Re:action Winter 2022

Civic strengths

The Hares of Hampshire is one of many initiatives that draw upon – and celebrate – the University’s close relationship with its south coast home

LISTENING MEMORIES

Exploring the relationship between sound, memory and gesture

MOULDED BY MIGRATION

Understanding Southampton’s colourful past and present

OLD AND NEW COLLIDE

The New Forest’s historic traditions and laws

SMART GOALS

Fawley Waterside will be Europe’s first purpose-built ‘smart town’

WELCOME TO RE:ACTION

A notable element of the University Strategy that was launched in January 2022 is the strengthened commitment to being a Civic University. There is a strong mutual benefit between the University and its cities, Southampton and Winchester, and the surrounding region.

If our local community is vibrant and engaging, this greatly helps make the University attractive to students, staff and potential partners from further afield. In turn, a successful, engaged University helps the regional economy, attracting talented individuals to the region, creating and supporting high-quality jobs, and contributing to the local culture.

Over the past year we have significantly strengthened our city links by working with the City of Southampton

on the City of Culture bid, which, although ultimately unsuccessful, is already having a very positive legacy. The recently-published Economic and Social Impact Report for the University documents an annual contribution of £4.1 billion, about half of which benefits the local economy (see page 8). The development of formal Civic University partnership agreements with all five of our local authority partners has also been very positive.

This edition of Re:action documents a wide range of research, knowledge exchange and enterprise activities, from across the University that all contribute to our ambitions of being a very strong Civic University. As with many previous forewords to Re:action, I marvel at the impressive diversity of activities, ranging from the fantastic and long-standing LifeLab, to Dr Priti Mishra’s work with local South Asian migrant communities, to

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Professor Mark Spearing Vice-President (Research and Enterprise)

BEING AT THE CIVIC CENTRE

The University launched its new Strategy for the next five years in January 2022. One significant addition is the commitment to being a Civic University.

The Strategy states: “Our foundations and heritage make the University of Southampton a gateway to the world. We are deeply committed to Southampton as a city of culture and across the region will further develop our civic role of making a positive impact.”

Underpinning these ambitions is a Civic Strategic Plan, which sets out how the University will become a truly integrated part of its local communities.

What is a ‘Civic University’?

Being a Civic University is about maximising our civic contribution and aligning our strategies with those of civic partners to develop mutually beneficial partnerships with local communities and organisations.

The UPP (University Partnerships Programme) Foundation’s Civic University Commission champions the need and role of civic universities. Its Chair, Lord Bob Kerslake, said: “Universities have an irreplaceable and unique role in helping their host communities thrive – and their own success is bound up with the success of the places that gave birth to them.”

Our civic ambitions

There are four broad focus areas for the Civic Strategic Plan: ‘Partnerships’, ‘Collaboration’, ‘Place’ and ‘Impact’. The principles for our strategic plan are:

• We will work with our civic partners and businesses to achieve socioeconomic benefit

• We are committed to making a positive social impact, increasing social mobility, transforming lives and enhancing prosperity, both on the south coast of England and across the globe

• We are focused on collaborations to strengthen economies and sustainable communities across the region, and beyond.

We, as a University, are at the heart of our community here in the south. We have a significant impact on our society – and vice versa – and we have strong ambitions to grow and formalise our civic role.

“Now is an opportunity for the University to strengthen its community links and make a commitment to the city and region. An opportunity to think about what our role could be, whilst also recognising the significance of the fact that we are a really large community within the city.”

Professor Fraser Sturt

Artwork being created during Re:Claim Southampton, a city centre street festival

Being at the civic centre

Dr Lorna Colquhoun, Director of Research and Innovation Services, said: “In recent years, ‘place’ has become an increasingly relevant concept for universities. The UK Research and Development Roadmap and the Levelling Up agenda, for example, both drive home the importance of place. Additionally, UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) is now focusing on delivering economic, social and cultural benefits from research and innovation to all, including by developing research and innovation strengths across the UK in support of Levelling Up.”

Bringing ‘civic’ to life

The SO25 campaign behind Southampton’s bid to be City of Culture 2025 has led to stronger links and new relationships with the city that will further embed the University in the local community.

Professor Fraser Sturt, who helped to coordinate the bid, said: “Southampton went for City of Culture because there is such strength here that isn’t well known – the universities, nascent industries, and a burgeoning cultural scene. But there is also a lot of deprivation and need which stands out at a national scale. We have very significant challenges that are knowable and addressable, and we wanted to use culture to speak to that need.

“Now is an opportunity for the University to strengthen its community links and make a commitment to the city and region. An opportunity to think about what our role could be, how our expertise in research

and innovation can make the biggest contribution, whilst also recognising the significance of the fact that we are a really large community within the city – staff and students.”

An example of the University’s civic ambitions coming to life via new links is a new £250,000 grant for a project called Pathways to Health, under UK Research and Innovation’s Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities programme.

Led by Joanna Sofaer, Professor of Archaeology, Pathways to Health is a nine-month project that brings together academics, civic leaders, health professionals, NGOs, and cultural organisations to learn from young people (aged 11 to 16) from deprived communities in Southampton.

Consultations carried out as part of the Southampton City of Culture bid revealed that access to culture-based health and well-being opportunities for young people are widely divergent across the city. Furthermore, young people paint a different picture of the city – its strengths, assets and opportunities – from that of adults. The project will seek to understand what culture means to young people, using that understanding to reimagine cultural provision within an integrated care system and to identify ways that young people can use arts and culture for self-care to reduce future health challenges.

Embedded in the community

The University is already embedded in the local community in a myriad of ways. Working with partners to share knowledge, resources, skills and expertise is something that already happens in all corners of the University – and something that will be built upon.

A major report released in October 2022 found that the University generates £4.14 billion of annual impact across the UK economy –putting in the spotlight our influence on our local and wider community. The report, by independent consultancy London Economics, said £1.6 billion of impact occurs in the South East, with a significant proportion occurring in Southampton itself. Read more about our Economic Impact Report on page 8.

Our LifeLab programme (featured on page 36) and our Social Impact Lab (featured on page 22) are shining examples of partnership working. The University is also a member of the Hampshire Universities Together Network (which includes Solent, Winchester, Portsmouth and Southampton) which identifies opportunities for working together.

Southampton has awarded 10 Ukrainian Sanctuary Scholarships in 2022, enabling Ukrainian student refugees to study at the University.

Southampton is also working towards becoming a University of Sanctuary. The status recognises good practice by universities in fostering inclusivity and awareness, involving commitments to welcome and support people fleeing conflict and persecution.

PEOPLE, PROPERTY, COMMUNITY

The connections between property law and societal issues such as climate change, health and social exclusion may not be immediately obvious, but they exist. A new centre at the University is supporting this inter-dependency.

The Centre for People, Property and Community, within Southampton Law School, brings together legal academics and others to address the areas where these issues intersect.

Helen Carr, Professor of Property Law and Social Justice, explained: “The Centre comprises a collaborative network of legal and other scholars concerned with the relationship between property, law and society. It takes a wide view of property and has a particular interest in innovative property forms. However materialised, property for us is about rights and responsibilities, duties and privileges and we recognise that the future of property is inextricably linked with some of the most complex contemporary problems. The challenges and potential of property go to the heart of our political settlement and solutions, and, therefore, require interdisciplinary collaborations which we are keen for the Centre to facilitate.”

Being located at the University and in the heart of the city is key to the Centre’s mission.

“We are proud to be located in Southampton, a city with global links, a fascinating history and a distinctive property profile,” said Helen. “Top of our agenda is to work on local projects that strengthen the University’s civic mission and the Centre’s first event was a public engagement session in conjunction with Southampton City Council and Acorn Union for the Community. It was themed

around the affordability of housing in Southampton in a cost-of-living crisis, and we were able to discuss and address some local issues.”

The new Centre is offering something distinct – a concern with the broader implications of contemporary property ownership. Helen explained: “Our interests include the distribution and regulation of property on a global, national, and local scale, and the relationship between property and the state, the emergence and reinforcement of property norms, and the politics underpinning individual and alternative forms of ownership.

“Social justice is central to our work as we recognise that those excluded from property or marginal to it are at least as deeply impacted by property as those who are owners.”

The Centre will begin its work by engaging with non-academic partners such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, charities, and community groups as well, as legal practitioners and property professionals, to explore research, knowledge exchange and other collaborative opportunities.

“Social justice is central to our work as we recognise that those excluded from property or marginal to it are at least as deeply impacted by property as those who are owners.”

Professor Helen Carr

Mary D’Arcy giving her talk (Executive Director Communities, Culture & Homes, Southampton City Council)

Members of the Centre for People, Property and Community (from L-R): Dr Mark Jordan, Prof Helen Carr, Dr Emma Laurie, Prof Lisa Whitehouse

UNIVERSITY BOOSTS UK ECONOMY BY £4.14 BILLION A YEAR

A major report says the University of Southampton generates £4.14 billion of annual impact across the UK economy.

The findings come from the policy and economics consultancy London Economics’ Economic Impact Assessment of the University’s economic and social impact during the 2020/21 academic year.

Approximately £1.6 billion of the identifiable regional impact occurs in the South East, of which a significant proportion occurs within Southampton itself. After the pandemic, the University, its staff, and its students will be one of the key drivers of the economic recovery in the Southampton region.

