Earlier this month, HASP partnered with the Big Issue for their food special, contributing insights on areas across the UK that are most likely to need support to access affordable, healthy, and sustainable sources of food.
Among features on regenerative farming and tackling food waste was an opinion piece by Dr Rachel Oldroyd, exploring why millions struggle to afford nutritious food despite supermarket abundance.
We approached Rachel, a Lecturer in Spatial Data Science at the University of Leeds and member of our Priority Places for Food Index (PPFI) team, because her expertise in food access and health geography, combined with her working knowledge of PPFI, made her the ideal contributor for The Big Issue.
Rachel collaborated closely with our Impact and Engagement team, whose role is to make responding to opportunities like this as straightforward as possible for researchers. Below, I share how we supported Rachel throughout the process.
The Opportunity
Reporter Lottie Elton was writing an article on food deserts and had discovered our Priority Places for Food Index tool online.
Having explored the interactive map and downloaded the underlying data, Lottie approached us looking for some guidance on how to present insights by ward (as opposed to LSOA) ranked by supermarket accessibility.
With a tight deadline and additional analysis required, Jack Smith, our Engagement and Partnerships Officer, coordinated data science support from the HASP Data Science team and managed communications with the Big Issue, enabling Rachel to focus on sharing her expertise.
Data Science Support
With a brief from Rachel and Prof Michelle Morris, Dr Agnibha Banerjee aggregated neighbourhood data to ward level and ranked areas by supermarket accessibility and overall PPFI score.
We shared the analysis from our Data Science team with the Big Issue and offered Rachel up for a short interview to provide context and answer any questions.
Communications Support
I’ve worked with Rachel for many years (both throughout her PhD and as a Researcher at the Consumer Data Research Centre), working together to strengthen her communication skills and build confidence in sharing her research with different audiences.
Rachel’s previous experience and familiarity with PPFI meant minimal preparation was needed this time. However, for researchers new to HASP, we offer tailored sessions to clarify key messages, anticipate likely questions and build confidence ahead of interviews.
Rachel had a great conversation with the Big Issue team and was asked to contribute a 1,500-word opinion piece to complement our analysis in their food special issue.
A new style of writing
Whilst this wasn’t Rachel’s first time working with the media, it was her first opinion piece. We supported Rachel throughout the writing process, providing advice and guidance on style, tone and level of detail.
Rachel said:
“Robyn and Jack were incredibly supportive throughout the whole process. They met with me as soon as the request came in to understand what support I needed and checked in regularly as I developed the draft.
They proofread the final piece, ensuring the key message was clearly articulated and did a final sense-check before it was submitted. Their guidance made the whole experience feel much smoother and greatly increased my confidence in the final article.”
Start spreading the news
We were delighted to see that Rachel’s article featured prominently in print and online. Once published, our Impact and Engagement team amplified the coverage across HASP and Smart Data Research UK channels, helping the coverage reach wider audiences.
Working with our Impact and Engagement team
Our Impact and Engagement team work closely with data service users, available support includes:
- Liaising with data partners
- Stakeholder mapping & dissemination plans
- Content development – turning outputs into website content, video, press releases or policy briefs etc as appropriate
- Supporting media engagement
- Identifying ongoing policy and dissemination opportunities for your research
If you’d like to know more about working with our Impact and Engagement team contact us at [email protected].
Meet our Impact and Engagement Team
Lizzy McHugh – Impact and Partnerships Manager
Lizzy is working to build strategic partnerships and accelerate the impact of our data and research. Prior to joining HASP, Lizzy worked at IGD, where she collaborated across the food industry, academia, and government to drive progress on healthy and sustainable diets.
Robyn Naisbitt – Communications and Engagement Manager
Robyn is responsible for communicating the impact of our data, research and collaborations to external audiences. With a background in corporate communications and over ten years’ experience leading high profile campaigns for academic research projects and collaborations, Robyn supports HASP users to extend their reach beyond the traditional academic sphere.
Jack Smith – Engagement and Partnerships Officer
Jack has an academic background in quantitative social science, followed by roles across industries including employee experience, civil aviation, and the grocery sector, He works closely with partners and data service users to disseminate research outputs to a variety of audiences.
