Re-growing bone for an ageing population Novel and cost-effective approaches to bone repair
Listening to bubbles in deep sea basins If CO2 was stored under the ocean floor, how could we tell if it was escaping? No software, no research! Without software, research data is just a collection of numbers Farnborough Airshow Futures Day Showcasing our aerospace and defence expertise
In this issue Welcome to this third issue of Re:action which showcases some of the fascinating research and enterprise activities taking place across the University.
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Whilst the result of the recent referendum has left us with many questions regarding the implications for the sector and the University, we remain totally committed to pursuing research in the global scientific landscape, as is evidenced throughout this issue of Re:action. Other significant changes in the research landscape include the publication in May of the White Paper on Higher Education. The creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will bring together the seven research councils, Innovate UK and HEFCE’s quality-related funding (REF) which will be managed through a new body, Research England. Importantly, UKRI’s strategic objectives include a greater focus on multi-and inter-disciplinary research, and improved collaboration between the research base, business and the commercialisation of discoveries. These are areas in which the University currently plays a leading role in the sector as exemplified by our strong performance for income generated from consultancy, equipment and SMEs which is featured in this edition. In the next five years, the Government plans to invest more than £26 billion in science and research, including a new £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund, to ensure UK research takes a leading role in addressing problems faced by developing countries. With more than 50% of our publications co-authored with institutions in other countries, the University remains well placed to work with partners around the world and to address some of the biggest challenges of our time. In this issue you can read about our work on carbon capture, stem cells and the cost to the NHS of alcohol-related harm, all of which have relevance beyond the UK. Professor Tim Elliott Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor Research & Enterprise July 2016
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1 Re-growing bone for an ageing population Skeletal stem cell based therapies offer some of the most exciting areas for bone disease treatment and bone regenerative medicine. Page 8
2 Listening to bubbles in deep sea basins Carbon capture and storage already happens. But, if it were to be stored under the ocean floor, how would we know that it wasn’t escaping? Page 4
3 No software, no research! Software is a vital part of research, because there can be no reproducibility without the software used to generate results. Page 6
4 Farnborough Futures Day The University is set to showcase our aerospace and defence expertise at the biennial Farnborough International Airshow. Page 10
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Please send us your feedback We are keen to receive feedback about Re:action. If you have any ideas, comments or suggestions, please send them to reaction@southampton.ac.uk.
Re-growing bone for an ageing population Medical advances have led to a welcome increase in life expectancy. Indeed, it is estimated that by 2020, 20 per cent of us will be over 65. Medical advances have led to a welcome increase in life expectancy. Indeed, it is estimated that by 2020, 20 per cent of us will be over 65.
engineering strategies from the Group have been used to treat a number of patients.
Among the challenges posed by our ageing population is the need for novel and cost-effective approaches to bone repair. With one in three women and one in five men at risk of osteoporotic fractures worldwide, the costs are significant, with bone fractures alone costing the European economy €17 billion and the US economy $20 billion annually.
In 2014 Dunlop and Oreffo pioneered the first 3D-printed titanium hip-bone using a stem cell impaction bone graft for a clinical patient.
For the 30–50 per cent of people requiring revision surgery after hip replacement operations, many will need bone augmentation. Current practice using donor bone is costly, dependent on availability and can lead to complications including infection and immunological rejection. Within the University’s Bone and Joint Research Group, Professor Richard Oreffo and his team have been looking at skeletal stem cell based therapies for over 15 years to understand bone tissue development and to generate bone and cartilage. The Group has demonstrated the feasibility of using a patients’ own bone stem cells, together with a variety of biocompatible scaffolds, to essentially re-grow a patient’s own bone. More recently, the team’s work has focussed on innovative skeletal research methods that reduce the need for animal research, enrichment of bone stem cells and combining a particular type of clay-gel scaffold with bone graft to encourage bone growth, which has demonstrated exciting therapeutic opportunities. In collaboration with Mr Douglas Dunlop, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton, these tissue
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In the 18 months since, six clinical cases using a 3D-printed titanium hip have been completed, designed using the patient’s CT scan and computer aided technology. These implants have been combined with bone marrow containing bone stem cells from the patient and implanted with bone graft. The Group’s current research continues to focus on a range of skeletal repair approaches including the creation of novel hybrid scaffolds that accept stem cell printing for bone and cartilage repair in patients. These different research approaches, applied practically in the clinic, have significant commercial potential which the Group is exploring. The work of the Bone and Joint Research Group, undertaken in the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration (CHDSCR), which Richard co-founded, is part of the Institute of Developmental Sciences. The Centre was founded in 2004 as a crossdisciplinary research and translational programme within the Faculty of Medicine with the vision of “Translating pioneering developmental and stem cell science for patient benefit”. The Centre has just announced a new M.Res in Stem Cells, Development and Regenerative Medicine that commences October 2016. www.southampton.ac.uk/stemcells Further information: www.stemcells.org.uk
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Skeletal stem cell based therapies offer some of the most exciting and promising areas for bone disease treatment and bone regenerative medicine with significant enterprise potential.
Professor Richard OC Oreffo
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Listening to bubbles in deep sea basins Carbon capture and storage already happens. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is pumped into the empty spaces left when all available oil and gas has been extracted from land based oil and gas wells and marine aquifers. Carbon capture and storage already happens. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is pumped into the empty spaces left when all available oil and gas has been extracted from land based oil and gas wells and marine aquifers. But, if CO2 was stored in empty spaces under the ocean floor, how would we know if it was leaking out? How would we know it was there, how would it have reached the seawater from the sea bed, and how much was escaping? The world’s first ‘real-world’ deep water controlled experiment simulating such an emission from a submerged CO2 storage reservoir is due to start in 2019. The experiment will take place in the North Sea, 100km North East of Aberdeen, with advance development and testing taking place in 2017. The National Oceanography Centre is coordinating with the University of Southampton and other partners across the UK and Europe to run the project, which ultimately aims to further verify the safety of offshore CO2 capture and storage (CCS). But, in doing so, it also provides an incredibly exciting opportunity for partners to develop innovative technology and to establish the possibilities for ‘listening’ to deep sea basins.
