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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178 results found
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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
BeDMaSH Behavioural & Decision Making Sciences in Healthcare
Initiator
Overview
This multidisciplinary network brings together expertise from across Operational Research, Decision Sciences, Mathematics, Psychology, Sociology, Implementation Science, Organisational Studies and Public Health to address new methods in understanding and modelling behaviours and decision making in the whole healthcare system.
Community lead
University of Bath: Christos Vasilakis
University of Bristol: Iain Gilchrist
Cardiff University: Paul Harper (PI)
University of Exeter: Martin Pitt
Awarded
September 2015
Centre for Media & Criminal Justice Studies
Initiator
Overview
Our research community brings together academics from the social sciences, arts, and humanities to understand the production, distribution, and reception of as-live courtroom footage. From this we aim to identify how courtroom broadcasting might influence public confidence, trust, and knowledge about criminal justice.
Community lead
University of Bath: Sarah Moore (PI)
University of Bristol: Alex Clayton, Eleanor Rycroft
Cardiff University: Inaki Garcia-Blanco
University of Exeter: Sarah Cooper
Awarded
September 2015
GW4 Centre of Excellence in the Built Environment
Initiator
Overview
This community addressed the need to reduce global carbon emissions, focusing on embodied carbon: the carbon produced from the construction, maintenance and eventual destruction of a building.
Community lead
University of Bath: Mike Lawrence (PI), Pete Walker
University of Bristol: Wendel Sebastian
Cardiff University: Chris Tweed, Yacine Rezgui
University of Exeter: Matthew Eames
Awarded
September 2015
GW4 Consortium for the Analysis of Intensively Collected Health Data
Initiator
Overview
The community aimed to build a GW4 community of statisticians, mathematicians, data scientists and epidemiologists who are developing and applying methods for analysing intensively collected data.
Community lead
University of Bath: Nicole Augustin
University of Bristol: Kate Tilling (PI)
Cardiff University: Kerry Hood
University of Exeter: William Henley
Awarded
September 2015
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