The report examined the economic impact associated with the University’s teaching and learning activities, research, enterprise and knowledge exchange activities, the contribution of the University’s international students to the UK economy and the impact the University has on tourism in Southampton.

Professor Mark Spearing, Vice-President (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Southampton, said: “We welcome this report which not only underlines the University’s

importance to the UK economy but across the world. More than that, it demonstrates the far-reaching impact our research and enterprise has, leading on innovation and nurturing talent for the future. More directly, the huge impact we have on our host city Southampton, especially as our region emerges from the effects of the pandemic.”

Find out more tinyurl.com/3vkukw2u

The University’s Highfield campus

KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT

£4.14bn ECONOMIC IMPACT

The University of Southampton generated £4.14 billion of economic impact across the UK in 2020/21

£2.07bn ACROSS UK ECONOMY

University of Southampton research, enterprise and knowledge exchange provided £2.07 billion across the UK economy in the academic year 2020/21

£7.40 GENERATED FOR EVERY £1

For every pound spent by the University, £7.40 was generated in economic benefit

£682m NEW STUDENTS

The economic impact generated by teaching and learning activities from new students starting their studies at the University in 2020/21 was £682 million

£1.6bn REGIONAL IMPACT

Approximately £1.6 billion of this identifiable regional impact occurs in the South East

72

SPIN-OUT COMPANIES

With a turnover of £370 million in 2020-2021, the University’s 72 spin-out companies boosted the UK economy by £928 million, also attracting talent and investment to the region

16,000 JOBS ACROSS THE UK

The University is a major employer and creates and underpins employment in other organisations, amounting to over 16,000 jobs across the UK

£553m INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

The economic contribution generated by first-year international students in 2020/21 amounted to £553 million

The University contributes £69 million to Southampton’s tourism industry coming from around 23,000 study trips, business meetings and visits to see friends and family

HOP TO IT

‘Look Up and Within’, a collaboration between Southampton Business School and the John Hansard Gallery

If you were out and about in Southampton or Winchester over the summer, you may have spotted one of 32 giant ornamental hares.

One of these beautifully-decorated hares has an important link to the University, in particular, the Southampton Business School – and it is hoped the legacy of the hare and what it represents will be felt for years to come.

“When the Business School was presented with the opportunity to engage with the Hampshire Hares public art event we jumped at the chance,” explained Gillian Saieva, Director of Executive Education in the Business School. “As a way to engage with the local community and join a consortium of leading local businesses, this event encapsulated exactly what we as a Business School want to do, which is serve businesses and people in the community around us.”

Hares of Hampshire was an interactive art event created by The Murray Parish Trust and Wild In Art. For 10 weeks in July and August 2022, Winchester’s and Southampton’s streets, parks and public spaces were home to an exhibition of giant hare sculptures. Each was individually designed and created, showcasing the wealth of artistic talent the county has to offer – while positively contributing to the economic, cultural, and social life of the area.

“Our hare, ‘Look Up and Within’ with the Celtic name of Eowyn, was a collaboration between the Business School and John Hansard Gallery to showcase our contribution to environmental and sustainability impact,” explained Gillian. “The hare design has its very own triple helix of hares on its chest, representing resilience, adaptation, and originality within the hare species. The artist’s design comes from a strong environmental focus, depicting oak tree leaves and acorns to signify wisdom, trailing ivy for agility and young hares looking up into a clear and unpolluted night sky.

“All of us in the Business School felt the design was the perfect fit with the University

‘LOOK UP AND WITHIN’, BY ABIGAIL WICKING ART

The Celtic Triple hare represents adaptability to change, both in nature and individually. The hares are entwined, representing nature’s cycle and showing that everything is connected. They are different colours, representing the Arctic and the desert hare, and symbolising diversity.

The hare also shows global warming, with the white Arctic melting into dirt and turning to ash.

The hare is gazing up at a clear sky with no pollution and lots of stars to symbolise hope, and the intertwined oak and ivy represent old strength and wisdom with flexibility and new directions.

Strategy, especially with the trio of hares providing alignment with the triple helix of research, education, and knowledge exchange and enterprise.”

Hares of Hampshire brought together businesses and organisations in Southampton and Winchester, from the presenting partners of Norwegian Cruises and Ahmad Tea to sponsors such as Go!Southampton and Williams Shipping.

“Two key aims of the Business School are to serve the businesses in the community around us and to teach and promote sustainability education for businesses,” added Gillian. “Our participation in this event put us squarely at the heart of the local business community, indicating our accessibility to that community, and building connections for our students to leverage a career in a Southampton-based business.

“The legacy of the hare is set to live on as we progress our work with sustainability

reporting for small to medium sized businesses in the region and establish our Global Reporting Initiative Training Centre within the School. As a business-facing school, not only staff and students but industry partners who visit will benefit from the significance the hare brings in terms of our contribution to sustainability.”

A total of £183,000 was raised for The Murray Parish Trust by auctioning the hares after the trail. Trust Founder Sarah Parish said: “Partnering with the University of Southampton’s Business School was a wonderful experience. Their positivity and willingness to engage with the charity was infectious and a perfect example of how charity and business can happily sit side by side. I sincerely hope we will partner up again on future projects.”

Find out more haresofhampshire.co.uk

Sound artist Hannah Kemp-Welch has collaborated with Southampton-based dance and movement artist Gabriel Galvez and the John Hansard Gallery, to lead a series of workshops with elderly people in and around Southampton exploring the relationship between sound, memory and gesture. The project is called…

LISTENING MEMORIES

Workshops for Listening Memories were conducted over three days in Eastleigh, Chandler’s Ford and Freemantle. Hannah captured recordings of the workshops’ stories triggered by sound, and edited them into an audio collage, which premiered at a ‘listening cinema’ at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton city centre.

“My collaboration with Gabriel was instigated by the John Hansard Gallery,” explained Hannah. “Gabriel has worked with groups of over 60s for several years in Southampton, running movement classes such as ‘Dance for Parkinson’s’ in local community centres. The groups bring together people in the community who are at risk of social isolation and with few resources – they are an important event in the week for participants to feel part of the social world and take part in an activity with both physical and mental health benefits.”

Hannah is a sound artist with a social practice, making the Listening Memories project an ideal fit. She produces audio works in community settings, and her works often discuss social issues, and involve the people most affected as project collaborators – gathering and sharing testimony and organising activist responses.

She said: “The basis for my engagement with these groups was to offer a new stimulus for the class. I invited participants into the garden outside the venue in which their

movement classes take place and suggested a method for listening – first to sounds nearby such as body, clothes and breath, then to sounds far away like traffic, planes, and wind in the leaves. This short meditation evoked discussion about our soundscape, and our ears’ magic ability to tune between sounds. Participants agreed they mostly don’t notice their everyday soundscape.

“We then all wore headphones and listened at the same location, connected to highquality field recorders. We discussed the difference between what we heard previously and the new amplified version. We discussed the flattening effect of the recorder and new sounds noticed through the change in amplitude.”

Hannah further explained the workshops: “From the gardens, we moved inside. We then spoke about sounds we noticed in particular, and then Gabriel led the group in an activity to create gestures that represent these sounds. These gestures were mirrored by the group and gradually became larger, more performative and dance-like.

“Following this, we spoke about sounds that we particularly remember from the past. Participants volunteered these eagerly and the tone changed to one of reminiscence. The sound of knitting needles, the arcades at the seaside, a voice, a bomb shelter. We made gestures to respond to some of these sonic memories too.”

Following the workshops, participants were invited to the John Hansard Gallery to a ‘listening cinema’. For this Hannah curated 10 artists’ works with strong sonic elements, which all had birdsong as a central theme. Everyone listened to these works together and discussed them.

“Participants said that they found the works very interesting and enjoyed the diverse ways artists approached the same theme,” said Hannah. “We also played a game of ‘bird bingo’, a game I constructed which involved a simple bingo board with the names of common British birds. I played short samples

“The groups bring together people in the community who are at risk of social isolation and with few resources – they are an important event in the week for participants to feel part of the social world and take part in an activity with both physical and mental health benefits.”

Hannah Kemp-Welch

of these bird calls and participants crossed them off the board if they thought they recognised which bird made the call.”

Lynne Dick, Head of Programme, Engagement and Learning at the John Hansard Gallery, added: “We believe in creating space for meaningful engagement for people of different ages and abilities.

“I had the pleasure of joining in one of Hannah’s sound sessions in Freemantle, which I found extraordinary. Hannah has a thoughtful approach to working and introduced new ways of listening so that we could understand how we hear and how our brains filter sounds. Gabriel’s involvement was key because he was receptive and open to this collaboration. It was lovely to welcome the group to the gallery to experience the collated version of their recording and a series of sound works by other artists, carefully selected by Hannah. Being a part of this sharing experience was very rewarding and I could sense that the group felt at ease.”

Hannah’s audio collage was launched on the John Hansard Gallery website in November 2022, where it will feature alongside a creative transcript by the Care-fuffle working group.

Find out more sound-art-hannah.com/ listening-memories

VOICES IN THE GALLERY

Listening Memories is part of Voices in the Gallery: a research project about how voice, text and access intersect in contemporary art.

Led by Dr Sarah Hayden, Associate Professor in Literature and Visual Culture at the University of Southampton, the project is funded by two AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Innovation Leadership Fellowships (2019-2021, 2021-23).

The first phase of Voices in the Gallery considered voiceover as a phenomenon that exists simultaneously as art-form, literary genre, and sonic intervention in gallery space.

