The Centre for Translational Research in Law (CTRL) is a Newcastle Law School led centre for the translation of legal research from academic into a policy oriented user-friendly form. Led by Dr Sylvia de Mars and Professor Colin Murray, CTRL will harness Newcastle Law School’s experience in policy and engagement to offer training to scholars interested in engaging with policy making across public, private and third sectors.

Translational Research and Law

Translational research in biological and medical sciences describes  the process of taking pure research results and turning them into, or translating them into, direct benefits to humans.  It is a form of applied research that is sometimes described as “bed to bedside” – moving findings from a laboratory to direct human interaction in the form of patient care.

CTRL focuses on the same applied process but situates it in legal research instead – “library to legislature” (or private/third sector), rather than “bed to bedside”.  CTRL trains legal scholarsin how to engage in both the type and style of research that policymakers connect with.

Many academics do work that could easily lead to engagement and impact, but simply do not know how to engage with sectors beyond academia; CTRL’s core function is to start enabling this through a variety of means.