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There is currently very little publically available data relating to the North Sea basin, especially to some of the geological features that may be important for CCS. Currently this type of measurement is hugely cost-prohibitive and would involve sending technology and equipment out to sea on a ship, at around £25,000 per day. The STEMM-CCS project aims to develop a system to detect and measure the volume of any CO2 released from underwater storage sites, and develop models and products that offer a good affordable baseline for this type of measurement. The team will develop acoustic and chemical sensors that will be fitted into auto-subs, alongside automated photographic analysis software to enable the detection of any visual changes at the site. These new technologies will be used in conjunction with off-the-shelf devices in the water and on the seabed to monitor changes in the chemistry, temperature, salinity and current of the water.
The actual experiment To simulate a CO2 leak the team will use a directional drilling rig to form a gentle arc under the sea bed into which a pipe is laid. Cages of CO2 and tracer chemicals will be released into this pipe
from its aperture under the sea bed, which will slowly diffuse into the sediments and overlying seawater. The pipe will be hooked up to a lander which will be controlled by a remotely operated vehicle connected to the research ship on the surface.
This huge €15.9 million underwater experiment has received funding from the European Horizon’s 2020 project and involves a whole host of organisations working
The research team includes acoustics and chemical experts who will use automated underwater vehicle (AUV) apparatus and video-guided water sampling equipment to measure the chemical and physical changes that might occur.
together for the first time.
Experts from Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration will also be measuring the sound of any bubbles released and aim to measure the amount of gas released as well as look at the possibilities of identifying the gas in the bubbles.
Sound and Vibration.
“We’re looking for CO2 release” says Project Coordinator Dr Doug Connelly, “and we’re throwing every tool in the box at it to find out firstly, if we can detect it, and secondly, if we can measure it. In addition, if we can develop techniques for cost effective baseline measurement in marine basins, it will have a wide range of applications outside of the CCS area, including wind farms and oil companies, who could all potentially benefit from the outcome.”
The University of Southampton’s contribution includes scientists from Ocean and Earth Science and the Institute of
Heriot-Watt University Royal Dutch Shell plc National Oceanography Centre
NIVA Uni Research and the universities of Bergen and TromsØ, Norway
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Technical University of Graz, Austria
GEOMAR
Cellular Robotics
MPI
Seascape Consultants Ltd
www.stemm-ccs.eu
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No software, no research! Funders are moving towards mandates to improve data management, which is great for the transparency and openness of research. But what about software? It’s a vital part of research, because there can be no reproducibility without the software used to generate results. Funders have also made this connection, so it won’t be long before software management plans are part of funding applications. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, now is a good time to review how you deal with your software.
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If data fuels research, then software is the engine that transforms it into something we want: results. Whereas data management ensures that your data is accessible and understandable in the future, software management (or software sustainability as it is generally known) ensures that the results of your research will be available too. It took years of campaigning to raise the importance of data. The campaign for software may have started later, but it is well under way and it’s collecting some important supporters including the BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC and Wellcome Trust, to name a few.
to bigger societal problems, like tackling some of incentives that, perversely, push researchers into dealing with software in the wrong way. There isn’t room to discuss these solutions in this short article, but there is plenty of information about the problems we face and their potential solutions. Fortunately, there are a number of groups who can help, such as the Software Sustainability Institute , based partly here in Southampton and funded by three research councils. The Institute works on a national scale, but a recent phenomenon means that you may also be able to find help locally. In the last couple of years we’ve seen the rapid growth of Research Software Groups. These groups provide software engineering expertise to researchers based at the same organisation. Researchers can now call on these experts at 21 universities and research organisations - including the University of Southampton .
Most researchers use software. We’re not talking about word processing, but research software, which is used to generate, process or analyse results. Whether it’s a short Matlab script or a fully-fledged software package, a lot of this software is written by the researchers themselves. We asked researchers at 15 Russell Group universities about their software . Of the 400 respondents, 70% reported that But whilst we investigate how to support better data practices in their research would be impossible without software. This is a general research, we should be aware that software plays an equally important trend: no software, no research. role. After all, without the software to analyse and interpret it, data is There is a bright side: our poor treatment of software means that there just a collection of numbers. are many ways to improve! These range from easy technical changes, Simon Hettrick, like documenting your code or using a version control repository, Deputy Director, Software Sustainability Institute.
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Aerospace and defence The University is set to showcase its aerospace and defence expertise at the biennial Farnborough International Airshow, taking place this year from 11 to 17 July. Aerospace is a hugely important area for Southampton and we plan to showcase our extensive research at this important event. Undeniably the Airshow provides considerable opportunities to strengthen our industry relationships and present our expertise to the thousands of attendees.
A new and exciting initiative this year is the University’s inclusion in the Farnborough flying displays where a Southampton Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) will beam live photography onto TV screens across the exhibition halls.
Based in the Innovation Zone (Hall 3, Stand 21) our exhibition will focus on three main themes: autonomy, sensors and cyber security. These themes are closely aligned with University plans to secure greater collaboration with the aerospace sector, where key growth areas for investment exist.
Farnborough International Airshow - a truly global event In 2014…
Emphasising these themes will enable us to showcase the expertise within our strategic research groups for Autonomous Systems and MENSUS (Monitoring of Engineered and Natural Systems Using Sensors) and promote our broader cyber and security capabilities, including the recently established Cyber Security Academy. We also aim to exploit the growing aerospace requirement for optoelectronics technologies, enhanced sustainability, and improved logistic and operational efficiency.