As part of this work, Sarah curated the exhibition, Many voices, all of them loved, featuring work by artists Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Laure Prouvost, Kader Attia, Willem de Rooij, Liza Sylvestre and Lawrence Abu Hamdan at the John Hansard Gallery in spring 2020, and guest-curated a strand of for Queer Art Projects’ #WIP: an exhibition themed around process and work-in-progress.

The second phase of Voices in the Gallery is now underway and encompasses ongoing collaborations with Nottingham Contemporary (Caption-Conscious Ecology), Wysing Arts Centre (A Language of Holes) and LUX (slow emergency siren, ongoing).

For the current phase, Sarah has curated Liza Sylvestre’s asweetsea at the John Hansard Gallery.

This will be the Liza’s first solo exhibition outside of the United States and features newly-commissioned video, sculptures, drawings and (captioned) audio tours.

As an artist who is deaf, and whose child and partner are both hearing, Liza tries to locate where her disability lives within their family. Hannah’s Listening Memories workshops were devised to engage the exhibition themes.

In asweetsea, Liza investigates how we make, share and access meaning together. It runs until 14 January 2023.

Find out more www.voicesinthegallery.com

Liza Sylvestre, asweetsea, installation view, John Hansard Gallery, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

Photo: Reece Straw

CALLING SOUTHAMPTON HOME

The South Asian population in England grew rapidly in the ‘60s and ‘70s – particularly in hotspots such as Southampton. Research at the University is seeking to uncover the stories of the highs and the lows of how these new arrivals settled in.

Thousands of South Asians arrived in the UK to start a new life several generations ago. The partition of British India in 1947 into two independent countries – India and Pakistan – displaced millions of people as they were forced to flee violence. Many eventually came to the UK.

Southampton became a popular destination for them to settle. With cheaper housing than London, a small-town appeal and plenty of job opportunities, Southampton had obvious attractions.

But what was this community’s experience of settling in? Dr Priti Mishra, Associate Professor of History, Dr Bindi Shah, Associate Professor in Sociology, and Dr Ajit Nayak, Associate Professor of Strategy at Southampton Business School, have been finding out.

Their recent research – funded by an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Public Engagement grant in collaboration with the BBC to mark the broadcaster’s centenary – has rediscovered a BBC show targeted at South Asians that first aired in 1965. The show was called Make Yourself at Home

“The show was a product of the mood in the Government about new migrants and how we welcome them and help them settle in,” said Priti. “The programme featured Bollywood actors to try to make migrants feel at home. In another part of the show, called Can I Help

London,

You?, people sent in letters with questions about their life in Britain. At one point, the programme was receiving 300 letters every week. There was also a language programme called Look, Listen and Learn in which the BBC tried to teach language through acting skits.

“There was also a soap opera called Parosi, meaning ‘neighbour’, which encouraged South Asian women to engage with their neighbours to learn the language and to talk.”

The research team has conducted interviews and workshops, asking first and secondgeneration South Asians in Southampton about their experiences of both settling in the town and their memories of Make Yourself at Home

Settlement stories

less racism.

There are moving and poignant stories from the early days of settling in Southampton –from packed houses to desperate job hunting, to language barriers.

“There are some surprising stories from 40 to 50 years ago,” said Priti. “The most poignant are those early days of settlement. Even the journey itself was difficult for many. I spoke to one couple where the husband came alone, he was very young. When he arrived in London, he was given seven days’ worth of food and shelter, by which time he needed to have found a job. Fortunately, he succeeded in finding work and moved to Southampton.”

“Southampton was viewed as safer and more welcoming than

with significantly

Housing was cheaper here, and it would have felt a lot less chaotic than London. There were also jobs here, particularly in factories and bakeries.”

Dr Priti Mishra

Left: Hand-dyed, screen-printed silk by textile artist Abeer Kayani, analysing the language and living barriers faced by South Asian immigrants in Southampton

Below: The Make Yourself At Home logo

Finding somewhere to live was another challenge immigrants faced. At any given point, some of the South Asian households in Southampton had five different families under one roof.

Women’s work was another theme to emerge from this research. “They were sheltered Indian women when they arrived in Southampton, and working outside was not the done thing,” explained Priti. “Many of them worked in bakeries together, forming communities and learning the language through this.”

Many men, however, worked in the British American Tobacco factory in Southampton or at an auto parts factory in Lymington,

both of which employed significant numbers of South Asian immigrants.

“The experiences were slightly different for those from the upper classes, as they were more affluent and could generally already speak English, which made a huge difference to them settling,” added Priti.

Why Southampton?

Southampton was a hotspot for South Asian migration.

“Southampton was viewed as safer and more welcoming than London, with significantly less racism,” explained Priti. “Housing was cheaper here, and it would have felt a lot less chaotic than London.

AN EXHIBITION OF COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE

An exhibition called Make Yourself at Home, co-created

Mishra

artists and interview respondents, is running at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton until 28 January 2023.

The exhibition features the personal stories of some of Southampton’s South Asian

immigrants, as well as cultural references from the ‘60s and ‘70s when many of them arrived here.

There were also jobs here, particularly in factories and bakeries.”

The St Mary’s area of the city, particularly around Derby Road, and also Portswood were areas where most South Asians settled.

One man, in particular, is remembered as a pioneer for the Sikh community in Southampton. Sardar Harnam Singh Roudh arrived in the city with just £3 in his pocket and went on to set up Southampton’s first Indian and West Indian grocery store. He also led the founding of the Gurdwara Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib, the city’s first ethnic place of worship, and was a community leader who supported people through their transition to living in Southampton.

by Dr Priti

with local

Above: Sardar Harnam Singh Roudh, remembered as a pioneer for the Sikh community in Southampton

MOULDED BY MIGRATION

Southampton is a city shaped by migration. For hundreds of years, immigrants have influenced the city’s makeup. Professor Tony Kushner has dedicated his recent research to understanding Southampton’s colourful past and present.

Today, a quarter of the population of Southampton was born overseas. It’s a statistic that reflects the city’s vibrant culture – through history and into the present.

Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor in the History Department and Parkes Institute, explained: “Southampton is really interesting. It’s a city of migration from hundreds of years ago to today, but it’s not necessarily the first city you think of in terms of immigration.”

Hailing from Manchester and arriving in Southampton 36 years ago, Tony’s research into the history of migration in Southampton

has been spurred on by his own experiences. “I saw – and still do see – myself as a migrant from the north,” he said.

The University itself is shaped by a history of migration. Tony outlined a couple of examples: “The University is part of this migrant history. There is the Zepler Institute, reflecting the contribution of electronic expert and refugee from Nazism, Erich Zepler, and the plaque commemorating prominent chemist, Martin Fleischmann, another refugee from the Third Reich who became a Professor of Electrochemistry at Southampton in the ‘60s.

“Another notable migrant is Edgar Feuchtwanger, who came to the UK in 1939 as a child refugee from a German Jewish family and took up a scholarship at Winchester College. Then from 1959 to 1989, he taught History at the University of Southampton.”

Migrant moments

Last year, Tony published some of the fascinating trials and tribulations of migrant Southampton in a new book, Southampton’s Migrant Past and Present. To coincide with this, he has developed a walking tour of the city to highlight migration from medieval times to today.

The book and the tour feature notable clues to the city’s migrant history, outlining what has happened and where. Tony produced these in partnership with Southampton City Council as part of 2020’s Mayflower 400 commemorations (marking the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower ship’s sailing from England to America), and with a range of community groups in the city.

One example of Southampton’s migrant history is a brick wall in front of the Grand Harbour Hotel which features graffiti by American soldiers waiting to go to Normandy in 1944. “Over one million American GIs went through Southampton to France during the Second World War,” said Tony. “Some of them scratched their initials and the date on that wall. It’s a metaphor for Southampton’s migrant past – it’s something that was there and is now hidden.

“The millionth American GI who left Southampton in October 1944, Private Paul Shimer, was celebrated and met the Mayor. He was sadly hit by a German landmine just weeks before the end of the war and was one of the tens of thousands who died in Normandy.”

Another period outlined in the book is the 1920s when Southampton was home to the largest trans-migrant camp in the world. On the site that is now Southampton Airport, was a mini-city full of migrants trying to get to America. Some of them lived in this temporary camp – known as Atlantic Park Hostel – for up to nine years.

Tony explained: “This camp became home to Ukrainian Jewish refugees who had escaped civil war and famine in Ukraine in the early 1920s and were looking to reach America. But America closed its doors from 1921 to 1924.”

A large American naval base was set up at what is now Southampton Airport. Refugees were supposed to stay there for a week to be checked, then go to America. But on arrival in America, they were refused entry and sent back to their port of departure. Consequently, Atlantic Park Hostel became a temporary home to up to 1,000 people at a time.

“It was a whole mini-city,” said Tony. “But there is nothing in the busy airport that would recognise that history now. It’s a national memory that locally is largely forgotten.”

Tony’s book also profiles the history of Canal Walk, a hub of vibrant immigrant communities from the late 19th century through to the late 1930s.

“Canal Walk has an interesting history,” Tony outlined. “It was a place of excitement and danger. It was full of lock-up shops, market stalls and prostitutes. It was a hyperimmigrant street, selling cheap food and cheap clothing.

“Tommy Cooper performed in an Italian restaurant in Canal Walk in his early days, and Benny Hill’s father owned a rubber shop, selling primitive contraception, there. Benny Hill could famously speak about eight languages – some of which he picked up from his links to Canal Walk’s multiculturalism.”

