All communities are listed below in date order (newest first), and can be searched using key words or fund type.
Our “Featured Communities” are from the most recent round of Generator funding.
Our Communities
Our communities
The GW4 Building Communities Programme aims to build research and innovation communities of scale and capability, delivering a step change in world-class research that could not be achieved by one of the institutions alone. The Programme has two funding schemes:
- The annual Generator Fund which awards GW4 communities up to £20K for 6 month projects (launched in 2020). This replaced the Initiator (up to £20K for 5 months) and Accelerator (up to £75K for 8 months) funding schemes, which ran from 2014 – 2019.
- The Development Awards which support new, and advance existing, collaborations across GW4 by funding single activities or resources with up to £5K. This is a rolling scheme, with no closing date.
More details of both schemes, and how to apply, can be found at the links above.
Building Communities funding supports both the creation of new GW4 communities and the development of the strongest ideas emerging from our existing communities, and is open to any academic area. To date, the GW4 Alliance has invested over £3.4M in 125 collaborative research communities, which have generated £87M in research income. This means that for every £1 GW4 spends on collaborative research communities, GW4 captures an impressive £25 in external research awards.
Research integrity
The GW4 Alliance has adopted the Russell Group Research Integrity Statement of cooperation in cross-institutional research misconduct allegations, which aims to support the efforts of researcher communities to foster research integrity (also known as good practice in research or the responsible conduct of research).
Explore our communities
Featured Communities
All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries with cellulose enhanced solid polymer electrolytes (ALLIANCE)
STEM
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Young people’s self-harm and suicidal behaviour: Developing qualitative research to understand the influence of context and culture
HASS
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Fabrication and Testbed Network for Next-Generation Optical Brain Computer Interfacing
STEM
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Physical, psychological and social factors influencing musculoskeletal injury and wellbeing in Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional students
STEM
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188 results found
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GW4 Epilepsy Community
Development Award
Overview
This project aims to develop a multi-disciplinary, cross-GW4 community to work at the cutting edge of researching, modelling, diagnosing, monitoring and treating epilepsy, using parallel human and fly genetics, electrophysiology, modelling and drug screens.
Community lead
University of Bath: Alain Nogaret
University of Bristol: James Hodge (PI), Sam Amin
Cardiff University: Jack Underwood
University of Exeter: Doretta Caramaschi
External partner: Susan Smith (UCL)
Awarded
February 2025
ReproWell Research Network
Development Award
Overview
Reproductive and mental health are intricately and intrinsically linked, but the relationship is under-appreciated and under-researched. The overarching aim of this project is to use innovative digital methods and molecular data to address pressing questions about the intersection of women’s reproductive health and mental health at different life-stages from adolescence to menopause.
Community lead
Exeter: Gemma Sharp (PI), Antoinette Davey, Sarah Dean, Emma Pitchforth, Jennifer Lay, Helen Dawes, Deepthi Lavu, Vicky Stiles
Bristol: Carol Joinson, Sarah Sullivan, Andy Skinner, Jon Heron, Becky Mars, Anya Skatova, Laura Howe, Lucy Beasant, Abi Fraser, Annie Herbert, Alice James
Cardiff: Jacky Boivin, Jessica Yang, Sofia Gameiro, Robyn Jackowich
Bath: Mel Channon, Emma Fisher
Awarded
January 2025
GW4 Mental Capacity, Risk and Autonomy
Development Award
Overview
How should the need to protect adults with care and support needs from harm be balanced against their rights to individual autonomy in social care settings? How should social care professionals and services respond to this dilemma? The challenges of balancing safety against autonomy (in the Mental Capacity Act) when protecting adults with care and support needs from harmful influences or dangerous behaviour have been recognized by the Court of Protection. However there isn't always agreement on how services should reconcile these two sometimes contradictory imperatives. The aim of our project is to combine our collective expertise to rapidly understand the research landscape on balancing autonomy and safety for people with mental health problems in social care settings, and to use this to work towards better understanding and practice.
Community lead
Bath: Sally Hewlett
Bristol: Judy Laing
Cardiff: Jeremy Dixon (PI)
Exeter: David Francis Hunt
Awarded
January 2025
Living Human Brain Tissue Network
Development Award
Overview
Every day in hospitals across the South West region, patients undergo surgery to remove pieces of their brain as part of their treatment, mostly for cancer or epilepsy. In most cases, much of the tissue that is removed is simply discarded because it is not required for clinical reasons. This excess brain tissue, which usually includes some healthy access tissue, is a unique and hugely valuable resource that could underpin new research into the workings of the human brain.