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• 39 countries represented by exhibitors • 53 countries represented by visitors • 40 international media broadcast crews attended • Top five exhibitor countries: USA, RUSSIA, UK, ITALY and FRANCE • Total sum of orders and commitments over US$200bn • Over 100,000 trade visitors • Strong UK government attendance
Futures Day Futures Day, on Friday 15 July, is one of the highlights of the Airshow calendar when the event opens its doors to over 5,000 younger people. It’s a chance for this audience to see the exciting career opportunities available in the Aerospace and Defence sectors, and participate in a variety of expert talks, educational activities, competitions and group work, all designed to raise awareness of related industries and careers. Central to the day is the Innovation Zone, where students can experience aerospace technology of the future and meet with academic institutions. We will be demonstrating the University’s Human Flying Wing Suit and showcasing our flight test simulation as part of the PRiME project.
Keen to identify and support home grown talent in Hampshire, we have initiated direct contact with Hampshire schools, colleges, universities and youth groups to urge them to visit our stand and take advantage of the opportunities Farnborough presents.
Futures Day activities and tickets are FREE. www.farnborough.com www.farnborough.com/trade/Content/Innovation-Zone www.farnborough.com/trade/Content/Futures-Day
With student recruitment a high priority and a new aeronautical electronics degree programme launching shortly, the Airshow provides considerable exposure to industry and prospective students.
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Award-winning SETsquared leads the way for innovation SETsquared, the global number one business incubator, has scooped the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award (THELMA) for Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year. The prestigious national award, announced on 23 June at the Grosvenor House Hotel, recognised the SETsquared Partnership for its successful Innovation and Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme which has been a game-changer in helping university researchers to get their ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. Don Spalinger, Director of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Southampton, said: “We’re delighted to receive this award for our SETsquared Knowledge Exchange initiative. The ICURe programme has already led to the launch of some 27 new companies that have validated high growth markets for their products and services, including BluPoint Ltd, Accelercom and Trimunocor. ICURe is not just about start-up companies, all of the 78 research teams that have participated in the programme so far have a clear understanding of what the marketplace needs and how their research can meet those needs with collaborative research and licensing to established companies.”
About SETsquared SETsquared is a long-standing partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey which specialises in growing high-tech start-ups through its incubation programme and other business acceleration services. SETsquared provides mentoring, access to investors and corporate innovators and a wide range of industry experts through its network and training programmes. Its business incubation programme is ranked by the University Business Incubator Index as the best in the world and over the last decade it has helped over 1,000 high-tech start-ups to develop and raise more than a £1bn of investment. Independent research carried out by Warwick Economics estimates the economic impact of SETsquared member companies to be £3.8bn, with the creation of 9,000 jobs, and that these companies will go on to deliver a further £8.6bn of impact to the UK economy in the decade ahead.
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“The SETsquared Programme has provided our researchers with an exciting new opportunity which offers exceptional training and team support, engagement with prospective customers, partners and competitors of, and validation the commercial potential of their work.” The ICURe programme brings together teams comprising a senior researcher, a private sector business advisor and an early-career researcher with commercially-promising ideas to ‘get out of the lab’ and validate their ideas in the marketplace. The ICURe pilot Programme, with funding from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) and InnovateUK, has been extended to include teams from universities outside the SETsquared partnership as it further enhances links between universities and industry. For more information, visit www.setsquared.co.uk/icure
Image (from left to right): Jimmy Carr, comedian and award presenter; Don Spallinger, Director of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Southampton; Ed Pritchard, Veredus
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For more than 20 years we have been recognised internationally for making a difference through health research. Our unique approach to research management is based on a rigorous commitment to reducing waste. I am immensely proud of who we are, what we stand for, what we achieve and the way we achieve it.
Professor Jeremy Wyatt Director, Wessex Institute
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85%* of health research funding could be wasted! Inappropriate design, irrelevant questions, and failing to publish results in full are just some of the ways that can lead to a significant waste of research funding in health. The Wessex Institute, an enterprise unit within the University’s Faculty of Medicine, has pioneered innovative approaches in the way that research funding is managed to add value, increase impact, and minimise avoidable waste.
“More than 350 external experts are used to identify research priorities, and over 200 professional staff in Southampton manage funding programmes and disseminate research outputs.” says Dr David Stevenson, Head of Business Development.
“Over 50 per cent of studies are designed without reference to systematic reviews of existing evidence” says Matt Westmore, Director of Enterprise and Partnerships, “and as many fail to take adequate steps to reduce biases. All our research is assessed for importance by patients, public, clinicians and decision-makers before conventional academic assessment. Most importantly, we conduct our own research on the research process, to provide an evidence base for our model, which raises the probability of research impact for a given cost.”
“We currently manage over 700 live projects and assess almost 1,000 grant applications every year. Whilst many findings are published in other peer-reviewed journals, the NIHR Journals Library ensures that full accounts of NIHR-funded research projects are made available.”
The Institute manages NHS research funding of around £140 million annually on behalf of the Department of Health and is home to a growing number of nationally important, internationally recognised centres. These include the Southampton Health Technology Assessments Centre (SHTAC), which informs NICE’s appraisal programme; and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC), which is the NIHR’s largest research funding centre.
Further information:
The Wessex Institute continues to seek new partners and opportunities to apply its knowledge and methods to increase research impact for the benefit of society. As the largest contributor of consultancy income to the University, it’s exceptionally well placed to do so!
www.southampton.ac.uk/ wessex_institute www.southampton.ac.uk/shtac www.southampton.ac.uk/netscc
* Avoidable waste in the production and reporting of research evidence, The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9683, Pages 86 - 89, 4 July 2009, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60329-9 2
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University retains 1st place for Consultancy Income With a total income of £27 million, the University has retained first place for Consultancy in the latest Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey completed by over 150 higher education institutions in the UK. And for the very first time, a top place has been secured for Equipment and Facilities with an income of almost £12 million in 2014/15. The annual survey examines the exchange of knowledge between universities and the wider world, focusing on a range of interactions with external partners including the commercialisation of new knowledge, the delivery of professional training and education, consultancy and other services, and activities intended to have direct social benefits such as from public engagement. The full list of activities includes: - Collaborative research
- Equipment and Facilities
- Contract research
- Intellectual Property
- Consultancy
- Public Engagement
- Courses for businesses and the community (CPD, CE)*
- Regeneration projects - Spin-off and start-up companies
The income generated from a selection of these activities is used formulaically to determine the allocation of more than £150 million through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) of which the University receives the maximum available of some £3 million annually to support university-business engagement in both faculties and professional services.
