British Academy Early Career Researcher Network – South West: GW4 awards 9 new seed funding projects

The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (British Academy ECRN) South West Hub Seed Funding Award enables early, innovative activity where ECRs can explore new ideas and partnerships with the aim of securing more substantial funding in the future.

Included among this year’s awards are projects covering the benefits of community football; the relationships between locality, political identity and local government; art-school gallery partnerships, the experiences of romantic fraud victims in Japan; and redefining the chronology and character of the Norman conquest.

The scheme is part of a suite of ECR career development activity, funded by the British Academy and is led by the GW4 Alliance in partnership with the Universities of Bath, Bath Spa, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Gloucestershire, Plymouth and UWE.

The seed funded projects began work in October 2023 and will be funded until end of February 2024.

GW4 Alliance Director, Dr Joanna Jenkinson, said: “The diverse array of this year’s projects highlights the significance of providing opportunities for ECRs to innovate, trial new ideas and create cross-sector research partnerships which can then, in turn, become catalysts for larger projects. The British Academy ECRN Seed Funding Scheme is a vital tool for helping ECRs to realise their potential, and I am thrilled to be able to announce the successful awards for this year’s ECR activities. GW4 look forward to witnessing their progress over the coming 6-months.”

This year’s successful projects are:

How does community football promote social cohesion between British Chinese communities and the UK society?

Dr Bonnie Pang On Hei (Bath University)

In collaboration with The Frank Sao Foundation (a non-profit organisation that aims to promote football engagement within East Asian and Chinese communities in the UK), this project will provide new empirical data on how community football can promote social cohesion between British East Asian and Chinese communities and the UK society.

Dementia Grant Development and Knowledge Exchange: Building Cross-University Partnerships

Dr Catherine Talbot (Bournemouth University)

This project proposes to conduct a research visit at the Institute of Population Health Dementia Research group at the University of Liverpool followed up by hosting remote patient and public involvement activities, with the aim of knowledge exchange and developing research.

Building stakeholder relationships with UK-based East and Southeast Asian community organisations

Dr Xin Zhao  (Bournemouth University)

This project proposes a roundtable discussion with charity participants with the goal of building relationships with stakeholders from four key UK-based East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community organisations.

Redefining the chronology and character of the Norman Conquest

Dr Sean Doherty (University of Exeter)

This is a pilot project that aims to use radiocarbon dating to contextualise the existing textual evidence around the Norman Conquest with archaeological methods.

From Traditional Roots to Virtual Reality: A Techno-Choreographic Study of Yangge

Dr Zhi Xu (Bath Spa University)

Yangge, a Chinese folk dance, stands as the predominant dance of the Han people. This grant aims to facilitate a deep dive into Yangge in Northern China. This endeavour will, for the first time, provide both Eastern and Western nations an opportunity to contextualise Yangge in the technological age.

Lost in Translation?: “International” Romance Fraud in Japan

Dr Yutaka Yoshida (Cardiff University)

This field research project will use life-story interviews with the aim of understanding the experiences of romance fraud victims in Japan.

Research residency at Ritsumeikan University Center for Games Studies, Kyoto, Japan.

Dr Coral Manton (Bath Spa University)

The proposed activity will focus on network building and developing a cross-institutional collaboration with Ritsumeikan University Center for Games Studies in Japan.

Art school-gallery partnerships for a changed world

Dr Nicky Sim (The University of the West of England)

This project aims to build partnerships with cultural organisations and art schools across the UK via interviews and group discussions on learning, teaching and artist development practices.

Local Democracy in a Time of Crisis

Dr Tabitha Baker (Bournemouth University)

The project aims to bring existing research on the relationship between locality, political identity, and local government to life by engaging members of the public sector to participate in the creation of a short film.