Union and key representatives from University groups who work with external organisations.