In numbers
£27.1m 1st in UK Consultancy Income
£11.8m 1st in UK Equipment & Facilities Income
£10.6m 2nd in UK Income from SMEs
£39.7m 10th in UK Collaborative Research Income
£1.7m IP Income
£25.1m Contract Research Income
* Continuing Professional Development, Continuing Education
£7.7m External Investments in HEI Spin Outs
£6.6m CPD Income
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‘There were 56,000 alcohol related admission episodes in Wessex Hospitals in 2013/14 and over 1,000 deaths from alcohol-specific conditions in 2011/13’
Dashboards demonstrate harm from alcohol Alcohol-related harm consumes nearly £2.7 billion of the annual NHS budget and cost almost £238 million annually across Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire during 2013/2014.
undertaken by the network in improving the population’s health, and boosting innovation in the healthcare sector which supports some three million people living across the region.
Data intelligence, developed by the University of Southampton, is being used to target changes to services within Wessex NHS Hospital Trusts. Along with a new interactive dashboard, this data is beginning to give a more detailed picture of the state of alcohol treatment across the region.
Further information
Making data more accessible
Centre for Implementation Science: www.southampton.ac.uk/wessexcis
The Centre for Implementation Science (CIS) in the Faculty of Health Sciences is developing innovative tools to make health data accessible for the NHS workforce, public health decision makers and the general public. One aspect of its work is a new interactive dashboard for the Wessex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). The dashboard visualises the key health challenges that face Wessex and reveals some of the effects that alcohol has on our communities. It also highlights the variation in health outcomes across the region such as the differences in mortality due to alcohol. Further user-generated reports can be easily created depending on the subject of interest. Ongoing work is focussed on understanding more about the treatment of alcohol-related liver disease in acute care settings. Public Health England data is also now incorporated into the updated system and further dashboards are in development for key priorities across the Wessex healthcare system such as respiratory and dementia care. The CIS is funded by AHSN. It supports and evaluates work
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Contacts: Health Sciences Research Fellow, Dr Brad Keogh; Wessex AHSN alcohol programme clinical lead, Dr Julia Sinclair Wessex Academic Health Science Network: www.wessexahsn.org.uk
Interactive dashboard: www.cisdata.co.uk/datavis/alcdash Data revealed by the dashboard â There were 56,000 alcohol-related admission episodes in Wessex Hospitals in 2013/2014 â There were over 1,000 deaths from alcohol-specific conditions in Wessex in 2011/2013 â Over 31 deaths in Southampton and over 36 deaths in Bournemouth were specifically due to alcohol in a single year â Portsmouth and Bournemouth were ranked in the highest 2% of all English districts for alcohol specific deaths â Southampton and Bournemouth were ranked in the highest 25% of all English districts for admission episodes for alcoholrelated conditions
Rising star: radically changing the way we experience audio sound Marcos F. Simón Gálvez, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Faculty of Engineering and Environment As an audio scientist I believe that in the near future we will be listening to all possible kinds of audio material in a way that is as close to reality as never before. Picture yourself in your living room watching an action film. Listen to it with 3D audio and you will be able to imagine yourself immersed within the actual film.
Marcos is part of an audio research team working with BBC R&D on a radical new listener-centred approach to 3D sound production that can dynamically adapt to the listeners’ environment and location to create a sense of immersion. This will change the way audio is produced and delivered, to enable practical high-quality 3D sound reproduction in everyday spaces.
Feature website: ODINE www.opendataincubator.eu The Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE) is a six-month incubator for open data entrepreneurs across Europe. The programme is funded with a €7.8m grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and is delivered by the Open Data Institute (ODI), University of Southampton and six other European partners. Southampton has been at the forefront of research, education and innovation in complex open data ecosystems for over 20 years. ODINE aims to support the next generation of digital businesses and support them to fast-track the development of their products. Start-ups interested in applying for the incubator programme should register by the end of August 2016 via the ODINE website.
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Media highlights 1. The University’s LifeLab featured on BBC Two’s Horizon in an episode on ‘Why Are We Getting So Fat?’ Watch again here. 2. News that our research found that men still occupy the vast majority of key production roles in the UK film industry was covered by The Guardian, Huffington Post, Waitrose weekend magazine and Screen Daily. 3. News that an international team, led by Southampton, found a potentially viable way to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and turn it into rock, was covered in the Guardian, the Independent, Newsweek, TIME and BBC News.
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4. Our experts were part of a team that discovered gravitational ripples in spacetime for the second time in just three months. The news has been covered by the Daily Echo, the Independent and Herald Scotland.
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5. As part of the EU-funded STARS4ALL project, a group of our astronomers are organising expeditions to observe and broadcast astronomical phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis. The news was covered by Phys.org and other international outlets. 6. Our collaborative study with the University of Cambridge, revealed strong evidence of a link between serious antisocial behaviour and brain development. The news was covered by The Daily Mail and the Telegraph.
