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
Maritime Advancements through Research and Innovation in Powertrains and Power Systems (MARINPOWER)
STEM
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39 results found
GW4 Mental Capacity, Risk and Autonomy
Development Award
Overview
How should the need to protect adults with care and support needs from harm be balanced against their rights to individual autonomy in social care settings? How should social care professionals and services respond to this dilemma? The challenges of balancing safety against autonomy (in the Mental Capacity Act) when protecting adults with care and support needs from harmful influences or dangerous behaviour have been recognized by the Court of Protection. However there isn't always agreement on how services should reconcile these two sometimes contradictory imperatives. The aim of our project is to combine our collective expertise to rapidly understand the research landscape on balancing autonomy and safety for people with mental health problems in social care settings, and to use this to work towards better understanding and practice.
Community lead
Bath: Sally Hewlett
Bristol: Judy Laing
Cardiff: Jeremy Dixon (PI)
Exeter: David Francis Hunt
Awarded
January 2025
Living Human Brain Tissue Network
Development Award
Overview
Every day in hospitals across the South West region, patients undergo surgery to remove pieces of their brain as part of their treatment, mostly for cancer or epilepsy. In most cases, much of the tissue that is removed is simply discarded because it is not required for clinical reasons. This excess brain tissue, which usually includes some healthy access tissue, is a unique and hugely valuable resource that could underpin new research into the workings of the human brain.
Community lead
Bristol: Michael Ashby (PI), James Hodge, Jack Mellor
Cardiff: William Gray
Exeter: Rosemary Bamford, Jonathan Witton, Nick Clifton, Doretta Caramaschi, Wendy Noble
Awarded
January 2025
Enriching cognitive tasks with behavioural measures for mental health (ECoBeM)
Development Award
Overview
This project aims to create a new network of researchers who use behavioural or cognitive measures (e.g. questionnaires, assessments and tasks) to help understand or characterise mental health dysfunctions. Currently the methods used to collect these types of data can be time-consuming or require particular training, while many have a tendancy to be unspecific, unsensitive and lack repeatability. These limitations are holding back the field of behavioural and cognitive dysfunction research, and this community brings together key people to answer the problem by identifying and driving solutions and improvements.
Community lead
Bristol: Emma Cahill, James Hodge, Emma Robinson, Sarah Sullivan
Cardiff: Aline Bompas (PI), Jeremy Hall, Neil Harrison, Sophie Legge, Amy Lynham, Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, Petroc Sumner
Exeter: Silvana Mareva, Piotr Slowinski
Bath: Katherine Button, Tom Lancaster, Karin Petrini
Awarded
January 2025
Exploring Pathways to Children and Young People’s Mental Health
Development Award
Overview
This project will build an interdisciplinary community of researchers across the GW4 alliance with a shared passion for improving the mental health and well-being of children and young people.
Community lead
University of Bath: Jennifer Allen (PI), Lindsey Hines, Rachel Wilder
University of Bristol: Carol Joinson, Andrea Santangelo, Jon Heron, Naomi Warne
Cardiff University: Kelly Morgan, Sam Garay, Honor Young, Safia Ouerghi
University of Exeter: Doretta Caramaschi, Cassandra Lowe, Antoinette Davey, Silvana Mareva, Gemma Sharp, Siobhan Mitchell
Awarded
December 2024
GW4 Animal Replacement Network
Development Award
Overview
Animal replacement technology offers new scientific approaches to reduce or remove the need to use animals in research, while maintaining scientific integrity. The aim of this GW4 community is to establish a network focused on advancing animal replacement technologies.
Community lead
University of Bath: Ed Carter
University of Bristol: Asme Boussahel (PI)
Cardiff University: Hazel Hall-Roberts, Naledi Formosa
University of Exeter: Junning Chen
External partner: David Coe, CoED Biosciences
Awarded
September 2024
GW4-Air
Development Award
Overview
This project brought together interdisciplinary researchers who are interested in outdoor, indoor, personal air pollution and temperature to foster conversations and collaborations. The main planned activity was a one-day event, "GW4 Air Network Symposium - air, temperature, nature and better living", held in Exeter in November 2024.
Community lead
University of Bath: Dan Maskell, Valeria Cascione,
University of Bristol: Eunice Lo,
Cardiff University: Zhiwen Luo, Danni Zhang, Rachel Hale,
University of Exeter: Hanbin Zhang (PI), Jo Garrett, Emma Bland, Emma Garnett, Authur Rose, Liam Berrisford, Sian de Bell, Ann Power, John Love, Chloe Preedy
Awarded
July 2024
GW4 Sustainable Finance Network
Development Award
Overview
The project will create a network of researchers from the disciplines of finance and environmental sciences, organising seminars and workshops, with the ultimate aim of shaping policy for the transition towards a sustainable economy.
Community lead
University of Bath: Dr Xiaohan Xue (PI); Dr. Chenchen Huang; Dr. Winifred Huang; Dr. Hanwen Sun; Dr. Ru Xie
University of Exeter: Dr. Wei Xin; Professor Chendi Zhang
Cardiff University: Dr. Onur Tosun; Professor Qingwei Wang
University of Bristol: Professor Neslihan Ozkan; Dr. Fangming Xu
Awarded
July 2024
GW4 Men’s Mental Health Research Network
Development Award
Overview
The project will create a multi-disciplinary network of researchers in men's mental health to understand how to engage with men about their mental health and how best to study this group.
Community lead
University of Bath: Tom Barry (PI), Jeffrey Lambert, Edmund Keogh
University of Bristol: Myles Jay-Linton
Cardiff University: James Gregory, Paul Willis
University of Exeter: Christopher Begeny
Awarded
June 2024
Universal Design for Learning: Supporting Inclusive Learning and Teaching for All
Development Award
Overview
This project aims to support educators at GW4 member institutions to improve their understanding of inclusive education and universal design for learning, leading to improved teaching and supervision approaches that recognise and celebrate diversity.
Community lead
University of Bath: Momna Hejmadi
University of Bristol: Emma Jenks, Dave Gatrell
Cardiff University: Ceri Morris
University of Exeter: Vrinda Nayak (PI), Rachel Griffiths
Awarded
May 2024
Exploring the Role of Caste in Economic Welfare
Development Award
Overview
The community will organise a workshop to understand the complex linkages between the caste system in India and economic growth.
Community lead
University of Bath: Javier Rivas, Pardeep Attri
University of Bristol: Erlend Berg
Cardiff University: Indrajit Ray, Tommaso Reggiani
University of Exeter: Rakesh Banerjee (PI), Sanchari Roy, Surajeet Chakravarty
Awarded
April 2024