Parkes Institute support

Southampton’s Migrant Past and Present was published with support from the University’s Parkes Institute for the study of Jewish/nonJewish Relations.

Dr Claire Le Foll, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Parkes Institute, said: “James Parkes was a reverend and did a lot for refugees in the early ‘30s. He was a scholar and researched Jewish-Christian relations, and he gave his archives to the University of Southampton in the ‘60s.”

Southampton’s Migrant Past and Present, with artwork and printing by the Design and Print Centre at the University of Southampton, was published in 2021 and is available to buy here: tinyurl.com/3b3a6wya

Above: Professor Tony Kushner in the Parkes Library at the University of Southampton

Left: The enormous dining hall at Atlantic Park Hostel

Below left: Bathers in Southampton Water, disturbed by the wash of a passing steamer bound for America, with first class, second class, third class and steerage passengers: by local artist Sam Smith. Image courtesy of Southampton City Art Gallery

Below right: ‘The Millionth Yank’: Private Paul Shimer, the millionth American soldier to leave for the D-Day invasions from Southampton, with the Mayor, 2o October 1944

FUTURE TRANSPORT FUNDING

Effective transport of people and goods in and around any region is vital. For an area like the Solent, which sits next to the water and includes a populated island, it becomes even more fundamental.

The Transportation Research Group, in the School of Engineering, has been working for the past 10 years to help develop sustainable transport, both locally and globally. One of its most recent and largest projects has been contributing directly to the City of Southampton and the Solent area through the Future Transport Zones (FTZ) programme funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), to help make journeys easier, smarter, and greener.

“The Solent Future Transport Zone provides real-world testing for experts, allowing them to work with a range of local organisations such as councils, hospitals, airports and universities to test and trial innovative ways to transport people and goods,” explained John Preston, Professor in Rail Transport.

“The Transportation Research Group has been involved in running many investigations and assessments of innovative approaches to transport across the Solent region. As these tests and trials take place, we’re conducting research, capturing data, and inviting feedback to understand whether these innovations are improving transport options and the way people travel.”

The Solent Future Transport Zone was awarded £28.8 million from the DfT in 2020, around £5 million of which is being used by the Transportation Research Group to lead

on research and development of personal mobility and sustainable urban logistics.

“Through the Solent FTZ we are working in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth and Solent Transport, which is made up of Southampton City Council, Portsmouth City Council, Isle of Wight Council, and Hampshire County Council,” said John.

“I am leading on the Personal Mobility theme, and for this, we are researching, developing, and testing a Mobility as a Service, or MaaS, app. This is a new superapp by which users can plan, book, and pay for journeys across all public transport modes plus cycling, walking, driving, car clubs and e-scooters in Southampton.”

Working with the MaaS provider, Trafi, and their partners the Behavioural Insights Team and Unicard, John’s team is undertaking attitudinal surveys and stated preference experiments to investigate barriers and incentives to the uptake and use of the MaaS app and Human Factor methods in terms of benchmarking and iterative inclusive design.

“We are examining interventions that stimulate travel behaviour change to reduce private car usage, making travel journeys smarter and greener within the

Solent region,” said John. “We are also undertaking monitoring and evaluation to assess the extent that the FTZ programme as a whole will change travel behaviour, reduce congestion, improve air quality, tackle climate change and transform the Solent region into a better place to live and work.”

In addition to MaaS, this includes consideration of initiatives related to micro mobility, such as e-scooters, e-bikes, dynamic demand responsive transport, lift-sharing, mobility credits and local mobility hubs.

The second theme the Transportation Research Group is involved in is Sustainable Urban Freight which is being led by Tom Cherrett, Professor of Logistics and Transport Management.

Tom explained, “The University is examining the extent to which the concepts of macroconsolidation, this is where many individual deliveries from a business are combined at a regional distribution centre into one load, for delivery to a single or adjacent business customers, and micro-consolidation concepts such as the use of e-cargo bikes and foot portering, can be developed.

“In addition, the role of aerial drones is being assessed, particularly concerning the distribution of medical supplies on the Isle of Wight.”

Top: Professor Tom Cherrett

Using drones for delivery has the potential to substantially reduce the time it takes to get crucial medical test results for hospital patients or deliver lifesaving medicines to remote parts of the country such as the Isle of Wight.

Working in collaboration with King’s College London, Tom’s team is developing the systems required to manage the flight paths of drones and test the types of drones best suited for making deliveries beyond the visual range of the pilot.

“Our involvement in The Solent Future Transport Zone programme is an integral part of our duty and strategy as a civic university,” said John. “Southampton and the Solent region are benefitting from the project as we work with the numerous local partners to improve the lives and environment of people across all the diverse communities our institution encompasses.”

Find out more solent-transport.com

FROM BUGS TO BUTTERFLIES

The Transportation Research Group (TRG) has also been involved in an innovative EU-funded project, where seven city authorities in the UK and Europe are transforming parts of their neighbourhoods from being car-orientated spaces to being childfriendly and community-oriented places. Southampton is one of these.

The other partner cities involved in the project called Metamorphosis EU, which, which were chosen to represent a wide variety of demographic and location characteristics, are Graz in Austria, Meran in Italy, Munich in Germany, Tilburg in the Netherlands, Alba Iulia in Romania and Zurich in Switzerland.

Each city is working with an academic or enterprise partner to take the lead for a different strand of the project, with the overall aim of improving quality of life, and the physical and mental health of their citizens. The TRG is taking the lead on the ‘user analysis and involvement’ work package.

All seven cities have plans to implement a series of trials to encourage more ‘child-friendly neighbourhoods’, to show what can be achieved, and build on the availability of shared space, play streets, living laboratories,

crystallisation points, and use of other public spaces and associated interventions.

This includes encouraging integrated planning that promotes walking and cycling and sustainable travel generally, instead of using the car. It also involves developing innovative approaches to local urban design, that engage both children and adults as stakeholders and participants in the development and building process, as well as enabling and simplifying city procedures for the planning and implementation of childfriendly neighbourhood measures and activities.

The TRG has provided a systematic review of interventions and measures that are being applied by the local case studies. In Southampton, interventions in the Old Town and Sholing neighbourhoods have included street closures and are being monitored and evaluated. In Metamorphosis Global, TRG investigated the scope for developing similar concepts in two locations in Bangladesh.

Find out more metamorphosis-project.eu

Above: Professor John Preston

WHERE OLD AND NEW COLLIDE

Established as a ‘royal forest’ in 1079, the New Forest is steeped in historic traditions. It has many unique attributes – including specific land laws. Sarah Nield, Professor of Property Law at the University of Southampton, regularly gets called upon to advise on these laws.

The 566-square-kilometre New Forest is unique in many ways. It is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed pastureland, heathland and forest in southern England –and it has stayed that way thanks to age-old traditions and laws.

The New Forest is the home of the New Forest Commoners, and it is their ancient rights of common pasture that allow animals to wander freely.

Professor Sarah Nield, an expert on New Forest law who lives in Brockenhurst in the heart of the New Forest, has researched and advised on the specific situation in the New Forest for the past 20 years.

“Legally speaking, it’s unique,” she said. “For example, it’s called a ‘forest’ not because there are areas of trees but because originally ‘forest’ was a legal definition to which Forest Law applied. We don’t have much of Forest Law left, but we do have specific legislation that applies to the New Forest.”

Medieval origins

Commoners’ Rights, which apply to the New Forest Commoners, date back to medieval times.

“The animals wandering around the Forest are all owned by people who own properties to which Commoners’ Rights are attached,” explained Sarah. “These are rights that were created in medieval times, which allowed the owners of these properties to let their stock graze on the Forest.”

It is Commoners’ Rights that allow pigs out to graze in autumn – this is the right of pannage, an important part of the Forest’s ecology, as large quantities of acorns can be poisonous to ponies and cattle, but pigs can eat them without any problem.

Commoners’ Rights in the New Forest are recorded in an Atlas of Commoners’ Rights, which is maintained by the Court of Verderers. The Verderers are a group of unpaid individuals – an Official Verderer, five elected Verderers and four appointed Verderers – who regulate and protect the interests of the Commoners.

“It’s quite unique that we have a Court of Verderers,” said Sarah, who has often been called upon to advise the Verderers. “The only other places to have such courts are Epping Forest and the Forest of Dean.”

She added: “The Court of Verderers also has medieval origins. In its modern form, it uses more recent legislation, but its job is in the main the same as it’s always been: to regulate Commoners’ Rights and to protect the landscape upon which those rights depend. Anything that might interfere with Commoners’ Rights, like a new building, fencing or a change in land use, needs to be approved by the Verderers. They are an important control over the conservation of the Forest and, without them, protecting the New Forest and Commoners’ rights would be much more challenging.

“The Verderers get asked all sorts of things – whether they would allow electric bikes to go across permitted cycle ways, for example, or whether a mobile phone mast can be erected somewhere. The origins of the Verderers court might be old, but they have to deal with very important contemporary issues affecting the Forest.”

Professor Sarah Nield

The New Forest in winter

SOCIAL NETWORKING BROUGHT TO LIFE

Empowering students to lead social change is the core of the Social Impact Lab’s work. Here in Southampton, the Lab’s work is making a lasting impact on neighbourhoods in the city.