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Events for the diary 11-17 July 2016
Farnborough International AirShow 2016 As one of the largest shows of its kind in the UK, and a key event in the aerospace calendar, this is where the University showcases its aerospace and engineering expertise alongside big industry names, government officials and universities. www.farnborough.com
15-16 September 2016 First ever conference of Research Software Engineers Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
Tuesday, 13 September 2016 Future Photonics Hub Industry Day This inaugural industry day will draw in key players throughout the photonics industry and will feature talks on III-V and mid IR semiconductors, advanced materials including 2D and metamaterials, laboratory tours, ‘speed dating’ meetings and career panel sessions. www.photonicshubuk.org/news
Tuesday, 11 October 2016 MENSUS Industry Showcase Garden Court, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton
The RSE Conference is the first conference to focus exclusively on the issues that affect people who write and use software in research. Attendees will learn about the cutting edge techniques being used in research, pick up new skills, and hear from a broad range of speakers.
The MENSUS team will display and host a wide variety of academic and industrial research that is relevant to system condition monitoring. This event is aimed at an audience interested in sensing and monitoring systems for the aerospace, maritime, transport, energy, environment and healthcare sectors.
www.software.ac.uk/news
www.southampton.ac.uk/mensus
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Friday, 30 September 2016 FortisNet Poster Session
Dr Robert Raja of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Science and Dr Dough Connelly from the National Oceanography Centre will be talking about their respective research and technologies which is seeking to mitigate the problem of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. www.southampton.ac.uk/cleancarbon
Life Sciences, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton The FortisNet poster session is dedicated to interdisciplinary research within regenerative medicine, orthopaedics, prosthetics and assistive technologies. All colleagues are welcome to present themed posters and attend this networking event. www.southampton.ac.uk/ifls
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In brief
One of Europe’s Most Innovative Universities The University of Southampton has been named in Europe’s top 100 Most Innovative Universities by Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news agency. Southampton was ranked 77th, one of 17 UK universities, in Reuters’ first-ever ranking of Europe’s innovative universities. The list identifies the higher educational institutions that are doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies, and help drive the global economy.
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€2.75M ERC grant for radical new optical fibres
Government recognition for Cyber Security
Dr Francesco Poletti from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) has won a €2.75 million ERC Consolidator Grant from the EU to support him find transformative ways of increasing information capacity and power delivery capability of optical fibres.
The University’s MEng Computer Science with Cyber Security course has received Government accreditation on reaching GCHQ’s standard for cyber security disciplines.
The ‘LightPipe’ project aims to develop radically new optical fibres that can keep up with the relentless growth in global data traffic and laser output power, which roughly doubles every two years.
The on-demand UAVs will drive intelligent data analytics to provide the Portuguese Port of Leixões with environmental impacts in a matter of hours. The trial is conducted as part of research by the European Commission The Southampton Cyber Security Academy funded SUNRISE EXPOSURES project. (CSA) was launched in 2015 to help make government, businesses and consumers more Michael Boniface, Technical Director at the University’s IT Innovation Centre, is the resilient to cyber-attack. It brings together project’s technical lead. the University and world-leading industry and Government partners to provide a focal Along with the University’s IT Innovation point for cyber security research, education Centre the consortium includes Marine and outreach. Southeast Ltd, and SUNRISE project partners
European Research Council grants support researchers at the stage where they are consolidating their own independent research team and programme. Being granted an ERC while holding an equally prestigious fellowship from the UK Royal Society is a stunning achievement for someone in the early stages of his career.
GCHQ Certified Masters is an integral part of the Government’s newly launched CyberFirst scheme, aimed at encouraging young people into the cyber security profession to support the UK’s national security needs into the future.
Underwater drones to transform marine industry risk management Low-cost underwater unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are to scan the ocean and gather environmental information for management of one of Europe’s busiest ports using ground-breaking technology from European researchers.
especially the Laboratório de Sistemas e Tecnologia Subaquática from University of Porto, Portugal.
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Funding news Faculty of Business, Law and Art Professor Martin Broad; Southampton Business School A study of the governing practices in Vietnam HEIs British Council, £6,500 over six months Professor John Coggon; Southampton Law School Developing An Ethical Framework For The Implementation Of Public Health Regulation Wellcome Trust, £4,170 over one month Professor Mine Karatas-Ozkan; Southampton Business School Development of Agro/Eco-Tourism Entrepreneurship with Food Safety Practices: Evidence from Turkey British Council, £46,627 over 24 months
Dr Denis Kramer; Engineering Sciences Senior Research Fellowship Leverhulme Trust/RAEng, £41,887 over 12 months Dr Xize Niu; Engineering Sciences Droplet microfluidic based chemical sensors for rapid measurement of nutrients in water NERC, £116,379 over 12 months Professor William Powrie; Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering and Science Newton Fellowship 2015 Royal Society, £22,540 over 36 months
Faculty of Engineering and the Environment
Professor David Richards; Civil, Maritime and Environment Engineering and Science Screw Piles for Wind Energy Foundation Systems EPSRC, £330,172 over 36 months
Professor Abubakr Bahaj; Civil, Maritime and Environment Engineering and Science City Wide Analysis EPSRC, £409,338 over 36 months
Professor Neil Sandham; Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Engineering UK Fluids Network EPSRC, £26,651 over 36 months
Professor Charles Banks; Civil, Maritime and Environment Engineering and Science Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst BBSRC, £84,818 over 12 months
Professor Ramanand Ajit Shenoi; Maritime Institute Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Royal Academy of Engineering, £5,550 over three months
Professor Philippa Reed; Engineering Sciences Professor Anna Barney; Institute of Sound and Vibration Research Southampton-Kyushu collaboration to investigate fatigue crack growth on Nickel superalloy materials under controlled grain size, Network Award: Listening Across Disciplines orientation and stress states using synchrotron radiation computed AHRC, £2,973 over 12 months tomography at the SPring-8 beamline facility, Japan. Dr Simon Blainey; Civil, Maritime and Environment Engineering Sasakawa Foundation, £2,000 over seven months and Science Dr Charles Ryan; Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Improving Customer Experience While Ensuring Data Privacy Engineering For Intelligent Mobility Equipment for the operation and investigation of a mini-propulsion EPSRC, £52,789 over 36 months system for loaf of bread sized satellites Dr Stephanie Gauthier; Civil, Maritime and Environment Royal Society, £14,530 over 10 months Engineering and Science Dr Andras Sobester; Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Scoping Review Project on Occupancy Patterns Engineering Department of Energy and Climate Change, £9,799 over one month Fresh Ways of Targeting and Employing Robotic Systems Professor Phillip Joseph; Institute of Sound and Vibration (FreshWATERS) Research NERC, £137,894 over 12 months Quiet Aerofoils of the Next Generation Dr Shuncai Wang; Engineering Sciences EPSRC, £289,810 over 30 months Lubrication science learning from Nature and beyond Professor Andrew Keane; Aeronautics, Astronautics and Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Computational Engineering Scheme, £5,450 over one month GEMinIDS (Geometry Enabled Modelling in Integrated Design Systems) Technology Strategy Board, £1,249,197 over 36 months
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This selection of awards demonstrates the breadth of funding secured by our academics across the University.
