Research Communities Funding Call: COVID-19 Response Results

We are pleased to announce the results of our Research Communities COVID-19 response call.

As outlined in a previous post, University of Westminster’s four research communities were launched collectively on the 17^th September last year, swiftly followed by individual launches for Health Innovation and Wellbeing (HIW), Diversity and Inclusion (DI), Sustainable Cities and Urban Environments (SCUE) and Arts, Communication and Culture (ACC) at the start of October 2019.

On this occasion our talented research community were challenged to come up with novel and creative proposals for a one-off funding round seeking to address issues arising from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The call was announced on May 14^th 2020. Community Leads and the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office were delighted with the degree of interest in the call from across the institution. Applications were received from a range of disciplines including life sciences; the humanities; arts; social sciences; law; media and communication; finance and business studies; infrastructure planning; transport and logistics studies; design and engineering.

A total of 57 proposals were submitted across all Research Communities. Applicants were asked to nominate the ‘home’ community where their proposal would sit, with 16 choosing ACC; 15 for DI; 15 for HIW and 11 for SCUE.

The submissions were of a very high standard, with each project subject to scrutiny from three reviewers whose evaluations were based on the following criteria: fit to scheme; future funding potential; alignment to research community. The top-ranked proposals were further scrutinised at a panel meeting chaired by PVC Research Prof Andrew Linn.

In the event, 23 projects were chosen, with funding totalling £218,592.58:

Congratulations to the successful project leads! We are confident that these projects constitute a distinctive Westminster response to a public health crisis, capitalising on our particular research strengths and expertise.

If you are interested in learning more about the Research Communities and keeping in touch on funding opportunities, please sign up to our mailing list here:

http://eepurl.com/gtQm89

Enquiries may be directed to the two Research Community Facilitators:

For Arts, Communication and Culture and Sustainable Cities and Urban Environments contact Alan Yabsley, a.yabsley@westminster.ac.uk

For Diversity and Inclusion and Health Innovation and Wellbeing contact Rafaela Tripalo, r.tripalo@westminster.ac.uk