Scottish Women's Rights Centre project listed in Knowledge Exchange Awards

The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre, a collaborative project in Glasgow that has provided legal information, advice and representation to over 1,000 women affected by violence and abuse, has been shortlisted in the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2019.

A partnership between social justice advisers JustRight Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland and University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, the SWRC was hailed when it was set up in 2015 as the first specialist legal advice service for Scottish survivors of gender-based violence. It aims to ensure that women in Scotland who have or are experiencing gender-based violence are able to access timely and appropriate legal advice and information.

Beginning with a twice weekly helpline and weekly surgeries in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, it has since won additional funding to employ full time solicitors, based in Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness, and a full time advocacy support worker, along with providing additional helpline hours.

It has been shortlisted in the category "Making a difference", for a collaborative business-academic project that has produced significant social or environmental impacts that ultimately contribute towards a better, fairer and more sustainable future. The other two finalist projects are Scene Connect Ltd, Edinburgh, with Heriot-Watt University for creating a new software-hardware system for farmers in India to control irrigation levels, and Dynamic Coast, a project led by Scottish Natural Heritage with the University of Glasgow, aimed at improving understanding of coastal planning.

Knowledge exchange is a sharing of expertise, ideas and evidence between businesses and universities or research institutions. The businesses learn from academic input, but equally the universities can benefit from their experience of working with businesses and organisations in helping them resolve real-life issues.