Birkbeck announces third round of Wellcome funding awardees
This funding round continues to support innovative projects aimed at fostering an inclusive and diverse health research community, building on the achievements of previous awardees.
Birkbeck has announced the successful applicants for the third round of Wellcome Institutional Funding for Research Culture, which closed this term. This follows the celebration of the first and second cohorts of awardees.
These awards build on the progress of existing awardees exploring a range of topics around health research and institutional wellbeing, all of which are aimed at building an inclusive and diverse health research community.
Faculty Seed Funds
Faculty seed funds have been awarded to staff across Birkbeck for innovative collaborations and investigations to support research culture. The School of Psychological Sciences leads this round with two distinct projects:
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Dr Maheen Siddiqui, Dr Rianne Haartsen and Dr Chiara Bulgarelli (Psychological Sciences) will be building the Diversity in Developmental Science Network and undertaking activities to investigate the barriers relating to and developing tools to support equity and wellbeing among researchers and research participants.
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Dr Daniel Yon and Dr Helen Olawole-Scott, in collaboration with students Georgie Edwards-Lowe and Krisztina Jedlovzsky, will run Science Life and Career Evenings (SLiCE), a series of guest speaker events to help early career scientists navigate their lives in research.
This round also includes the first Faculty Seed Fund project from the School of Creative Arts, Culture, and Communication:
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Dr Grace Halden is examining how fertility treatment affects staff mental health, aiming to inform related policies.
Further funding for co-produced research
In addition to faculty seed funds, Dr Laura Richards-Gray and Professor Alex Colas have secured funding for a Nothing About Us Without Us project, a stream that supports collaborative, community-engaged research that focuses on the co-production of research. Dr Richards-Gray and Professor Colas will carry out participatory co-production research with food workers to explore the relationship betw\een food sector work and health and wellbeing.
Lastly, Birkbeck welcomes another cohort of early career researchers from groups historically excluded in HE who will lead the way in health research projects and contribute to the growing research workforce:
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Clau di Gianfrancesco, Social Sciences
Theatre of the Oppressed and the Psychosocial Dimensions of Gender-Based Violence
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Dr Elena Gkivisi, Social Sciences
Philosophical Counselling and Mental Health Diagnostics; Theory and Practice
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Shannon Sahni, Social Sciences
Criminology: Exploring Women’s Victimisation and Agency in Drug Dependency Through Space
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Dr Gordon Dodwell, Psychological Sciences
EEG correlates for the preparatory activation of attentional templates in search for conjunctively defined targets
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Dr Matthew Leonard, Historical Studies
Lethal Legacy: Living with the hidden 'more-than-human' ecologies of modern war
Congratulations to the successful applicants across all schemes. Professor Sally Wheeler, Vice-Chancellor commented: “This third round builds on the success of some ground-breaking projects and the continued interest from staff highlights the importance of these schemes. Each project listed here represents an important step towards diversifying and strengthening health research culture and institutional wellbeing, and we hope that it will encourage more colleagues to take up the awards. Once again, my personal congratulations to each awardee.”
Further Information