Community lead
Bristol: Michael Ashby (PI), James Hodge, Jack Mellor
Cardiff: William Gray
Exeter: Rosemary Bamford, Jonathan Witton, Nick Clifton, Doretta Caramaschi, Wendy Noble
Awarded
January 2025
Enriching cognitive tasks with behavioural measures for mental health (ECoBeM)
Development Award
Overview
This project aims to create a new network of researchers who use behavioural or cognitive measures (e.g. questionnaires, assessments and tasks) to help understand or characterise mental health dysfunctions. Currently the methods used to collect these types of data can be time-consuming or require particular training, while many have a tendancy to be unspecific, unsensitive and lack repeatability. These limitations are holding back the field of behavioural and cognitive dysfunction research, and this community brings together key people to answer the problem by identifying and driving solutions and improvements.
Community lead
Bristol: Emma Cahill, James Hodge, Emma Robinson, Sarah Sullivan
Cardiff: Aline Bompas (PI), Jeremy Hall, Neil Harrison, Sophie Legge, Amy Lynham, Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, Petroc Sumner
Exeter: Silvana Mareva, Piotr Slowinski
Bath: Katherine Button, Tom Lancaster, Karin Petrini
Awarded
January 2025
Forcibly Displaced Students in Higher Education
Development Award
Overview
This project will focus on the challenges faced by Forcibly Displaced Students (e.g. asylum seekers and refugees) around higher education, especially progressing from higher education into their chosen careers. The research community will conduct a literature review and hold a grant-writing retreat with the aim of applying for a large external grant to scale up their work in this area.
Community lead
University of Bath: Katharina Lenner
University of Bristol: Lisa Lucas
Cardiff University: Sin Yi Cheung
University of Exeter: Nick Gill (PI)
Awarded
January 2025
GW4 Nutriomics for Brain Health
Development Award
Overview
It is well known that poor nutrition may contribute to development of chronic diseases like ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric diseases. The foods we eat play an important role in regulating many processes including brain development, mood and cognition. In other words, a healthy, balanced diet supports a healthy brain. This Development Award project aims to develop a world-leading research collaboration to explore the pathways between nutrition and mental health, by linking experts in genetics, epidemiology, and cellular neuroscience, with particular focus on the role of omega-3 fatty acids in psychiatric disorders.
Community lead
University of Bath: Tom Lancaster
University of Bristol: Rebecca Carnegie (PI), Carolina Borges, Nic Timpson
Cardiff University: Karolina Dec (PI), Jeremy Hall (PI)
University of Exeter: Nicholas Clifton
Awarded
January 2025
Exploring Pathways to Children and Young People’s Mental Health
Development Award
Overview
This project will build an interdisciplinary community of researchers across the GW4 alliance with a shared passion for improving the mental health and well-being of children and young people.
Community lead
University of Bath: Jennifer Allen (PI), Lindsey Hines, Rachel Wilder
University of Bristol: Carol Joinson, Andrea Santangelo, Jon Heron, Naomi Warne
Cardiff University: Kelly Morgan, Sam Garay, Honor Young, Safia Ouerghi
University of Exeter: Doretta Caramaschi, Cassandra Lowe, Antoinette Davey, Silvana Mareva, Gemma Sharp, Siobhan Mitchell
Awarded
December 2024
GW4 Animal Replacement Network
Development Award
Overview
Animal replacement technology offers new scientific approaches to reduce or remove the need to use animals in research, while maintaining scientific integrity. The aim of this GW4 community is to establish a network focused on advancing animal replacement technologies.
Community lead
University of Bath: Ed Carter
University of Bristol: Asme Boussahel (PI)
Cardiff University: Hazel Hall-Roberts, Naledi Formosa
University of Exeter: Junning Chen
External partner: David Coe, CoED Biosciences
Awarded
September 2024
GW4 Sustainable Finance Network
Development Award
Overview
The project will create a network of researchers from the disciplines of finance and environmental sciences, organising seminars and workshops, with the ultimate aim of shaping policy for the transition towards a sustainable economy.
Community lead
University of Bath: Dr Xiaohan Xue (PI); Dr. Chenchen Huang; Dr. Winifred Huang; Dr. Hanwen Sun; Dr. Ru Xie
University of Exeter: Dr. Wei Xin; Professor Chendi Zhang
Cardiff University: Dr. Onur Tosun; Professor Qingwei Wang
University of Bristol: Professor Neslihan Ozkan; Dr. Fangming Xu
Awarded
July 2024