Our Communities
To date (June 2021) the GW4 Alliance has invested over £3.1m in 112 collaborative research communities, which have generated nearly £50m in research income. This means that for every £1 GW4 spends on collaborative research communities, GW4 captures an impressive £16 in external research awards.
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 GW4 research communities by keyword or theme. (All communities are also listed below in alphabetical order).
Aerospace and Advanced Engineering
Creative and Cultural Economy
Digital Innovation
Living Well
New Energy Systems
Resilience, Environment and Sustainability
Climate Extremes and Variability – Evaluating the Risks (CLEVER)
INITIATOR Fund
Project period: May – July 2014
GW4 community leads
University of Bath: Nicholas Mitchell
University of Bristol: Dan Lunt
Cardiff University: Ian Hall
University of Exeter: Tim Lenton
Project overview
This project will focus on quantitatively evaluating the risks of extremes in climate and its variability.
Flexible Formwork
INITIATOR FundProject period: May – July 2014 GW4 community leads University of Bath: John Orr Project overview This collaboration will bring together experts in structural engineering, serviceability, materials characterisation, durability, sustainable materials, and composites to consider the specific future research required to fully realise this field. |
Global Challenges ‘Low Carbon Energy Access’ Hub
ACCELERATOR FUND
Project period: July – December 2017
GW4 community leads
University of Bath: Philippe Blondel
University of Bristol: Sam Williamson
Cardiff University: Kersty Hobson (PI)
University of Exeter: Philipp Thies
Project overview
The goal was to bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to build a community around key issues in Low Carbon Energy Access in Overseas Development Assistance Countries, in order to formulate a proposal to be taken forward to the forthcoming RCUK collective fund interdisciplinary hub call.
GW4 Centre of Excellence in the Built Environment
INITIATOR Fund
Project period: September 2015 – January 2016
GW4 community leads
University of Bath: Dr Mike Lawrence, Professor Pete Walker
University of Bristol: Dr Wendel Sebastian
Cardiff University: Professor Chris Tweed, Professor Yacine Rezgui
University of Exeter: Dr Matthew Eames
Project overview
We will focus on embodied carbon, predicted to account for more than 95% of total construction related emissions by the 2020s. CO2 emissions are generated at all stages of a building’s life cycle.
GW4 Environmental Humanities
INITIATOR FundProject period: October 2014 – January 2015 GW4 community leadsUniversity of Bath: Axel Goodbody |
GW4 Software-Intensive Research
Accelerator Fund
Project period: September 2017 – December 2018
GW4 community leads
University of Bath: James Davenport (PI)
University of Bristol: Simon McIntosh-Smith
Cardiff University: Peter Knowles
University of Exeter: David Acreman
Project overview
GW4 have been awarded £3M of EPSRC capital funding to purchase Isambard, an innovative high-performance computer (HPC) for use by the GW4 universities, the Met Office (where the machine is housed) and the wider UK Community to explore innovative HPC, in particular the use of HPC based on UK-designed ARM processors rather than Intel processors, which power the overwhelming majority of HPCs currently.
GW4 Synthetic Biology Showcase
INITIATOR FundProject period: May – July 2014 GW4 community leadsUniversity of Bath: David Leak Project overviewSynthetic biology is the application of engineering principles to the understanding and design of biological systems. It is an inherently multidisciplinary research area covering a broad range of challenges including biofuels and bioenergy, the transition towards a bioeconomy, medical and health-care advances, food security and advanced materials manufacture. |
Nanoscale Sensors for Healthcare and the Environment [NANOSENSE]
Accelerator Fund
Project period: October 2014 – April 2015
GW4 community leads
University of Bath: Philip Shields, Duncan Allsopp
University of Bristol: Martin Cryan (PI)
Cardiff University: Peter Smowton
University of Exeter: Geoff Nash
Project overview
This community will bring together overlapping synergies in nanoscale device fabrication, design and measurement to develop a radically new set of multifunctional sensors that will make a major impact in a range of sensing applications.