Dr Shuncai Wang; Engineering Sciences Structure and Properties of Self-lubricating Carbon-based Films for MCs in Space The Royal Society International Exchanges Scheme, £10,890 over 24 months
Dr Emma Murphy; Faculty of Health Sciences ICA Clinical Lectureship: Variations in quality of end of life care, decision making and palliative outcomes for patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease on dialysis: the QUALYCARE renal study NIHR, £184,808 over 36 months
Dr Gabriel Weymouth; Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute Aquatic Soft Robots for Environmental Sensing NERC, £103,725 over 12 months
Professor Catherine Pope; Faculty of Health Sciences Safer care patient-centred checklist: a co-designed intervention to promote safe, high quality practice and improved outcomes. Health Foundation innovating for improvement programme Health Foundation, £73,690 over 15 months
Professor Yifeng Yang; Engineering Sciences STFC PPRP Royal Society, £232,670 over 60 months
Faculty of Health Sciences Professor Dan Bader; Faculty of Health Sciences Medical devices and vulnerable skin: Intelligent sensing to promote self-management EPSRC-NIHR HTC Partnership Award ‘Plus’, £502k over 36 months Professor Catherine Bowen; Faculty of Health Sciences Career Development Fellowship - The optimisation of foot care for people with arthritis NIHR, £468,066 over 48 months Professor Jackie Bridges; Faculty of Health Sciences Workforce requirements to deliver high quality and appropriate care and support to older people affected by cancer – a scoping review of the evidence Macmillan Cancer Relief, £29,578 over eight months Professor Mandy Fader; Faculty of Health Sciences Bladder and bowel problems at the end of life: Patient and carer experiences Solent NHS Trust, £13,719 over 12 months Professor Peter Griffiths (Co-I); Faculty of Health Sciences Evaluating the ten year impact of the Productive Ward at the clinical microsystem level in English acute trusts (NIHR HS&DR) NIHR, £316,995 over 30 months Professor Carl May; Faculty of Health Sciences Rapid Access Multidisciplinary Palliative Assessment and Radiotherapy Treatment Clinic Health Foundation, £5,676 over 15 months Dr Thomas Monks; Professional Practice in Health Sciences Research Capability Funding Solent NHS Trust, £26,730 over 10 months
Dr Dawn-Marie Walker (Co-I); Faculty of Health Sciences Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for patients with offending histories – feasibility of an evidence-based approach in forensic mental health settings NIHR, £6,392 over 18 months Dr Dawn-Marie Walker (Co-I); Faculty of Health Sciences Outcomes from forensic services for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities: evidence synthesis and expert and patient consultation NIHR, £1,459 over 10 months
Faculty of Humanities Dr Eve Colpus; History Wellcome Trust, Medical Humanities Small Grant, £4,570 over 12 months Wellcome Trust, £4,570 over 12 months Dr Hettie Malcomson; Music (and Dr José Juan Olvera Gudiño, CIESAS Unidad Noreste, Mexico) Music and violence in contemporary Mexico British Academy Newton Mobility Award, £9,993 over 12 months Dr John McAleer; History An empire of islands: Concepts, contexts and collections AHRC, £7,496 over 18 months Dr Dragana Mladenovic; Archaeology Geophysical survey of the Insula dell’Ara Coeli and the western slopes of the Capitoline - D Mladenovic BA Oct 15 British Academy, £10,000 over 24 months Dr Corey Schultz; Film Sites of Commemoration: Contemporary Chinese Commemorative Museums and Affective Experience British Academy, £2,220 over 15 months Dr Fraser Sturt; Archaeology Investigating the Submerged Pleistocene Landscapes of the Wallet, off Clacton English Heritage, £33,939 over 11 months
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Funding news Faculty of Medicine Professor Aymen Al-Shamkhani; Cancer Sciences Evaluation of novel therapeutic proteins that combine optimal delivery of T cell costimulatory signals with blockade of immune inhibitory pathways Cancer Research UK, £176,758 over 24 months
Professor Nicholas Harvey; Human Development and Health Epigenetic determinants of bone microarchitecture Wellcome Trust, £242,458 over 36 months Does the beneficial effect of maternal gestational vitamin D supplementation on neonatal bone mass persist into childhood? Follow up of the Mavidos placebo controlled double blind randomised trial. Arthritis Research UK, £387,109 over 60 months
Professor Graham Burdge; Human Development and Health Can oils derived from genetically-modified plants replace fish oil as a Dr Michael Head; Clinical and Experimental Sciences source of long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the human diet? Combining research investments analyses and malaria maps in Africa BBSRC, £523,449 over 42 months are we investing limited resources wisely? Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, £4,900 over five Professor Philip Calder; Human Development and Health Probiotic to reduce infections in care home service users (PRINCESS) months NIHR, £151,946 over 40 months Professor John Holloway and Professor Hasan Arshad; Human Development & Health and Clinical & Experimental Sciences Dr Roxana-Octavia Carare; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Epigenetic susceptibility to asthma: genes, puberty and environment White matter hyperintensitites in dementia, investigating impaired National Institutes of Health – USA, £446,987 over 60 months drainage of interstitial fluid British Neuropathological Society, £5,000 over nine months Professor Richard Holt; Human Development and Health Diamonds Dr Roxana-Octavia Carare; Clinical and Experimental Sciences NIHR, £7,573 over 12 months The role of maternal high fat in predisposing the offspring to Alzheimer’s Disease Dr Ruihua Hou; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Rosetrees Trust, £25,000 over 12 months Gaining new insight into the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease: investigating the role of the locus coeruleus using neuromelaninDr Andrew Douglas; Human Development and Health sensitvie MRI The transcriptional regulation of C9orf72 in c9FTD/ALS Alzheimer’s Research UK Grant, £49,989 over 24 months The Academy of Medical Sciences, £30,000 over 24 months Professor Timothy Elliott; Cancer Sciences DynOMIS European Commission, £141,634 over 24 months Dr Francesco Forconi; Clinical and Experimental Sciences South Coast Tissue Bank Bloodwise, £80,521 over 20 months Dr Ian Galea; Clinical and Experimental Sciences A pilot project to develop a new treatment for aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage Haptoglobin supplementation for SAH (Retrospective) Wessex Neurological Centre Trust, £46,929 over 10 months Professor Mike Grocott; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Measuring total haemoglobin mass (tHbEmass) in ventilated patients– a feasibility pilot study - Retrospective Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, £18,018 over eight months Professor Mark Hanson; Human Development and Health BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Science British Heart Foundation, £329,541 over 60 months
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Professor Peter Johnson; Cancer Sciences Molecular analysis of the success determinants and mechanisms of solid tumour immunotherapy Cancer Research UK, £2,116,852 over 60 months Professor Colin Kennedy; Clinical and Experimental Sciences The PROMOTE Study: Patient Reported Outcome Measures Online To Enhance Communication and Quality of Life after childhood brain tumour The Brain Tumour Charity, £298,114 over 36 months Professor Michael Moore; Primary Care and Population Sciences Understanding the volume and content of general practice consultations: the 5th National Morbidity Study (retrospective) NIHR, £4,904 over 20 months Professor Christian Ottensmeier; Cancer Sciences Tracer X with UHS Cancer Research UK, £139,200 over 36 months Mr Tim Underwood; Cancer Sciences SEB - Human Cancer Models Initiative Pilot Cancer Research UK, £42,000 over 24 months
This selection of awards demonstrates the breadth of funding secured by our academics across the University.
Dr Tom Wilkinson; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Training Fellowship for Dr Hannah Burke: Airway epithelial derived exosomes drive alveolar macrophage dysfunction in COPD Wellcome Trust, £252,785 over 36 months
Professor Robert Marsh; Ocean and Earth Sciences Safer Operations at Sea - Supported by Operational Simulations (SOS-SOS) NERC, £49,310 over 21 months
Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences
Professor Timothy Minshull; Ocean and Earth Science Physical properties of oceanic lower crustal and uppermost mantle rocks from the Atlantis Massif, Mid-Atlantic Ridge NERC, £59,058 over 10 months
Dr Darren Bradshaw; Chemistry Exploring the MOF-peptide interface: from phage display to materials synthesis, thin films and composites EPSRC, £370,246 over 36 months Professor Johnathan Bull; Ocean and Earth Science CHIMNEY - Bull - NERC Highlights NERC, £613,315 over 48 months Professor Gavin Foster; Ocean and Earth Sciences The nature and consequences of historic and future ocean acidification: insights from born isotopes Leverhulme Trust, £262,470 over 36 months Dr Nuria Garcia-Araez; Chemistry Enhancing the performance of Li-O2 batteries by combining ultrasound and redox mediators EPSRC, £99,124 over 12 months Dr Stephen Goldup; Chemistry Rotaxane Hosts as Selective Sensors for Chiral Molecules Royal Society, £66,000 over 24 months Professor Tim Henstock; Ocean and Earth Science OBIF 2016/17 NERC, £101,751 over 12 months Professor Bill Keevil; Centre for Biological Sciences Evaluating the efficacy of HPV against biofilms formed by multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) Innovate UK/BBSRC, £19,402 over 12 months
Occurrence and horizontal gene transfer of carbapenemase and ESBL genes in soil microbiomes NERC, £158,384 over 24 months Dr Syma Khalid; Chemistry Mechanistic understanding of cell wall biosynthesis to combat antimicrobial resistance MRC, £4,558 over 60 months Dr Maeve Lohan; Ocean and Earth Science The impact of Mid-Ocean Ridges on the ocean’s iron supply NERC - Lohan NERC, £291,066 over 30 months
Zinc, Iron and Phosphorus co-Limitation in the Ocean (ZIPLOc) - Lohan - NERC NERC, £243,018 over 30 months
Dr Haruko Okamoto; Centre for Biological Sciences AGRITECHCAT5: Strategies to reduce waste due to greening in potato tubers BBSRC, £126,264 over 18 months Dr Orly Razgour; Centre for Biological Sciences Developing an integrated framework for investigating biodiversity responses to global environmental change NERC, £668,885 over 50 months Professor Chris-Kriton Skylaris; Chemistry
Implementation and optimisation of advanced solvent modelling functionality in CASTEP and ONETEP EPSRC, £70,748 over 12 months Symposium on advanced potential energy surfaces Royal Society of Chemistry, £1,100 over three months Professor Martin Solan; Ocean and Earth Science Coastal morphology: coastal sediment budgets and their role in coastal recovery NERC, £301,667 over 48 months Professor Martin Solan; Ocean and Earth Science Impacts of El Niño on ecosystem services provided by Colombian mangroves NERC, £68,440 with 18 months Professor Toby Tyrrell; Ocean and Earth Science Can early warning signals be reliably detected in the Cenozoic palaeoclimate record? EPSRC, £4,995 over three months
Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering Dr Diego Altamirano; Physics and Astronomy
RS Newton International Fellowship for Miss Aru Beri - Testing General Relativity with X-ray Binaries and Associated Accretion Flows Royal Society, £89,400 over 24 months Professor Alexander Belyaev; Physics and Astronomy Probing Dark Matter at the Large Hadron Collider Royal Society, £12,000 over 24 months