Established five years ago to support both undergraduates and postgraduates to lead social change, the Social Impact Lab has addressed social challenges around the world.

But with its roots in Southampton, the Lab is driving positive change in one corner of the city where it is most needed.

The Social Impact Lab’s local project, launched in 2021, is called Home/grown SO14 – and is focused on the neighbourhoods of Northam, Newtown, and St Mary’s.

The initiative, which was a flagship project in Southampton’s City of Culture bid earlier this year, has received five years’ worth of funding from the National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (profiled on page 24).

Dr Pathik Pathak, Founding Director of the Social Impact Lab, explained: “The project is focused on data-driven approaches to enable residents in the SO14 area to make their neighbourhoods healthy, creative and sustainable. We want to create research impact pathways into the area to inform

neighbourhood projects, but also student engagement pathways.

“We often hear that students feel that they do not belong in Southampton, or that they do not really know the areas in which they live. Increasingly, the University has a big footprint in SO14. We now have the Sir James Matthews Building and the John Hansard Gallery, and we have student accommodation in the area, as well as many student houses. We want to help create a sense of connection between student communities and local communities.”

A trio of projects

Three community projects are running under the Home/grown SO14 banner.

The first is Ropewalk Community Garden, in Derby Road.

“Every month, student volunteers visit and work with local residents to help maintain this garden and grow vegetables, and at the end of the day everyone shares a meal together,” said Pathik.

In October 2022, former MasterChef winner and Southampton restaurateur Shelina Permalloo visited and cooked at the garden, using vegetables grown on-site to make dishes including pesto with mint and coriander, and beetroot patties.

The second is That’s Not Fly, a project addressing the issue of fly-tipping.

Pathik outlined: “In Newtown in particular, fly-tipping is a scourge. Social Impact Lab fellows are working with schoolchildren at Mount Pleasant Junior School to map fly-tipping hotspots in the area, which they intend to report to Southampton City Council with an aim to influence policy change concerning fly-tipping.”

The third is the Living Murals project, to create a living mural in Newtown. Textile workshops have taken place with children and adults to create the mural, which will be displayed in Ropewalk Community Garden.

Mutual benefits

As well as being a fantastic vehicle for University students to make a social impact and connect with the city they’re living in, Home/grown SO14 is bringing clear wins to the local communities.

1 SO14 residents and the Home/grown SO14 team and partners

2 Children in Southampton writing what they would like to see in their community, for a Social Impact Lab project facilitated by the Zest Arts Collective, called Imagine 2030

3 Ropewalk Community Garden

4 MasterChef winner Shelina Permalloo cooking at Ropewalk Community Garden

“It’s the first time that the University has really gone out into that community,” said Pathik. “It’s a very under-served community, with significant challenges around health and crime. Residents typically feel that the University is aloof, an ivory tower, physically and symbolically a long way away. When students and staff come to these areas, it humanises the University.

“Young people in these neighbourhoods can see that they can aspire to go to the University of Southampton. They can see what is possible, and it creates really great human connections.”

Find out more homegrownso14.org

Medical breakthroughs that have changed – and saved – lives have come out of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). The Centre turns scientific discoveries into treatments, diagnostics, and medical technologies for patients – and it is about to grow to almost double its size.

BIOMEDICAL BRILLIANCE

A thriving partnership that celebrated the milestone of 50 years this year is growing at an impressive rate, bringing biomedical breakthroughs into everyday patient care across the south.

The NIHR BRC is a longstanding partnership between the University of Southampton and the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

In October 2022, the NIHR announced a major funding boost of £25 million for the next five years for the Southampton BRC. It is an increase of more than 70 per cent on the £14.5 million the centre received in 2017 to 2022, and will enable the centre to build on its world-leading research and medical advancements.

Professor Mike Grocott, Director-Designate of Southampton NIHR BRC, Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine and former Vice President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said: “Southampton has a proven ability to translate discovery research into benefit for patients and the public, the health and care system, and the broader economy. Achieving the funding for the next five years was a tough competition and, at each stage, themes or institutions did not get through. I’m really delighted that Southampton has done so well. We have had a big uplift too, which is a huge vote of confidence from the NIHR.”

Bigger focus

Over the past five years, the BRC focused on nutrition and respiratory/critical care with cross-cutting themes in infection, data science, and behaviour change. This saw, for example, the BRC play a key role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, with researchers across disciplines enhancing COVID-19 prevention, diagnostics, and treatments.

Enabled by the funding boost, which begins in December 2022, the BRC will expand to five ‘themes’, within which it will develop new treatments and diagnostics:

• Nutrition, Lifestyle and Metabolism

• Respiratory and Allergy

• Data, Health and Society

• Microbiology, Immunology and Infection

• Perioperative and Critical Care

Within these themes, areas of focus for the BRC in the immediate future include preconception nutritional screening; novel interventions for inflammatory lung diseases; air pollution and anti-allergy interventions; rapid diagnostics for infections; vaccines; and promoting physiological resilience before and after surgery.

Data science is also a priority, so researchers will be working to link different systems within a trusted research environment.

Mike outlined: “The growth to five themes will change the character of the BRC. We have focused on having a shared common vision and integrating that across the themes, putting a lot of focus on inclusion and collaboration.”

Prioritising people

Developing BRC researchers’ careers –while keeping patients front and centre – is at the heart of the BRC’s vision for the next five years.

“Our plans are very people-focused,” said Mike. “Our funding application was put together in collaboration with our Patient Council, which is integral to how we run the BRC at every level. We also have a big focus on training and career development for our researchers over the coming years – research is a people game, it’s about developing the next generation of researchers, so a lot of the funding is going into early and mid-career development.”

Leading on from this, the BRC is appointing an Equity Champion to lead on another priority – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

“We are getting better at bringing people into the professions, but we are much less good at getting them into research and keeping them in research,” explained Mike. “There are many fewer female professors, for example. The same is true in terms of ethnicity. We are addressing this by focusing on open, transparent processes and ensuring all communities can access opportunities, particularly in terms of developing themselves through PhDs and postdoctoral roles.”

Concluding, Mike said: “There is a lot of hard work to be done, but through our plans, we will continue to change the lives of the people in Southampton, Wessex and beyond through the research we do.”

Find out more southamptonbrc.nihr.ac.uk

“Southampton has a proven ability to translate discovery research into benefit for patients and the public, the health and care system, and the broader economy."

Professor Mike Grocott

Top In the BRC lab: Aidan Lingwood, Anastasia De la Haye, Ryan Elliott and Eloise Summerton

Left Phedra Marius aliquoting (splitting samples)

Right A young research participant at the BRC

INVESTIGATING THE PORT’S IMPACT

Southampton is home to one of the UK’s major ports. It is the busiest cruise terminal and one of the largest container ports in the UK. But what impact might that be having on the city’s residents’ health? A project at the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is finding out.

The Port of Southampton is a hive of activity. With five cruise terminals and an extremely busy cargo port, the numbers of ships, lorries, cars, and machinery using the port are high –with inevitable emissions associated with each and every one.

A project led by BRC researcher Dr Matthew Loxham is investigating the potential effects of emissions from the port on respiratory health.

He said: “Particulate matter – the dust particles in the air – is regulated and monitored based on quantity, but that doesn’t take into account the different sources of particles, which vary hugely. There is the potential for these particles, as they are so different from one another, to have very different impacts on your health.”

Matthew’s project began in 2018 when a big focus on ‘Clean Air Zones’ in cities was emerging. “Cars and road vehicles have received the lion’s share of the attention,” he said. “But in cities with ports, there hasn’t been the same focus on the emissions of ships and the industries they bring. We wanted to find out what the characteristics of port emissions are, and whether they might

pose more or less of a risk to health than road vehicles.”

Matthew and PhD student Natasha Easton used a device called a High Volume Cascade Impactor (HVCI) to collect particle samples at different sites in Southampton and filter them according to size. They took samples at the University’s Boldrewood Innovation Campus (for a non-dock location), a dock gate where HGVs arrive and depart, a cruise ship terminal, a cargo ship terminal, and next to a large metal scrap pile.

The HVCI filters particles according to where they would land within the respiratory system, roughly corresponding to the upper airways, lower airways, and deeper parts of the lung where gases enter and leave the blood, respectively.

“We chemically analysed these particles, which showed that these different sites provided particles with different compositions associated with both their sources and their size,” said Matthew.

Biological responses

The project team is investigating the biological responses to the particles they collected using cellular models of the airways and the alveoli to represent the tissues, on a dish.

“We have found that there are some clear differences in how the cells respond, depending on the size and source of the particles,” said Matthew. “Exposure to particulate matter air pollution, in general, is associated with exacerbations of respiratory

diseases such as asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Even people in good health might find themselves experiencing a tight chest, cough, itchy nose, or dry eyes, on days when particulate matter levels are high.

“Longer term – or chronic – exposure, from a year up to a lifetime, is now beginning to be associated with an increased risk of developing some of these diseases. But we don’t yet know the extent to which exposure to air pollution causes these diseases. We also don’t understand the extent to which particulate matter from different sources may result in quantitatively or quantitatively different effects on health.”

Enabled by the NIHR Southampton BRC’s partnership between the University and the University Hospital Southampton, as well as collaborations with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute, the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and the Faculty of Engineering, Matthew and his team have been able to collect and monitor the air pollution that people are exposed to, as well as understanding some of its potential biological effects. Through the BRC, they now aim to look at how these exposures may be associated with different clinical outcomes, and how this might happen.

