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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Types
Remediating the Archive
Initiator
Overview
‘Remediating the Network’ proposes to build a research community based in the intersection of two key areas of strength within GW4: archives/special collections and the digital humanities.
Community lead
University of Bath: Nina Parish
University of Bristol: Leah Tether, James Freeman
Cardiff University: Anthony Mandal (PI), Jenny Kidd
University of Exeter: Gabriella Giannachi, Gary Stringer
Awarded
July 2016
The Evidence Information Service Promoting GW4 Research on Evidence-Based Policy
Accelerator
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 (replaced AK as PI), Gerard O’Grady
University of Exeter: Natalia Lawrence
Awarded
July 2016
Pre-Clinical Translational Biomedical Research Network
Initiator
Overview
We offer a unique pipeline of pre-clinical research models highly relevant to human disease and anatomy and state-of-the-art research equipment, with more than 150 biomedical scientists and experts.
Community lead
University of Bath: Tony Perry, Richard Gill
University of Bristol: Raimondo Ascione (PI)
Cardiff University: Chris Marshall, Derek Jones
University of Exeter: John Terry
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Astrophysics Community
Initiator
Overview
This project aims to build closer collaboration between the GW4 astrophysics groups. The primary aim is to enhance our impact in the large partnerships that are building the next generation of astronomical observatories, in addition to improving our efficiency by working together.
Community lead
University of Bath: Carole Mundell
University of Bristol: Malcolm Bremer
Cardiff University: Jonathan Davies
University of Exeter: Tim Naylor (PI)
Awarded
February 2016
New Paradigms of Social Protection – Policies, Impacts & Outcomes
Initiator
Overview
This project aims to build an interdisciplinary GW4 community around the international and comparative study of social protection in regions of the world that are often left under-explored in academic research: the Middle East and North Africa, East and South East Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Community lead
University of Bath: Rana Jawad
University of Bristol: Patricia Kennett
Cardiff University: Rod Hick
Awarded
February 2016
The GW4 Pay Equality Research Consortium (PERC)
Accelerator
Overview
PERC will undertake a feasibility study for the development and operation of a secure sustainable pay data collection platform, which would facilitate multi-level research.
Community lead
University of Bath: Susan Milner (PI after CW)
University of Bristol: Gregory Schwartz
Cardiff University: Alison Parken, Rhys Davies
University of Exeter: Carol Woodhams (initial PI), Emma Jeanes
Awarded
February 2016
The Incentives for Conflict & Cooperation
Initiator
Overview
Our GW4 community aims to tackle both the methodological challenges in bringing game theory to bear on economic and political issues where there can be conflict or cooperation, and applying the lessons learned to relevant policy debates.
Community lead
University of Bath: Peter Postl
University of Bristol: Francesco Giovannoni (PI)
Cardiff University: Indrajit Ray
University of Exeter: Rajiv Sarin
Awarded
February 2016
Children and Young People’s Suicide & Self-Harm Research Collaboration
Accelerator
Overview
The collaboration specifically focuses on a key evidence gap, namely the dearth of effective programmes available to schools and their staff in supporting students at risk of self-harm.
Community lead
University of Bath: Paul Stallard
University of Bristol: David Gunnell, Judi Kidger, Becky Mars, Lucy Biddle
Cardiff University: Rhiannon Evans (PI), Jonathan Scourfield, Nina Jacob
University of Exeter: Tamsin Ford, Astrid Janssens, Christabel Owens
Awarded
February 2016
Developing a Novel Biological Imaging Tool for Biomedical Applications
Accelerator
Overview
We aim to tackle the most fundamental challenge in modern protein science by developing a way to see changes in protein structure and flexibility inside cells.
Community lead
University of Bath: Christopher R Pudney (PI), Ventsi Valev
University of Cardiff: Dafydd Jones
University of Exeter: Christian Soeller
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Biosensor Network
Initiator
Overview
The GW4 Biosensor Network will bring together researchers from different disciplines with an interest on biosensors. Biosensors measure chemical or biological molecules in complex samples (e.g. blood, water, air) for a wide range of applications including medical diagnosis, monitoring of therapies, personalised medicine, drug discovery and water quality control.
Community lead
University of Bath: Pedro Estrela (PI)
University of Bristol: Mervyn Miles
Cardiff University: Niklaas Buurma
University of Exeter: Peter Winlove
Awarded
February 2016