All communities are listed below in alphabetical order, 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 £3.2M in 105 collaborative research communities, which have generated £63.4M in research income. This means that for every £1 GW4 spends on collaborative research communities, GW4 captures an impressive £20 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
161 results found
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Reconceptualising Conflict and Peace Building – New Ideas & Actors in a Changing World
Initiator
Overview
This project responds to evolving global challenges relating to insecurity, inequality and shifting global power relations. Peace building is becoming increasingly central to global development policy, as demonstrated by its inclusion on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
Community lead
University of Bath: Oliver Walton (PI), Althea Rivas
University of Bristol: Ryerson Christie
Cardiff University: Elisa Wynne-Hughes
University of Exeter: John Heathershaw
Awarded
September 2015
Reconceptualising Participation & Inclusion in Higher Education
Initiator
Overview
The community aimed to consolidate a network of researchers and practitioners across GW4 with a research focus on the nature of participation of disadvantaged students in higher education.
Community lead
University of Bath: Andrea Abbas (PI)
University of Bristol: Sue Timmis
Cardiff University: David James
University of Exeter: Deborah Osberg
Awarded
September 2015
South West Quantum Dot Quantum Technologies Project
Accelerator
Overview
We aim to establish a focused research group on the theme of QD quantum technologies, using the expertise of the GW4 institutions to explore enabling solutions. As a short-term goal within the present project lifetime we will focus on practical solutions for QD technology.
Community lead
University of Bath: Peter Moseley
University of Bristol: Ruth Oulton (PI)
Cardiff University: Wolfgang Langbein
University of Exeter: Janet Anders
Awarded
September 2015
The Evidence Information Service Promoting GW4 Research on Evidence Based Policy
Initiator
Overview
The overarching aim of this research is to determine the utility and feasibility of establishing a new UK Evidence Information Service (EIS). The primary goal of EIS would be to act as a rapid matchmaker to connect the UK academic community and policy makers (including parliamentarians) in the service of evidence-based public policy.
Community lead
University of Bath: Hannah Durrant, Julie Barnett
University of Bristol: Deborah Wilson, Georgina Brereton, Alexia MacDonald
Cardiff University: Andrew Kythreotis (PI), Chris Chambers, Gerard O’Grady
University of Exeter: Natalia Lawrence
Awarded
September 2015
URL – Understanding Religion & Law
Initiator
Overview
URL will examine the past interaction of religion and law, exploring how they have inspired modern legal systems, and how debates around their relationship might be better informed.
Community lead
University of Bath: Scott Thomas
University of Bristol: Julian Rivers
Cardiff University: Norman Doe
University of Exeter: Robert Gleave (PI)
Awarded
September 2015
Building a GW4 Clinical Academic Training Community
Initiator
Overview
By creating a vibrant cohort of young talented clinical academics across GW4 we will significantly enhance our collective abilities to translate our basic biomedical and population health research into an impact on patient care.
Community lead
University of Bath: Stephen Ward
University of Bristol: Jeremy Tavaré (PI)
Cardiff University: Paul Morgan
University of Exeter: Angela Shore
Awarded
May 2015
Centre for Corporate Governance & Social Responsibility (CGSR)
Initiator
Overview
Our aim was to establish a world-leading multi-disciplinary research centre, The Centre for Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility (CGSR) across the Alliance.
Community lead
University of Bath: Ian Tonks
University of Bristol: Paula Hill (PI)
Cardiff University: Jason Xiao
University of Exeter: Rajesh Tharyan
Awarded
May 2015
Controlling Nucleation & Growth to Deliver Novel Materials Functionality
Accelerator
Overview
The aim of our interdisciplinary community is to take an integrative approach combining theoretical modelling, experiments and simulations to advance the state of the art in nucleation and crystallization theory.
Community lead
University of Bath: Johannes Zimmer (PI)
University of Bristol: Isaac Chenchiah
Cardiff University: Stefano Leoni
University of Exeter: David Wright
Awarded
May 2015
Dying with Reduced Agency – People, Places, Principles & Policy
Accelerator
Overview
Demographic, technological, organisational, political and social changes create new challenges at the end of life. This GW4 community is focused on understanding and improving the end of life for the growing number of people with reduced agency (e.g. linked to dementia, disorders of consciousness or frailty/chronic conditions in advanced old age).
Community lead
University of Bath: Jeremy Dixon
University of Bristol: Richard Huxtable
Cardiff University: Jenny Kitzinger (PI)
University of Exeter: Linda Clare
Awarded
May 2015
GW4 Bio-X
Initiator
Overview
GW4 Bio-X exists to identify, frame and address the ‘unanswerable’ biological questions using ‘breaking’ and ‘in development’ methods, models and tools from the physical sciences. Our community is in place to make GW4 the national powerhouse in innovative, molecular bioscience and to develop novel capacity and capability.
Community lead
University of Bath: Christopher R Pudney (PI)
University of Bristol: Adrian Mulholland
Cardiff University: Rudolf Allemann
University of Exeter: Christian Soeller
Awarded
May 2015