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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).

Read the Statement

 


Explore our communities

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.

178 results found
Sort Sort Date Newest
Funds
Types
Forcibly Displaced Students in Higher Education
Generator
Overview
Our network will generate research-informed innovations that improve Forcibly Displaced People's access to Higher Education, enhance institutional practices through interdisciplinary research and disseminate best practices across GW4 institutions, the UK and internationally.
Community lead

University of Bath: Katharina Lenner
University of Bristol: Lisa Lucas
Cardiff University: Sin Yi Cheung
University of Exeter: Nick Gill (PI)

Non GW4 collaborator: Isabelle Schäfer

Awarded
June 2023
Volcanic Plumes from the Seafloor to the Edge of Space
Generator
Overview
We are interested in anything related to volcanic plumes, whether in the ocean and in the atmosphere!
Community lead

University of Bath: Neil Hindley, Corwin Wright
University of Bristol: Mark Woodhouse, Ailsa Naismith, Samuel Mitchell, Juliet Biggs, Jeremy Phillips, Matthew Watson, Peter Rowley
Cardiff University: Ricardo Ramalho, David Buchs, Katherine Daniels, George Cooper, Tiago Alves, Thomas Barker, Marc-Alban Millet, Diana Contreras Mojica
University of Exeter: Thomas Aubry (PI), Helen Webster, Jim Haywood, James Hickey

Awarded
June 2023
Architectures of Alterity
Development Award
Overview
The Architectures of Alterity Community aim to establish and further expand an interdisciplinary research network for studying historical and contemporary architectures of alterity, or how architectural design may confirm and defy social and cultural orders, and support more diverse and inclusive forms of dwelling.
Community lead

Cardiff University: Dimitra Ntzani (PI), Nick Mols
University of Exeter: Yue Zhang

UWE: Sophia Banou

Awarded
May 2023
Island of Ireland Contemporary History and Politics Network
Development Award
Overview
The community aims to bring together GW4 colleagues to collaborate on new research, public and media engagement opportunities related to our research expertise on Northern Irish and Irish contemporary history and politics.
Community lead

University of Bath: Sophie Whiting, Jennifer Thomson
University of Bristol: Neil Matthews
Cardiff University: Thomas Leahy (PI), Huw Bennett, Jonathan Kirkup, Giada Lagana, Eleanor Williams
University of Exeter: Henry Jarrett

Awarded
April 2023
GW4 Psychology Network
Development Award
Overview
This community aimed to improve links between academics in psychology departments across the GW4 institutions.
Community lead

University of Bath: Graeme Fairchild
University of Bristol: Christopher Jarrold (PI)
Cardiff University: Katherine Shelton
University of Exeter: Natalia Lawrence

Awarded
April 2023
LanGW4
Development Award
Overview
LanGW4 aims to facilitate the exchange of good practice in language teaching through their annual Colloquiums on Innovation in Modern Languages Education.
Community lead

University of Bath: Irene Macias
University of Bristol: Vera Castiglione, Chloe Laborde
Cardiff University: Marie Gastinel-Jones (PI)
University of Exeter: Isabel Moros

Awarded
February 2023
GW4 Library Directors
Development Award
Overview
The community aims to identify new areas for collaboration and shared resources across the GW4 Library network.
Community lead

University of Bath: Kate Robinson
University of Bristol: Ed Fay
Cardiff University: Tracey Stanley (PI)
University of Exeter: James Anthony-Edwards

Awarded
February 2023
CLIMA-Lev
Development Award
Overview
The community aims to gather a cross-disciplinary group of scientists to discuss the impact of climate change on built heritage and bridge the gap between natural weathering and laboratory accelerated aging.
Community lead

University of Bath: Ismale Justo Reinoso
University of Bristol: Fai Fung
Cardiff University: Cristina De Nardi (PI)
University of Exeter: Richard Betts

Awarded
January 2023
Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) Consortium
Development Award
Overview
This community aims to facilitate collaborative interdisciplinary research into how menstruation and menopause interact with mental health.
Community lead

University of Bath: Melanie Channon
University of Bristol: Maria Fannin
Cardiff University: Arianna Di Florio
University of Exeter: Gemma Sharp (PI)

Awarded
December 2022
GW4 Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Hub (GW4 EDI Hub)
Development Award
Overview
This team aim to build a ‘community of EDI practice’ (EDI – Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity) in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) with the goal of achieving cultural change across the GW4 institutions in this area.
Community lead

University of Bath:  Ana Amelia Alvarez Serra, Sarah Bailey, Alice Hovanessian, Hannah Leese, Despina Moschou, Rajani Naidoo, Chloe Turner
University of Bristol: Bronwen Burton, Josie Briscoe, Amanda Carmichael, Neha Chandarana, Caroline McKinnon, Stephen Montgomery, Amy Mosley, Tom Oliver, Mark van der Kamp, John Wylie
Cardiff University: Cosimo Inserra (PI), Gayathri Eknath, Ian Hall, Riccardo Maddalena, Mihair McVicar, Rebecca Newsome, Wendy Sadler
University of Exeter: Claire Davies, Andrew Griffith, Sawsan Khuri, Vrinda Nayak, Orly Razgour, Andrew Pye, Maisha Reza, MD Sharma

Awarded
December 2022
University of Bath
University of Bristol
Cardiff University
University of Exeter