Incubator Event: Longitudinal Phenotypic and Molecular Profile of Mental Health Trajectories in GW4 Doctoral Students

Project overview

To facilitate the development of this research proposal the team hosted an ‘Incubator event’ to springboard the study forward to the next stage by developing a wide network of collaborators and refining the project design prior to writing a larger grant for funding (e.g. Wellcome Trust or MRC). The initial research program grant will focus on generating pilot data from two GW4 institutions, University of Exeter and University of Bristol and forging multi-disciplinary collaborations.

Community lead

University of Bath: Pete Rouse

University of Bristol: Diana Dos Santos Ferreira, Sarah Sullivan

University of Exeter: Therese Murphy (PI)

Awarded

September 2017

The research team held an Incubator Event on 30 November 2017 at the University of Exeter (UoE). The event was attended by representatives from: the UoE wellbeing services; the UoE Student Union Guild; and doctoral colleges at UoBr and UoE. Stakeholders provided feedback on the project and PhD students completed a ten-section questionnaire about their willingness to volunteer in the study, critical times of increased stress during their PhD and feedback on proposed phenotypic measurements.

As a result of the incubator event the group established a scientific committee for future grant proposals with all four members of the seed funding group, Doctoral College representations from UoBr and UoE, Mark Sawyer from Wellbeing Services at UoE and PhD students. The group is planning on applying for funding to further develop their research.