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Funding news Professor Andrew Brown; Electronics and Computer Science POETS II: Partial Ordered Event Triggered Systems EPSRC, £2,753,691 over 66 months Dr Simone De Liberato; Physics and Astronomy Present & future trends in ultrastrong light-matter coupling physics Research Fellows International Scientific Seminars Royal Society, £5,000 over four months Professor Daniel Hewak; Optoelectronics Research Centre N-type Amorphous Chalcogenides EPSRC, £261,634 over 36 months Dr Marcus Newton; Physics and Astronomy Merck Chemicals UoS KTP Technology Strategy Board, £152,000 over 24 months Dr Zoheir Sabeur; Electronics and Computer Science Platform for wildlife monitoring and integrating Copernicus and ARGOS Big Data European Commission H2020, £407,775 over 36 months Professor Vladimiro Sassone; Electronics and Computer Science Effective Data Handling Techniques GCHQ, £227,398 over 36 months Professor Mark Sullivan; Physics and Astronomy Superluminous supernovae: a route to the progenitors? Royal Astronomical Society, £1,200 over three months Professor Hendrik Ulbricht; Physics and Astronomy Non-interferometric test of the quantum superposition principle Leverhulme Trust, £384,299 over 48 months Dr Gary Wills; Electronics and Computer Science ThinkIT: Infrastructure for collaborative knowledge-sharing in IoT Royal Academy of Engineering, £48,000 over 17 months Dr Kai Yang; Electronics and Computer Science
Low-cost personalised instrumented clothing with integrated FES electrodes for upper limb rehabilitation MRC, £882,747 over 30 months
Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences Dr Jakub Bijak; Department of Social Statistics and Demography and ESRC Centre for Population Change Survey of methodology on the quantitative assessment of asylumrelated migration European Asylum Support Office (EASO), £27,665 over four months Professor David Sear and Mr Duncan Hornby; Geography and Environment AECOM, Sediment Tracing within the Willow Brook Catchment near Leicester Environment Agency, £14,933 over five months Dr Michaela Brockmann; Southampton Education School What do IT Technicians do? The roles and qualifications of IT professionals at intermediate levels. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, £20,008 over six months Professor Paul Carling; Geography and Environment Meteorite Impact-Stratigraphy & Environmental Interpretation in NE Thailand Leverhulme Trust, £21,984 over 24 months Professor Paul Carling; Geography and Environment Initial Motion of Boulders in Arid Zone Bedrock Channels: Implications for Hydrology and Geomorphic Evolution of Desert Wadis Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), £8,000 over 18 months Professor Joerg Fliege; Mathematical Sciences Optimization Models and Algorithms for Network Data Visualization Royal Society, £11,746 over 24 months Dr Matthew Garner; Psychology Targeting acid sensing ion channels in anxiety – a first experimental study in humans MRC, £134114 over 12 months Professor Marcus Grace; Southampton Education School RCUK School-University Partnership Initiative (Talk to US) Funding Extension 2015-2016 EPSRC, £50,000 over 12 months Professor Marcus Grace; Southampton Education School A Cross-cultural, Cross-age and Cross-gender Study of Hong Kong and UK Secondary Students’ Decision-making about Biological Conservation Issues The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, £9,100 over six months
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Research and Enterprise e-News
This selection of awards demonstrates the breadth of funding secured by our academics across the University.
Dr Jennifer Holland (Co-I); Social Sciences The family lives of children of immigrants in Norway Norwegian Research Council Independent Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences (FRIHUMSAM), £46,103 over 48 months
Professor David Woods; Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute International Exchanges Scheme - Computationally efficient screening methods for practical application Royal Society, £8,760 over 24 months
Professor Anastasios Magdalinos; Social Sciences Analysis of Stochastic Economic Systems with Multiple Persistence Degrees British Academy, £9,945 over 12 months
Professor Lucy Yardley; Psychology Index Study MRC, £5,159 over 24 months
Dr Nick Maguire; Psychology Psychological Reflective Practice The London Pathway, £6,000 over nine months
Professor Lucy Yardley; Psychology PGfAR Hypertension in Pregnancy NIHR, £34,493 over 60 months
Professor Graham Moon; Geography and Environment Alcohol morbidity in England: hospitalisation and outlet density pilot study Public Health England, £18,173 over six months
Professor Lucy Yardley; Psychology Research Capability Funding 2015/16 Solent NHS Trust, £15,000 over 12 months
Dr Chris Moreh; Social Sciences Brexit Research Seminars The Sociological Review Foundation, £3,845 over 12 months
This list encompasses awards logged with University of Southampton Finance from March - May 2016 that are considered non-commercially sensitive.
Dr Nansen Petrosyan; Mathematical Sciences Classifying spaces for proper actions and almost-flat manifolds EPSRC, £99,083 over 18 months Mr Jason Sadler; Geography and Environment Development and Management of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Projects Database DEFRA / Rural Payments Agency (RPA), £32,423 over seven months Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke; Psychology Solent NHS Research Capability Funding Solent NHS Trust, £15,000 over 12 months Professor Sarah Stevenage; Psychology A New Database: Dynamic and Static Features of Hands GCHQ, £15,700 over three months Professor Tracy Strong; Social Sciences Citizenship and Conflict in the United States Leverhulme Trust, £39,362 over 12 months Professor Andrew Tatem; Geography and Environment High resolution population mapping Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, £318,417 over 12 months
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