Matthew is developing a programme of work that will study the associations between various aspects of air pollution exposure and lung disease, and further refine it to look at specific sources of emissions.

CHALLENGE ON

More than 50 students from Southampton Business School have taken part in a challenge which saw them work with real-world businesses, including a Southampton-based company, to solve a business issue for a real-life client.

The Southampton Business School Business Challenge included students from across all year groups and programmes working in small teams with clients, to co-create a brief that aimed to tackle the businesses’ challenges whilst developing the students’ transferrable skills and enhancing their employability.

“As a small business based in Southampton, gaining access to talented Business School students and working with them on a critical area of my business was invaluable,” said Kate Healey, Director of Kate Healey Happy Ltd, a Law of Attraction Coaching and Consulting Company.

“I briefed the students on my Happiest You Programme, an online programme designed to help people feel happier, for businesses to use as part of their employee wellbeing package. I tasked them with creating a marketing strategy including a social media plan.”

As part of the challenge, students had to conduct surveys or short interviews with a sample of local employers, research current trends in employee assistance programmes and corporate health and wellbeing, research company budget allocations for employee assistance programmes, and provide return-on-investment metrics to justify the implementation of the programme for companies.

“I had regular contact with the students throughout the challenge, so they could ask me questions or test ideas,” said Kate. “The outcomes were useful in helping me better

understand the competitive landscape and refining my marketing activities to align to the new customer segments that we identified.”

The challenge was hosted on the experiential learning platform, Riipen, which was used for client communication and is invaluable as part of the Business School’s suite of tools to enable more experiential education.

“I opted to take part in the Business Challenge to gain some insight into working for a real business and putting my skills to the test in providing actual ideas and solutions,” said Peizhang Gong, MSc Business Analytics and Management Sciences student. “Kate was fantastic to work with because she really let us into her business and gave us a great understanding of what she did and the challenges she faced. The whole experience has given me a real appetite for getting out into industry.”

CEPAR

The Careers, Employability, Placements and Alumni Relations (CEPAR) team supports Southampton Business School’s strategy to ‘attract a diverse body of ambitious, agile and talented students to whom we provide a transformative experience to become responsible and resilient future leaders’.

Find out more southampton.ac.uk/about/ faculties-schools-departments/ southampton-business-school

CEPAR

aims to:

• Enable Southampton Business School students to build their portfolio of technical and non-technical knowledge and skills throughout their student journey by taking part in a wide range of employability-enhancing experiences.

• Offer a high-quality, award-winning, Student Placements service, taking pride in working closely with employers locally, nationally, and internationally. It places 100 students on average per year at wellknown brand names as well as local SMEs.

• Connect, build, and partner with Southampton Business School alumni to create a mutually supportive community that benefits current students in diverse ways.

• Embed experiential learning throughout the curriculum to ensure that all students can engage in real-world experiences that will enable them to apply subject-specific knowledge, while at the same time developing their nontechnical, transferable skills including problem-solving, teamwork, client liaison, and communication.

Kate Healey presents to the Business Challenge students

GOOD ADVICE

Ten years ago, Professor AbuBakr Bahaj paved the way for stronger city-university relations when he became the first Chief Scientific Advisor to a local authority in the UK.

Professor AbuBakr Bahaj’s close working relationship with Southampton City Council has led to joint projects and opportunities.

Since instigating and taking up the role of Chief Scientific Advisor to the Council in 2012, AbuBakr has advised the authority on matters relating to the environment and energy, from housing and green spaces to resourcing and transport.

AbuBakr, Professor of Sustainable Energy and Head of the University’s Energy and Climate Change Division and the Sustainable Energy Research Group, has worked with the Council to secure funding to get projects off the ground.

One example is CareTeam, a joint project between the University, the City Council and data company NquiringMinds. CareTeam, part-funded by Innovate UK, developed digital support – an app and household and personal sensing technologies – to support independent living and to help carers to better support their loved ones.

AbuBakr also supported the City Council’s introduction of its Green City Charter, to which 72 organisations in the city have signed up.

The Charter features five ‘decarbonising’ pillars for the city to work towards. As part of this, a team at the University developed

an online tracker for Green City signatories to track their progress against the Charter’s green goals.

Establishing relations

AbuBakr joined the University in 1997 and has, ever since, worked with undergraduates on projects related to Southampton, how it operates and the facilities available to residents.

“I really focused on the fact that here is a city that’s surrounded by water, yet we don’t have a lot of water facilities for citizens to enjoy,” he said. “I have supervised group design projects in the past with students to try to unlock waterfront locations. I would regularly telephone the Chief Executive of Southampton City Council to tell him about the projects and encourage the Council to look at them.”

This early relationship with the Council developed until Labour’s Richard Williams was appointed as Council Leader and proposed to the Vice Chancellor, then Professor Don Nutbeam, that AbuBakr be appointed as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Council. Professor Nutbeam approved this and AbuBakr officially took on the role, half a day a week.

“I was on the Sustainability Committee and attended Council meetings, advising them on anything related to the environment and energy,” said AbuBakr. “I advised them on how the city could be improved in terms of housing, green spaces, resources and transport.”

Constant changes

As is the nature of politics, the Leader of Southampton City Council has changed several times – five, in fact – since AbuBakr’s appointment.

After Councillor Richard Williams, AbuBakr worked with leaders Councillor Simon Letts – with whom he investigated how to better link Woolston to the city; Councillor Chris Hammond – with whom he instigated the Solent LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) Climate Commission to support businesses

to decarbonise; Councillor Daniel Fitzhenry – with whom he concentrated on growth around the city; and now Labour Leader Satvir Kaur – with whom he has regular conversations about growth, carbon and the environment.

“The role of Chief Scientific Advisor has strengthened the relationship between the University, the Council, and the city,” explained AbuBakr.

The Leader of Southampton City Council, Councillor Satvir Kaur, said: “We really appreciate the expertise that Professor Bahaj brings to the table, particularly on a wide range of issues that we work together on. We look forward to working with him in the future as we work together towards our net zero and environmental goals for the city”.

Formalising the role

AbuBakr is now working with Professor Alan Penn from University College London, who is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. “Professor Penn and I are working on formalising the role of Chief Scientific Advisor to local authorities and introducing the role to more areas of the UK,” said AbuBakr.

The success of AbuBakr’s work with Southampton City Council is already being recognised in other regions. In 2020, Professor Nick Eyre, from the University of Oxford, was appointed as Oxford City Council’s first Scientific Advisor.

The Civic Centre and clock tower in Southampton

Professor AbuBakr Bahaj

“I attended Council meetings, advising them on anything related to the environment and energy. I advised them on how the city could be improved in terms of housing, green spaces, resources and transport.”

SMART GOALS

Fawley Waterside will be Europe’s first purpose-built ‘smart town’. Data and technology will help the town to learn, adapt and evolve – and Southampton academics are helping to make this happen.

The ambitions for the site of the former Fawley power station are big. Outline planning permission has been granted to the developer, Fawley Waterside Ltd, for 1,500 homes and commercial facilities that could create more than 2,500 jobs on the site that overlooks Southampton Water.

These 1,500 homes will be smart homes in a smart environment for a smart community – showcasing how we should live in the 21st century.

Fawley Waterside’s vision is ‘to build one of the most beautiful small towns in England’. The site is currently being prepared for development, with the decommissioned power station being demolished.

All images are artist’s impressions of Fawley Waterside, and are courtesy of Fawley Waterside Ltd

Expertise from the University will inform both the technological and sociological aspects of the innovative and trailblazing development as it takes shape.

Socio-technical input

For Fawley Waterside to achieve its ambitions, one necessity is to take a socio-technology approach to the development from day one –and this is where the University’s Web Science Institute (WSI) is stepping in.

The WSI is part of the Core Technical Group (along with Cisco, IBM, Siemens and Vodafone) that is charged with ensuring the town has ‘intelligent’ infrastructure. Back-end connectivity, customer data, high-capacity connectivity, smart energy and smart

buildings are amongst the remit on which the group is advising Fawley Waterside – along with data protection and data privacy, which will sit at the core of all the technology.

Some of the potential applications in Fawley Waterside include a local social network, environmental monitoring, a services portal, smart homes (smart lighting, heating and energy meters, voice-controlled applications), and automated health monitoring.

The WSI’s expertise brings the technical and social aspects together. Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science and Associate Vice President (International Engagement), and Pauline Leonard, Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean (Research

and Enterprise) in the Faculty of Social Sciences, are both Executive Directors of the WSI.

Dame Wendy said: “In the WSI, computer scientists and social scientists work together to understand how the provision of the technology might affect the people living in Fawley Waterside and how they, in turn, might shape the technological design and data governance policies. Data protection and data privacy is central to this and will be paramount in any plans for technology provision at Fawley Waterside.”

Professor Leonard, who has expertise in the sociological aspects of community building and community cohesion, added:

“Large new communities, such as Fawley Waterside, are burgeoning throughout the whole Southampton and Hampshire region, as the area is a major target for housing and new development. Many of our small towns are escalating in size. This changes the social mix of the community as well as the balance between rural and urban.

“Many of these new estates are housing people from overseas, so the social backgrounds of people in the region are changing, bringing new questions about social cohesion, the multiculturalism of our towns and communities, and the kinds of community events which can bring people together.”

Find out more fawleywaterside.co.uk

“In the Web Science Institute, computer scientists and social scientists work together to understand how the provision of the technology might affect the people living in Fawley Waterside.”

