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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177 results found
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Types
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
BeDMaSH Behavioural & Decision Making Sciences in Healthcare
Initiator
Overview
This multidisciplinary network brings together expertise from across Operational Research, Decision Sciences, Mathematics, Psychology, Sociology, Implementation Science, Organisational Studies and Public Health to address new methods in understanding and modelling behaviours and decision making in the whole healthcare system.
Community lead
University of Bath: Christos Vasilakis
University of Bristol: Iain Gilchrist
Cardiff University: Paul Harper (PI)
University of Exeter: Martin Pitt
Awarded
September 2015
GW4 Biosensor Network
Initiator
Overview
The GW4 Biosensor Network will bring together researchers from different disciplines with an interest on biosensors. Biosensors measure chemical or biological molecules in complex samples (e.g. blood, water, air) for a wide range of applications including medical diagnosis, monitoring of therapies, personalised medicine, drug discovery and water quality control.
Community lead
University of Bath: Pedro Estrela (PI)
University of Bristol: Mervyn Miles
Cardiff University: Niklaas Buurma
University of Exeter: Peter Winlove
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Cancer Research Consortium
Initiator
Overview
The GW4 Cancer Research Consortium aims to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, by capitalising on the breadth of complementary expertise and high-impact cancer research across GW4.
Community lead
University of Bath: Adele Murrell, Lorenzo Caggiano (joint PIs)
University of Bristol: Paul Martin, Axel Walther
Cardiff University: Matt Smalley
University of Exeter: David Allard, Jackie Whatmore, Willie Hamilton
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Coding
Initiator
Overview
The vision of this initiator is to bring together the coding experts of GW4 and others in the region (e.g. Crick at Cardiff Metropolitan, BCS), harness our excellent connections in the cyber security user and policy base to form a powerful research team to be in a position to bid for significant funds.
Community lead
University of Bath: James Davenport (PI)
University of Bristol: Ian Holyer, Nick Wu
Cardiff University: Pete Burnap
University of Exeter: Richard Everson, Mike Baldwin
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Network on Family, Regulation & Society
Accelerator
Overview
The GW4 Network on Family, Regulation and Society aims to find appropriate methods to investigate the new and unexplored ‘delegalised space’ in which disputes on relationship breakdown are now attempted in England and Wales following the withdrawal of legal aid and the encouragement of private settlement.
Community lead
University of Bath: James Davenport, Ian Butler
University of Bristol: Emma Hitchings
Cardiff University: Gillian Douglas, Leanne Smith
University of Exeter: Anne Barlow (PI)
Awarded
February 2016
GW4 Astrophysics Community
Initiator
Overview
This project aims to build closer collaboration between the GW4 astrophysics groups. The primary aim is to enhance our impact in the large partnerships that are building the next generation of astronomical observatories, in addition to improving our efficiency by working together.
Community lead
University of Bath: Carole Mundell
University of Bristol: Malcolm Bremer
Cardiff University: Jonathan Davies
University of Exeter: Tim Naylor (PI)
Awarded
February 2016