Real-world impact
Beyond the page, where our research changes practice.
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Consumer safety & industry
HIPER changed how cycle helmets are bought and sold.
HIPER is HEAD Lab's public cycle helmet safety rating, grounded in scientific knowledge of road traffic accidents and brain biomechanics. It launched in September 2024 and 60+ popular bicycle helmets have since been rated to the HIPER procedure. It has achieved:
- 80,000+ views in the first two months, most from the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and Germany.
- Retailers reduced the price of best-performing helmets in response to the rating to make them more accessible.
- Helmet manufacturers reached out to HIPER to make their future designs safer.
- Road Safety Trust granted another large funding to extend the rating to children's helmets.
- Won the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for rigour and real-world impact.
- The underpinning journal paper accessed 20,000+ times and won the 2024 Best Research Article of Annals of Biomedical Engineering.
- A key factor in receiving Imperial College President's Excellence Award for Research Impact.
- Winner of the Dyson School of Design Engineering "Research Impact Award".
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Policy & guidelines
Our modelling was a factor in World Rugby updating its return-to-play protocol.
Research from the lab showed that loss of consciousness after a head impact is best explained by strain on brainstem regions that govern arousal, reframing how return-to-play risk is assessed.
- The evidence was among the factors considered by World Rugby's independent Concussion Working Group review.
- The review contributed to an evolved Graduated Return to Play protocol that mandates extended stand-down for players showing loss of consciousness.
- World Rugby is the sport's global governing body; the protocol applies across its member unions and elite/international competitions.
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Standards & aviation
UK aircrew helmet standards now assess brain rotation, for the first time.
Our brain injury biomechanics research provided evidence used to incorporate rotational-kinematics assessment into UK aircrew helmet standards for the first time (MAHIS v3, 2026).
- Applies to RAF and other UK aircrew helmet procurement and certification.
- Helmet manufacturers have already started revising their designs to meet the new requirements.
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Standards & industry
We contributed to a new European standard for measuring head rotation.
Working with CEN/TC158 Working Group 11, we contributed to the development of EN 17950:2024, including a new headform with a more biofidelic coefficient of friction and moments of inertia for oblique (rotational) impact testing, addressing a key limitation of legacy standard headforms.
- EN 17950:2024 specifies this headform for measuring head rotational kinematics in helmet shock-absorption testing.
- This paves the way for rotational-kinematics measurement to be adopted more widely across helmet standards.
- We have already incorporated the new headform into HIPER, our own cycle helmet rating.
- The headform has been adopted by the UK aircrew helmet standard, MAHIS v3.
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Road safety policy
Our e-scooter research fed into UK and international safety recommendations.
Our computational modelling study modelled head-ground impact in e-scooter falls, examining how travel speed, road surface condition, and rider's size and weight affected head injury risk.
- Formed part of the evidence base for the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) report to the UK government, which recommended the use of helmets by e-scooter riders.
- Cited in road-safety policy documents in two other nations, Norway and Sweden.
- Referenced by the European Transport Safety Council in its recommendations on e-scooter safety.
Awards & recognition
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2026
Dyson School of Design Engineering PhD Impact Award
Dr Alasdair Mackay — for improving safety standards for military aircrew helmets
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2026
Imperial College President's Excellence Award for Research Impact
Prof Mazdak Ghajari
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2025
Prince Michael International Road Safety Award
HEAD Lab — for HIPER
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2025
Best Research Article of the Year, Annals of Biomedical Engineering
HEAD Lab — for the HIPER paper
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2025
Design Engineering Research Impact Award
HEAD Lab — Imperial College London
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2023
Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship
Prof Mazdak Ghajari — in Brain Injury Biomechanics
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2023
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI for Science Fellowship
Dr Claire Baker — now a Principal Investigator at HEAD Lab
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2023
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI Fellowship & Lectureship
Dr Xiancheng Yu
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2021
Dr Fady Abayazid — Annals of Biomedical Engineering
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2013
Imperial College Junior Research Fellowship
Prof Mazdak Ghajari
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2009
Young Researcher Award
Prof Mazdak Ghajari — International Research Council of the Biomechanics of Injury