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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183 results found
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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
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
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 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
GW4 Muculoskeletal Research Consortium
Initiator
Overview
Key objectives of the consortium include identifying areas of commonality and complementarity, exploring potential shared research infrastructure and facilities, recognising strengths and gaps in our combined research portfolio and exploring potential programmes of research.
Community lead
University of Bath: Richie Gill
University of Bristol: Ashley Blom (PI), Jon Tarlton
Cardiff University: Bruce Caterson
University of Exeter: Andrew Toms
Awarded
May 2015
Harnessing Technology to Develop New Models of Alzheimers Disease
Accelerator
Overview
As a team we have identified some early changes that occur to control how genes are regulated in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. We will investigate how these gene changes might lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
Community lead
University of Bath: Vasanta Subramanian
University of Bristol: James Hodge, Caroline Relton
Cardiff University: Nick Allen
University of Exeter: Katie Lunnon (PI), Jonathan Mill, Jonathan Brown
Awarded
May 2015