Frances Batty Shand Award for Impact of Research or Professional Practice
About the Frances Batty Shand Award
Note: this award will next be awarded in 2027. Nominations will open in March 2027.
This award recognises a team or individual whose research or professional practice has had a significant and demonstrable impact beyond the scope of their work or discipline.
Winners of this award will demonstrate significant contributions in one or more of the following ways:
- Research or professional practice which has had a significant and demonstrable impact.
- Significant and impactful positive changes beyond the scope of their area of work or discipline (intellectual, social, economic and/or cultural) occurring as a result of their research or professional practice.
- Notable outputs of their work
- Any other notable achievements, e.g. innovation, major projects, knowledge transfer, dissemination of their work etc.
Open to individuals or teams.
I’m delighted that the Learned Society of Wales has named its award for Impact of Research on Professional Practice after our founder, Frances Batty Shand. She was both an innovator and someone who cared deeply about people less fortunate than herself.
Discover Frances Batty Shand: Who was Frances Batty Shand and why is she associated with our Impact of Research or Professional Practice Award?
Frances Batty Shand was a charitable activist and philanthropist who founded the Cardiff institute for the Blind, providing jobs for blind people living in Cardiff in the 1880s. It is still a successful charity to this day (Sightlife), based in Shand House. Born in Jamaica, the daughter of a plantation owner and his ‘housekeeper’, she was brought back to the United Kingdom by her father with her siblings and later moved to Cardiff where she made a significant contribution to the lives of the people living there.
Read more about Frances Batty Shand at the Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
More than 200 years after she was born in Jamaica, the benefits of the charity that Frances Batty Shand created in 1865 are still felt daily across south Wales. Every year Sight Life directly supports more than 3,000 blind and partially sighted people. Inevitably, over the years, some aspects of what we do have evolved to reflect changes in society. But Frances, whose mother was a slave, would probably still recognise the value of our singing and walking groups as well as the many other activities we offer.
Scrutiny Committee membership
Members of the scrutiny committee will be announced shortly.