A 2009 RAND Europe study showed that the affordability of alcoholic beverages had increased across the EU over the previous decade and demonstrated that alcohol affordability is positively correlated with alcohol consumption. In turn, increases in alcohol consumption were shown to be associated with increases in traffic accidents, traffic deaths and liver cirrhosis. An update to the study focusing on excise duties and pricing and found that, despite extensive evidence that raising alcohol prices reduces alcohol consumption and harms, the real price of alcoholic beverages has continued to decrease.
The U.S. House and Senate have numerous cyber security proposals on the agenda to consider in the coming months. Neil Robinson, a RAND Europe research leader, presented lessons learned from studies in Europe regarding cyber security and information exchange. His briefing focused on information exchange theories vs. operational practice; what mechanisms are being considered in Europe to remove the barriers to information exchange; and policy considerations.
EU-OSHA carried out the first Europe-wide establishment survey on health and safety at the workplace, the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER), in 2009. RAND Europe conducted two secondary analysis projects to explore management of safety and health at work and examine how practices vary across Europe depending on, for example, establishment size, location and sector.
Illicit drug use continues to be an important public health and safety concern in Europe. The 2005-2012 EU Drugs Strategy was developed to complement and add value to national strategies and approaches while respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality set out in the EU Treaties. RAND Europe's independent evaluation assessed the relevance and influence of the Strategy and its implementation in Member States.
Efforts to improve human development outcomes in Southeast Asia are often hindered by problems with the governance of social assistance programmes. Governance broadly refers to the rules that govern interactions in the public sector, the relationships more widely between the public and private sectors, and the interactions between citizens, communities and state. The World Bank commissioned RAND Europe to develop a toolkit on how to improve governance in ASEAN countries.
The World Bank is interested in the linkages between governance, service delivery and human development outcomes. The Human Development Chief Economist's Office has asked RAND Europe to determine if OECD countries have been effective at using provider incentives in health and social protection policy areas, as their experiences may be able to inform programmes used in developing countries.
As caring for chronic diseases is one of the greatest challenges facing health systems in the 21st century, there is a need to better understand what approaches work for whom and in what circumstances. The final reports of a collaborative research effort to identify and validate evaluation methods and performance measures for chronic disease management in Europe help to strengthen the evidence-base required to select efficient and effective interventions to address the growing burden of chronic disease.
A European Cybercrime Centre (ECC) hosted by Europol would bring together input from several different entities and drive a common approach to tackling cybercrime. To gather background evidence for this initiative, RAND Europe researchers visited a number of EU Member States' high tech crime units to better understand their capabilities, conducted interviews with EU-level stakeholders, and held a scenario-based workshop where organisations could discuss the work and impact of an ECC.
Because improving health and social care interventions through integrated care may be one way of addressing the changing needs of the English population, the Department of Health commissioned an evaluation of 16 integrated care pilots. The evaluation revealed that greater integration of care has led to improved care processes, more satisfied staff and reduced use of hospitals. However, some aspects of patient experience were less positive following the pilots and the intended reduction in emergency admissions was not seen.
Hosting the 2012 Olympic Games this summer will place London and the UK at the centre of the world's attention — something that carries with it a wide range of potential security risks. Organizers must learn from the successes and problems of past games in the areas of transportation, infrastructure and security. RAND Europe offers policymakers a methodology that will help foster evidence-based decisions as they finalise security planning for the Games.
Transport for New South Wales (NSW) operates the Sydney Strategic Travel Model (STM) to inform long term transport planning, policy development, and infrastructure assessment in Greater Sydney, Australia. The STM was developed in 1999-2002 and updated and expanded in 2009-10. At the request of the NSW Bureau of Transport Statistics, RAND Europe implemented the new travel frequency, mode, and destination model components of the STM and extended the model scope to include toll road choice for car drivers, and park-and-ride and kiss-and-ride access to train.
Successful delivery of high-quality health research requires not only an effective research base, but also a system of leadership supporting it. However, research leaders are rarely able to attend formal leadership or management training programmes. RAND Europe evaluated the NIHR Leadership Programme and found it is well received by participants and fills an important gap in academic and clinical researchers’ professional development. The evaluation also recommends areas for further improvement.