Professor Dame Wendy Hall

A new business centre is coming to Southampton. The Future Towns Innovation Hub will be a joint industry-academic Centre of Excellence. It will bring together expertise, skills and knowledge, alongside state-of-the-art research laboratories, which can be easily accessed by local businesses and enterprises to advance innovation in the local area.

TRANSFORMING TOWNS

Based at the University of Southampton Science Park in Chilworth, Southampton, the Future Towns Innovation Hub’s creation has been led by the University in partnership with Research England and the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, both of which have provided funding.

“There was existing University estate which was outdated and not being used,” explained Paul Kemp, Professor of Ecological Engineering at the University. “Our task has been to reconfigure and update the site to deliver a transformational open innovation facility. The Future Towns Innovation Hub is focused on ‘Transforming and Connecting Future Towns and Small Cities in the Enterprise M3 area’, with the aim of enhancing the prosperity, health and wellbeing of the people living here.”

At the heart of the project is the question ‘What do future towns look like and how do they work to benefit the people living and working in them?’. The Innovation Hub team

has been working for the last two years on creating a facility which will go some way to answering that question and providing practical solutions to the problems facing our towns – now and in the future.

“Working with the University Enterprise Units in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with support from Future Worlds, SETsquared, GreenTech South and Southampton Science Park, the Hub will be able to help companies find solutions to current problems and work together to translate research into real-world changes,” said Paul.

“There will be three distinct areas on the Innovation Hub site,” he explained. “Laboratories and facilities to enable academics to undertake world-leading research in a range of sectors such as ecohydraulics, electronics, automotive, energy generation and storage and unmanned systems. Then there is office and workshop space for technology companies who want a base in the Enterprise M3 area whilst

being on the doorstep of easily accessible research and innovation activity. Lastly, there will be a ‘Hub’, which is an open working and social space for everyone using the site to come together, meet, collaborate, share ideas and make contacts.”

The key aim of the Innovation Hub is to create an environment for the innovative translation of research to commercial applications that will contribute to the economic growth of the region.

“The Hub will provide not only the space but the environment to enable interactions between business and academia to identify impediments to improving quality of life and economic outcomes, which will be addressed through the co-creation of solutions,” explained Paul. “Being situated centrally within the Science Park’s Engineering Centre, it will capitalise on the innovation, technology transfer and business growth capability which is inherent in the Science Park’s operation.”

Science Park CEO, Dr Robin Chave, commented: “Southampton Science Park, already a magnet for the commercialisation of research and new technologies in the South, is uniquely positioned to host this new facility and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this exciting initiative. I’m confident that the positive societal impacts arising from the outputs of this new centre will resonate significantly beyond our region’s boundaries and for generations to come.”

The state-of-the-art building has been designed by Nick Sherwood at Hampshirebased TKLS Architects and is due to be opened in 2023.

Find out more futuretowns.soton.ac.uk

Professor Paul Kemp

“The Future Towns Innovation Hub will be able to help companies find solutions to current problems and work together to translate research into real-world changes.”

Artist’s impressions of the interior and exterior of the Future Towns Hub supplied by TKLS Architects.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Southampton is a unique city in the south when it comes to wealth and deprivation, with stark contrasts in small areas. An interdisciplinary research project is looking at how this plays out when it comes to health inequalities.

Spatial health inequalities are easy to find in Southampton. Pockets of prolonged deprivation are next door to areas of significant wealth. This contrast leads to food insecurity in some areas – which in turn leads to health inequalities.

Dr Dianna Smith, Associate Professor within the School of Geography and Environmental Science, and Nisreen Alwan, Professor of Public Health, have joined forces to understand the picture and assess the measures in place to address the issues.

Outlining the situation, Dianna said: “Southampton is almost unique for a southern city. Some areas are very heavily deprived, but there are areas of real wealth as well. It’s similar to somewhere like Islington – a huge contrast over a small space – and it leads to masked deprivation, which means some people don’t see it or understand it.”

Dianna and Nisreen’s two-year DIET (Determining the Impact of food insEcurity in young families and Testing interventions)

project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration, began in November 2021. DIET was co-designed with Southampton City Council, with input from Hampshire County Council and Dorset Council.

“We are interested in spatial health inequalities – how we see differences in health in the population and what we can do about it,” said Dianna. “There are lots of different charities – food banks, community kitchens, food pantries – but what actually makes a difference to people’s health?”

Food banks

Dianna and Nisreen are working with Southampton City Mission, a charity that oversees five food banks in the city, and Southampton Social Aid Group, a cooperative that runs a food club.

Southampton City Mission has created a marketplace model – also known as a ‘pantry’ model – where members pay a small weekly fee to select food, rather than it being selected for them.

Above Free goods available at St Mary’s, Southampton, food bank

Centre Food pantry produce

Opposite A member shopping at a food bank in St Mary’s, Southampton

Right Claire and Elise, Millbrook Marketplace volunteer supervisors

“The marketplace model is thought to be more sustainable for food security because there is money coming in,” explained Dianna. “It also gives people a higher agency – they can choose what they want, rather than being handed a bag of goods. We’re hoping that people have a better experience, without some of the feelings of shame or embarrassment they might have from visiting a food bank.”

As part of DIET, Nisreen and Dianna are surveying food pantry users to ask about their diet, food security and mental health – before and after using the pantry.

They are also surveying the staff and volunteers who run the services to find out what challenges they face. “There are, for example, all the procedural challenges,” said Dianna. “The increasing competition for surplus food is an interesting issue now, so there is a reduction in food donations coming to food aid charities.”

Resources for improvement

The main output of the DIET project will be a set of freely-available resources that charities and local authorities can use to identify and improve food insecurity in their neighbourhoods.

“Councils and other organisations are asked to put money behind different charities to deal with food aid,” said Dianna. “The reality is the way we address food shortages is through food banks and pantries. If we’re following this model, we need to know what is working for people and what is not, and which areas are most in need. This research is helping to answer those questions.

“We also want to identify the challenges in setting up food banks and pantries. The main challenges we are hearing about are finding a space, finding and keeping volunteers, and then getting the goods.”

Dr

Dianna Smith

“We are interested in spatial health inequalities – how we see differences in health in the population and what we can do about it.”

MAKING HEALTH SUPERHEROES

Early LifeLab, which takes health messages and the science behind them into primary schools, has received funding from Southampton City Council to help tackle the issue of childhood obesity among schoolchildren in the city.

LifeLab at the University of Southampton has been running for 12 years as a successful programme for secondary school students that combines a hospital and school-based education approach, in which scientists and educators create experiences aimed at increasing scientific and health literacy among young people through raising awareness of the underlying science behind health messages.

Early LifeLab is a development of this approach for primary school children, recognising the opportunity of working with children earlier in their lives and reaching out into families. Following funding from Southampton City Council, the programme is being developed to tackle obesity among primary school children in the city over the next three years.

This project is a collaboration between the Public Health team at Southampton City Council, the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, the University Hospital Southampton, and the University. Both the Widening Participation and Social Mobility teams at the University have contributed direct funding alongside the Council.

Dr Kath Woods-Townsend, Programme Manager for LifeLab, explained: “Tackling obesity in children was already on our agenda at LifeLab pre-COVID, but the pandemic and its effects have brought the issue even more to the fore.

“Childhood obesity in the UK is a major public health problem. In 2019/2020, nearly one in four children in the first year of primary school were overweight or obese. Throughout the pandemic, these levels have got worse, highlighting the need for new approaches and we are dedicated to helping in our local community as much as possible.”

Left Children at Maytree School, Southampton, who have benefitted from the Early LifeLab programme

Right Video shoot with the Health Warriors for Early LifeLab resources

Debbie Chase is the Director of Public Health at Southampton City Council. She explained: “The opportunity for children in the city to have access to the LifeLab resources is very much in line with our work in early health prevention and education messages. Programmes like this are essential in helping our community recover from the pandemic and build positive outcomes for the future.”

The beginnings Early LifeLab began development in 2014 as a collaboration with local schools and teachers. The primary phase of education provides a unique opportunity to work in a cross-curricular way, embedding health messages across the curriculum. The approach builds on the principles of LifeLab, but offers the educational programme to children in-school using ‘Flight Cases.’

The flight case approach helps teachers to deliver health-related teaching using scientific enquiry to explore the science behind the health messages. It supports behaviour change in children using a series of ‘teaching toolkits.’ There are a series of modules which span the primary phase of education and make the science behind the need for a healthy diet, physical activity and sleep accessible to children. These help them to discover why this matters for themselves, supporting children and their families in making healthy choices.

Donna Lovelock, the Early LifeLab Programme Lead, said: “We know this is an effective setting to reach a large population of children across all communities, and we provide all the tools teachers need to deliver health messages in an engaging way.”

THE HEALTH WARRIORS

The Health Warriors were cocreated with local primary school children, they are a group of characters with individual ‘superpowers’ to support children’s learning about different aspects of their health, alongside Ace the Scientist who introduces the science behind the messages.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, LifeLab worked with local primary school children to design, develop and implement the successful COVID-19 Warriors programme with funding from the Department of Health and Social Care. The COVID-19 Warriors are now being transformed into Health Warriors.

The Early LifeLab programme will be available to all primary phase settings in Southampton.

