GW4 October Newsletter 2024
Welcome to the GW4 Newsletter: your digest of GW4 news, funding and development opportunities. To subscribe to the Newsletter, please click here.
Director's Update:
We’ve been thrilled in recent months to see several of our researchers succeed in their joint funding bids. In August, GW4 researchers were awarded a total of £1.5m by BBSRC for the procurement of a new cryo-FIB-SEM, which will be located at the £2.3m GW4 Facility for High-Resolution Electron Cryo-Microscopy, in Bristol. Alongside this, researchers from the University of Exeter also secured £1.1million from BBSRC to replace their current cryo-EM. More on this in the newsletter.
Meanwhile, in a project led by the University of Bath, in partnership with the universities of Bristol and Exeter, GW4 researchers secured £11m for the development of a new Mental Health Research Group which will focus on tackling the mental health challenges experienced by young people.
September was a big month across our Health and Wellbeing portfolio, with the GW4 Mental Health Research Network gathering together in Bristol for their inaugural Bid Development and Networking Workshop. The two-day workshop, which was attended by around 100 researchers, sought to address the pressing challenges facing mental health research by encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue and the development of innovative projects. We were delighted to receive a total of nine Development Award applications as a direct result of the event.
We have also seen a continued expansion across our Public Affairs and Campaigns function. In September, GW4 attended both the Great South West and Labour Party Conferences, showcasing the work of the Alliance, and the impact of our region, to government and industry stakeholder groups. As part of this, we produced a new film to showcase some of GW4’s work, across our four strategic priorities. You can watch the film in our newsletter or on YouTube.
This month we were delighted to be the academic partner for the Western Gateway Convention. Our academic experts joined speakers from business, local leaders and Government to discuss how we can develop an economy fit for the future and ensure inclusive sustainable growth.
I'll leave you with the exciting news that the 2024/25 GW4 Open Research Prize is now open and, as we look ahead to November, I'm pleased to announce that we will soon be launching a new round of the GW4 Generator Fund. Stay tuned for more details and opportunities to get involved.