Cyberspace is increasingly important for economic growth, openness and democracy, but poor cybersecurity can make governments, businesses, and citizens open to cyber attack and cyber crime. RAND Europe has conducted extensive research in various domains relating to cyberspace and has an established track record of advising decisionmakers in a range of areas to help formulate policy relating to cyberspace.
Considering the challenges associated with continued growth and demographic changes, the government of Qatar is interested in updating its school transportation system (STS). RAND Europe helped to assess the perspectives of parents and school administrators, identify a vision for the STS, and discuss strategies to achieve it. The four elements of the vision: providing safe, efficient, and high-quality transportation; enabling mobility and access; supporting Qatari values and culture; and minimizing the impact on traffic congestion and the environment.
In 2010, RAND Europe provided a preliminary overview of the challenges posed by radicalised prisoners, and to explore the potential for radicalisation of young European Muslims in the prison environment. The research, which remains relevant today, draws on the body of existing prison theory literature, historical case examples and contemporary sources. It focuses on the potential in prison for extremist activity, including radicalisation, and highlights a number of areas where further research and action may be desirable.
To understand the factors affecting the wider adoption of electric vehicles, RAND Europe has sponsored a project to evaluate the barriers, as well as relevant government and public-private interventions that have been used in other countries to facilitate adoption. The project team will also conduct a survey to determine the potential uptake of electric vehicles within a municipality, using Cambridge, UK, as a case study.
The EU is faced with two significant challenges: an ageing population that is on the rise, and increasing levels of unemployment in certain countries. RAND Europe examined age management policies and practices in nine EU Member States in relation to the retention of workers aged 50+, overall trends in the employment of these workers, the policy direction before the economic crisis of 2008, and developments after the crisis and their implications for the labour market.
A survey of 172 leaders of the National Health Service (NHS) in England found that there is strong support for delivering a high quality, environmentally sustainable NHS; a firm belief that sustainability is part of delivering corporate goals; and a more general awareness of current NHS policies and practices on sustainability. However, 55% of leaders see organisational culture as a barrier to improving sustainability, with 83% of leaders agreeing that incentives and local diversity are necessary to progress more rapidly towards a sustainable NHS.
Between 15 and 20 percent of hospital emergency readmissions may be avoidable, according to research by RAND Europe and the University of Cambridge. The work, which aimed to inform the NHS Outcomes Framework, however warns that setting a rigid benchmark may be problematic. If rates are to be used for comparison, it will be important to risk-adjust for differences in case-mix between hospitals or departments.
RAND Europe's annual review,
Spotlight 2011, focuses on selected present and past RAND Europe signature research. With 2012 being our 20th anniversary year, the report features some of our most recent work while reflecting on how RAND Europe has developed and remained relevant over the last two decades. It also highlights selected research and corporate activity in 2011.
When it comes to European postal services, it is clear that different market segments have different needs. RAND Europe, in conjunction with Accent and Swiss Economics, undertook a study for the European Commission to help identify consumer needs in relation to postal services. Among the conclusions: big business valued letter services more than did small and medium enterprises or the public, whereas all consumers valued parcel services as well as high levels of reliability and low levels of loss. The research was conducted using stated preference experiments in three countries.
The UK Migration Advisory Committee commissioned RAND Europe to collate evidence on how migration is likely to impact transport networks. Our analysis finds that migrants tend to live in metropolitan areas and make transport choices strongly in favour of public transport, walking, cycling, and car-sharing when they first arrive in the UK; over time, however, their behaviour becomes more similar to the native population. The report also provides monetised estimates of migrants’ transport impacts.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) help to empower citizens and transform economic life. An important policy challenge is to identify and harness the benefits while mitigating the risks created by the new technologies. At the World Bank's request, RAND Europe helped develop a framework for thinking about ICT use in MENA. The report builds on an earlier research which benchmarked indicators for the knowledge economy in the region, analysing associations between indicators of ICT diffusion and development.
UK higher education institutions have developed collaborative relationships with organisations outside the education sector for many years. These cover diverse activities including research, teaching, and project work, and their scale and range has changed significantly over time. RAND Europe and the LFHE analysed recent collaborations to provide recommendations on structuring leadership, management, and governance in order to effectively set up and implement emerging innovative relationships.
Almost 1 percent of the British population has a gambling problem that can affect their families, communities, and themselves. The Responsible Gambling Fund commissioned RAND Europe to 'map the gap' between the available evidence base on gambling-related harm and information needed to inform policy and practice in this area.
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