Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Pump-Priming Awards
Ten partnership building projects have been awarded internal Pump-Priming Funding from the University’s SFC GCRF funding allocation. The aim of the competition, coordinated by Research & Innovation Services (RIS), is to enhance our ability to respond to funding opportunities under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). GCRF is the £1.5bn fund pledged by the UK government to support excellent research which addresses the challenges of developing countries, by bringing together the UK’s research and Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets. GCRF fits with the University’s vision to transform lives locally and globally and requires a new approach to securing research funding which is interdisciplinary and impactful.
The awards recognise the strength of our research and their relevance to low and middle income countries (LMIC) and enable these teams to build stronger links with organisations in these countries and with intermediaries.
The awards will support:
Building important connections with the WHO in the area of Antimicrobial Resistance, working with Bangalore Life Science Cluster, India and the Oxford University Research Unit in Vietnam.
- Led by Prof Ian Gilbert, School of Life Sciences
Visits to Uganda and networking to extend existing collaborations and to explore the ways in which diverse groups of displaced people impact on environmental degradation and the subsequent development of a proposal for a programme for sustainable livelihoods.
- Led by Prof Lorraine van Blerk, School of Social Sciences
Enabling preparatory research into existing provisions for oral healthcare in Palestine and building strong working relationships with partner institutions in-country. The project aims to translate the successes of Scotland’s model to improve mother and child oral health, by developing an evidence-based model to provide mother and child oral health programmes in areas of conflict.
- Led by Dr Lamis Abuhaloob and Prof Ruth Freeman, School of Dentistry
An interdisciplinary, cross-School team will develop their networks to address adversity and the mental health of refugee children and families, focused on Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan and Palestine by building new links with international and non-governmental organisations, delivering community mental health interventions in refugee camps as well as with local stakeholders for Syrian refugees in Dundee.
- Led by Prof Ian Barron, School of Education and Social Work
Meeting with stakeholders in India, alongside the World Congress for Preventive Dentistry (WCPD) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to explore the development of a community and person-centred approach to reduce the health problems and poor quality of life resulting from oral diseases in India.
- Led by Dr Ayse Cinar and Prof Peter Mossey, School of Dentistry
Working to develop partnerships with the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Federal University of Pará in Brazil, and to generate local interest with local community partners in Amazonia, with research focussing on sustainable homes by addressing multidimensional vulnerabilities through community-led innovation in adaptation to climate change.
- Led by Dr Victoria Jupp-Kina, School of Education and Social Work
Developing meaningful collaborations through networking activities in Ethiopia involving local universities, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) with an aim to grow research capacity in barley and address food security in Africa.
- Led by Prof Claire Halpin and Prof Robbie Waugh, School of Life Sciences
Enabling networking with organisations in Columbia, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa with the aim to conduct collaborative research to provide insights that will transform law and practice in the mining sector which would address resource justice in resource-rich developing countries.
- Led by Dr Ana Elizabeth Bastida, School of Social Sciences
Helping to establish a network of international researchers in Bangladesh and Malaysia to develop an interdisciplinary project into new approaches to provide affordable cardiac rehabilitation in developing countries.
- Led by Prof Chim Lang, School of Medicine
Building on a 10 year collaboration with the College of Medicine in Malawi to apply an appreciative inquiry approach in Southern and Eastern Africa, including a rollout to Rwanda, to enable sustainable and affordable medical education.
Led by Dr Linda Jones, School of Medicine
We are confident that these projects will cultivate globally renowned research, “take Dundee to the world, and bring the world to Dundee”. You can find information about the Global Challenges Research Fund at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/funding/gcrf/