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Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact, Professor Paul Spencer, said: “Making our University synonymous with sustainability means there should be sustainability elements in all our research and, together with the impact of our research endeavours, this will provide a living definition that evolves and remains relevant. By bringing together our research and impact excellence in this way, we can be at the forefront of emerging societal priorities and challenges as well as contributing to future Government policies and practices to address them.
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“Alongside this we will establish ‘quantum leap’ projects giving the University the potential to increase research scale. Our Governmentbacked plans for a North Wales Medical School is a great example of what can be achieved by closely collaborating with stakeholders around a transformative ‘quantum leap’ project that seeks not only to deliver an innovative inter-professional School, but also one that builds on our research strengths in Human Sciences and seeks to help develop future health and social care that is sustainable, place-based and supports the growth of the regional life science sector.”
COVID – 19 RESEARCH
The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest recent threats to human health, wellbeing and economic growth. Bangor University secured more than £16 million in funding towards COVID-19 related research which included establishing the first UK national-scale wastewater-based epidemiology network for the monitoring of SARSCoV-2 in the general population of Wales. As the world began to realise the scale of the emerging pandemic, a team of researchers at Bangor University, led by Professor of Soil and Environmental Science, Davey Jones, recognised the important need to act with their expertise and capabilities.
With funding from Welsh Government, our researchers monitored the changing state of the pandemic in Wales, supported and informed public health policy decisions, and built national capacity for future pandemic preparedness. It has highlighted the important role the wastewater industry plays in national public health.
Scientific excellence: Wales has pioneered the use of wastewater for national level COVID-19
surveillance. This was adopted by England and rolled out by the Joint Biosecurity Centre at 44 sites, scaling to 250 by 2021.
Disease incidence: The University was responsible for setting up a national-level wastewater monitoring programme for COVID-19 which covered 20 key sites and captured close to 70% of the Welsh population. This is now part of the Armakuni dashboard which reports on national disease incidence to support public health agencies in Wales. In addition, the work has supported targeted mass testing both in England and Wales. Research excellence and impact: Wastewater research is highly novel and has produced eight journal papers underpinning the national science programme. The University has contributed expertise to international collaborative efforts to develop wastewater-based epidemiology best practice across Europe and further afield. The funding also provided opportunities to build on research strengths in Wales in environmental sciences, disease surveillance and pathogen genomics.
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