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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Funds
Types
The Role of Science in Society and Policy
Initiator
Overview
This project sought to create the platform for a national and international cross-disciplinary effort to study ways in which the role of science in society can be valued and evolve and in which controversial findings can be better communicated and debated.
Community lead
University of Bath: Anna Gilmore (Co-PI), David Miller
University of Bristol: Stephan Lewandowsky (PI)
Cardiff University: Lorraine Whitmarsh
University of Exeter: Jason Reifler
Awarded
October 2014
Biomimetic Assemblies of Complex Functional Material in Hierarchical Structures
Accelerator
Overview
The research programme is based on the preparation of hierarchical layered materials deposited with a new state-of-the-art facility; Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).
Community lead
University of Bath: Enrico Da Como (PI)
University of Bristol: Simon Hall
Cardiff University: Wolfgang Langbein
University of Exeter: David Wright
Awarded
October 2014
The Impact of Offshore Windfarms on Marine Organisms
Initiator
Overview
The community aimed to bring together an interdisciplinary team of GW4 researchers capable of substantially advancing knowledge of the impacts of offshore renewables.
Community lead
University of Bath: Phillipe Blondeli
University of Bristol: Andy Radford, Daniel Robert
Cardiff University: Roger Falconer
University of Exeter: Rick Bruintjes (PI), Steve Simpson, Darren Croft, Matt Witt, Phillipp Thies
Awarded
May 2014
Synbio Showcase and Strategy Meeting
Initiator
Overview
This project brought together GW4 researchers and key stakeholders in a showcase and networking event, and established a GW4 Synthetic Biology Strategy Group for leading future cross-institute collaborations.
Community lead
University of Bath: David Leak
University of Bristol: Paul Race
Cardiff University: Dafydd Jones
University of Exeter: Thomas Howard (PI)
Awarded
May 2014
Health-Related Behaviour Change Interventions
Initiator
Overview
We aimed to establish a GW4 inter-disciplinary community of researchers interested in developing state-of-the-art interventions to generate long-lasting behaviour changes to improve health.
Community lead
University of Bath: Fiona Gillison, Afroditi Stathi, Julie Barnett
University of Bristol: Anne Haase, Simon Sebire, Russ Jago
Cardiff University: Sharon Simpson, Graham Moore
University of Exeter: Jane R Smith (PI), Charles Abraham, Colin Greaves
Awarded
May 2014
Paramagnetic Species for Catalysis and Materials Applications
Initiator
Overview
The community brought together investigators from GW4 with overlapping, yet wide-ranging interests that relate to paramagnetism, in order to tackle big-scale, high-risk high-reward problems in the field.
Community lead
University of Bath: Mike Whittlesey (PI)
University of Bristol: Robin Bedford
Cardiff University: Damien Murphy
Awarded
May 2014
Addressing Gender Based Violence
Initiator
Overview
This community aimed to create a concrete network of GW4 Gender Based Violence researchers to build on existing links across GW4 and identify new and innovative collaborative research opportunities.
Community lead
University of Bath: Tina Skinner
University of Bristol: Marianne Hester (PI)
Cardiff University: Amanda Robinson
University of Exeter: Anthony Musson
Awarded
May 2014
GW4 Epigenetics Consortium
Initiator
Overview
We aimed to establish a GW4 Epigenetics Consortium that capitalised on the complementary strengths in clinical, population-based and experimental research conducted in this general domain at GW4 institutions.
Community lead
University of Bath: Andrew Ward, Adele Murrell
University of Bristol: Caroline Relton (PI), Matthew Hickman
Cardiff University: Anthony Isles, Stan Zammit
University of Exeter: Jonathan Mill, Katie Lunnon
Awarded
May 2014
Advancing the State of Damage Detection in Metallic and Composite Structures
Initiator
Overview
The aim of this research is to advance the state of the art in damage detection in metallic and composite structures by enabling a modular system approach utilising energy harvesting and wireless communication for industrial applications.
Community lead
University of Bath: Alicia King
University of Bristol: Stephen Hallett
Cardiff University: Carol Featherston (PI)
University of Exeter: Meiling Zhu
Awarded
May 2014
Composite for Enhanced Lightning Performance
Initiator
Overview
The project aimed to create a GW4 consortium specialising in lightning tolerant composites and coatings, material characterisation and lightning research which could be offered to industry as a key part of the EMC3 Network.
Community lead
University of Bath: Richard Butler
University of Bristol: Fabrizio Scarpa
Cardiff University: Manu Haddad (PI)
University of Exeter: Chris Smith
Awarded
May 2014