Case studies

Find examples of our collaborative projects with businesses, the education sector and charities.

Our case studies

• Supporting innovation in health

  Emteq labs, a Sussex based tech company, partnered with Prof Martin Yeomans on a Innovate UK funded project (Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Partnership - AKTP) and the AKT Associate Rhiannon Hermitage on an innovation project to broaden the areas of application of sensing glasses developed by the company. The project outputs will support the development of a novel weight management system that monitors food consumption and eating behaviours and tackles the management and prevention of obesity. The partnership allowed the company to access the research skills required that were not available on the open market or within the business, and collaborate on follow up projects towards a larger grant.

  

  Find out more about Prof. Martin Yeomans and Research Fellow Rhiannon Armitage.

• Books to enhance babies' colour experience    

  Child’s Play children’s book publishers consulted with Prof Anna Franklin to develop a series of baby board books suitable for babies’ poor vision and colour perception. Prof Franklin shared her knowledge of how babies see colour, their visual preferences and other aspects of visual development, and identified ways in which the science could be fed into the design of baby books. One of the books in the series, Look, Touch, Learn: Sky, has been chosen for the Scottish BookTrust Bookbug Baby Bag and is being given to all babies born in Scotland in 2024/2025 as part of the scheme.

  Find out more about Prof. Anna Franklin.

• Testing effectiveness in training    

  MeLearning is an international online e-learning provider, specialising in provision of essential training for government and commercial bodies. They needed to evaluate the latest range of software platforms they had designed for supporting e-learning. Working with a team of undergraduate students, Prof. Tom Ormerod conducted an evaluation of learning outcomes using platforms run by MeLearning, focusing on analysing passive versus active learning and delivery of small sets of information versus large sets. These results have helped shaping the company’s design of future training programmes and improving the effectiveness of their courses.

  

  Find out more about Prof. Tom Ormerod.

• Digital stories in the care sector    

  Independent Lives, a user-led charity working with disabled people, people with support needs and carers, has partnered with prof. Nicola Yuill and her team on an externally funded project on digital stories, short affirmative videos co-created with a client under their care. They have been used as a method to support transitions for children in special education, introduction to new care and residential placements and education of medical students and shared with teachers, support workers, care teams, and families. This project responded to the common challenge in recruiting personal assistants that are suitable to the client and their needs. Digital stories helped increasing interest in working with autistic client and a positive understanding of the client’s personality and preferences.

  

  Find out more about Prof. Nicola Yuill.

• Training in psychology of crowd safety management   

  The Event Safety Academy came to us looking to solve the problem of providing enhanced training on crowd safety for professionals involved in the events industry. We worked with them for 5 months, designing a training solution. We delivered this in the form of a Masterclass package in March 2019. Clients say that the use of Psychology in their work has improved their practice and enhanced safety at their events.

  

  Find out more about Prof. John Drury.

• Developing employability skills    

  Finding Rhythms is a charity that develops organisational and employability skills among prisoners through a series of music workshops. Dr Matt Easterbrook and Arabella Kyprianides worked with Finding Rhythms to evaluate the impact of the music workshops on prisoners’ social connections and mental health.  The evaluation found that the workshops dispelled pre-existing rivalries between those who took part, and improved their social relationships, wellbeing and mental health. The evaluation report will be used by Finding Rhythms to promote their services and to continue to attract funding.

  

  Find out more about Dr Matt Easterbrook.

• Product design for babies' vision    

  The company Etta Loves funded a Sussex Baby Lab PhD studentship for research into infant pattern perception.  The research is enabling Etta Loves to develop patterned products which are optimised for how babies see.  The research also informed the development of a baby sensory video produced by Etta Loves, and informed a collaboration which enabled the artist Camille Walala to produce two baby-friendly prints for Etta Loves.

  Find out more about the Sussex Baby Lab.

• Improving children's emotional wellbeing
  

  Brighton and Hove Council asked Professor Nicola Yuill’s Children and Technology Lab to help with the council’s Just Right emotion regulation intervention, to support students’ well-being in schools. Together, they are designing and implementing evaluations to show how the programme can best support students and teaching staff in class, and its possible impact on students’ home lives. The aim is to make sure that students are in the right frame of mind to learn and to achieve their potential.

  

  Find out more about the Chat Lab.
  

---

You might also be interested in:

• research excellence
• our history
• research centres