“Working with young people to support the city’s recovery from the pandemic will be critical in helping local communities thrive,” added Kath. “We are delighted to be working with Southampton City Council on this important initiative and look forward to rolling out Early LifeLab to as many local schools as possible.”

Find out more lifelabonline.org

Public engagement with academic research is mutually beneficial. It brings new perspectives, better understanding, and public trust to the research, and it informs and involves the public – both locally in Southampton and more widely.

PERu is the University team at the heart of this, inspiring and supporting highquality public engagement across all disciplines. PERu facilitates networks, supports community engagement hubs, runs public engagement training, awards seed funding for engagement projects, and facilitates partnerships between researchers and the public.

The team also oversees two festivals each year – the Southampton Arts and Humanities Festival, and the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival (SOTSEF) – showcasing and demonstrating research across disciplines.

Jo James, Director of PERu, said: “From inspiring and informing through to participation and co-creation, engaging people with the University’s research helps us to build understanding, listening and learning from each other and responding positively through dialogue and partnership.”

The project focused on the power of public involvement in hand-related research. Tinashe has woven patient experience into her PhD research on hand osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease that affects the hand joints.

This project was created alongside members of the public to develop an educational website to raise awareness of what it is like to live with hand osteoarthritis and demonstrate to the scientific research community the importance of working with patients to incorporate lived-experience insights into their decision-making processes – changing the engineering mindset.

PERu awards seed funding annually to develop public and community engagement with research. Here are some of the local projects it has recently supported.

Tinashe Munyebvu, Bioengineering PhD student

Southampton Science and Engineering Festival (SOTSEF) 2022

MICROBIAL NEIGHBOURING WILD CITIZENS!

Dr Paul Hurley and Professor Emma Roe, from Geography and Environmental Science, with Dr Sandra Wilks, from the School of Health Sciences, and Dr Charlotte Veal, from Newcastle University

‘From micro-passengers to microbial neighbouring’ explored the relationships we, as human beings, have with the (almost) invisible microbial community we share public transport with.

In the context of emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the project ran workshops to educate people about microbial communities, especially viruses, and discussed increased concern within society about hygiene.

Some of these workshops were illustrated by artist Sam Church and can be seen on the project’s website.

Find out more: neveraloneonthebus.org

Dr Andri Christodoulou, Associate Professor in Education, and Dr Marcus Grace, Professor of Science Education

This project enabled local primary school children to become active environmental citizens by teaching them about how to protect and enhance the wildlife in their school’s grounds and giving them the confidence to recognise that they can actively protect and increase wildlife – and really make a difference.

The project initially worked with Kanes Hill Primary School, in Thornhill, Southampton, running an after-school science club, where they planted wildflowers, installed bird feeders and nest boxes, a bat box and created bug-friendly habitats. The ‘Wild Citizens’ presented their work to their parents and peers at their school, took part in the Science and Engineering Festival at the University and presented their work to children from other schools at a celebration event at the University. The project now continues at more Southampton schools.

IS THIS STREET MADE FOR ME?

Dr Alan Wong, Research Fellow within the Transportation Group, and Claudia Murg, of We Make Southampton

This project came about when Claudia Murg, Managing Director of We Make Southampton Community Media, learnt to drive a bus to use as a mobile office, and her experience of the roads of Southampton diversified. The bus has become a mobile office for the community media social enterprise she set up.

Claudia said: “The project team is aiming to capture and map the health of the city’s streets within the SO14 to SO19 postcodes, exploring how the environment created by the street design, street facilities, and the behaviour of fellow road users impacts our physical and emotional wellbeing and our sense of belonging. The perspectives of residents of all ages and from all backgrounds are being captured on film.”

Find out more: wemakesouthampton.co.uk

Above ‘Wild Citizens’ at Kanes Hill Primary School

Top The Wild Citizens project logo, co-designed with schoolchildren at Kanes Hill Primary School

Top Artist Sam Church captured discussions at Microbial Neighbouring workshops

Above Dr Alan Wong with Ros Best at a community event for We Make Southampton

Top Claudia Murg and the mobile office for We Make Southampton Community Media

Research award highlights RESEARCH AWARD HIGHLIGHTS

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Dr Emily-Rose Baker and Dr James Jordan; English, School of Humanities

Legacies of the Jewish Other in Slavic Horror Film British Academy; £310,245 over 36 months

Dr Stephanie Blankshein & Prof Fraser Sturt; School of Humanities

Water Penetrating Radar for freshwater archaeological survey British Academy; £6,610 over 12 months

Dr Crystal El Safadi; School of Humanities

Establishing the guiding principles for maritime heritage data and databases in the eastern Mediterranean: initial review of feasibility and potential Honor Frost Foundation; £19,810 over 12 months

FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Prof Jon Copley; School of Ocean and Earth Science

DEEPEND: Deep ocean resources and biodiscovery – enabling a sustainable and healthy low-carbon future Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; £74,976 over 12 months

Prof Paul Wilson; School of Ocean and Earth Science Transforming understanding of past abrupt shifts in aridity/humidity in the North African and Arabian dust belt and upskilling models to simulate them Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); £638,365 over 36 months

Prof Damon Teagle; School of Ocean and Earth Science Developing continuous volcano-stratigraphies across the South Atlantic Transect: NERC UK-IODP Moratorium support for Aled Evans –IODP Expedition 393 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); £68,334 over 12 months

Prof Damon Teagle; School of Ocean and Earth Science UK-IODP Moratorium Award for Lewis Grant – Shipboard Scientist IODP Exp 390 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); £34,487 over 12 months

Prof Damon Teagle; School of Ocean and Earth Science Quantifying the geochemical impacts of ocean crustal ageing: UK-IODP Moratorium Co-Chief Support for Expedition 393 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); £112,680 over 24 months

Prof Craig Hutton; School of Geography & Environmental Science DCC WASTING PROJECT UNICEF; £83,354 over 12 months

Associate Prof Katherine Newman-Taylor; School of Psychology Enhancing primary mental health care for people with early signs of psychosis; A Feasibility study National Institute of Health Research; £15,621 over 12 months

Prof Claire Foster; School of Health Sciences

Pre-op intentional weight loss to support post-op recovery in patients with obesity and colorectal cancer National Institute of Health Research; £19,089 over 24 months

Dr Jo Nield; School of Geography & Environmental Science. Coinvestigators at University of Oxford, Loughborough University, University of Chile and Gobabeb Namib Research Institute Atacama Desert Dust Emission Research (ADDER): Resolving aeolian dust source dynamics Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Environmental sciences: global partnerships seedcorn fund 2022; £28,454 over 12 months

Dr Katherine Bradbury; School of Psychology Socksess EPSRC; £142,774 over 24 months

Prof Alison Richardson; School of Health Sciences Palliative Long-term Abdominal Drains Versus Repeated Drainage in Untreatable Ascites due to Advanced Cirrhosis: a Randomised Controlled Trial National Institute of Health Research; £45,283 over 60 months

Prof Gavin Foster; School of Ocean and Earth Science CoralChem – The Mechanics of Coral Calcification Revealed by a Novel Electrochemical Toolkit UK Research and Innovation; £224,072 over 24 months

Dr Ivo Tews; School of Biological Sciences Serial Data Processing and Analysis in CCP4i2 Science And Technology Facilities Council; £63,402 over 12 months

Prof Peter JS Smith; Director Institute for Life Sciences and School of Biological Sciences Seeing the virus with topological optical microscopy UK Research and Innovation; £225,027 over 24 months

Dr Rob Ewing; School of Biological Sciences Using the Zika virus as an oncolytic virotherapy in Neuroblastoma Neuroblastoma UK; £5,310 over 12 months

Dr Katrin Deinhardt; School of Biological Sciences Are neurons expressing mutant tau competent to process BDNF-TrkB signaling? Alzheimers Research UK; £3,000 over 12 months

Prof Jane Ball; School of Health Sciences Evaluation of the Nursing 50k Programme National Institute of Health Research; £660,468 over 24 months

Dr Natasha Campling; School of Health Sciences Paramedic delivery of end-of-life care: a mixed methods evaluation of service provision and professional practice Marie Curie; £149,475 over 24 months

Prof Andrew Tatem; School of Geography & Environmental Science WorldPop Global Demographic Data (Global 2) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; £1,130,216 over 24 months

Dr Franklin Luzia De Nobrega; School of Biological Sciences

Uncovering the mechanisms of Kiwa to sense and protect from bacteriophage infection Royal Society; £30,875 over 12 months

Dr Sasha Chittka; School of Biological Sciences Metabolic reprogramming of neural stem cells by PRDM4 Gerald Kerkut Charitable Trust; £10,000 over 24 months

Dr Leisle Ezekiel; School of Health Sciences An investigation of the perceived usefulness of a fatigue ecological momentary assessment in supporting fatigue management Royal College of Occupational Therapists; £9,674 over 12 months

Dr Jeff Thompson; School of Biological Sciences and School of Ocean and Earth Science Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship: Some things change, some stay the same: Morphological diversity in sea urchins Leverhulme Trust; £59,940 over 24 months

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Prof Richard Whitby; School of Chemistry Synthesis of Molecular Endofullerenes by Molecular Surgery Royal Society; £125,677 over 24 months

Prof Lajos Hanzo; School of Electronics and Computer Science Pervasive Wireless Intelligence Beyond the Generations (PerCom) EPSRC; £589,664 over 36 months

Prof Mike Wald; School of Electronics and Computer Science DeepSpark Innovate UK; £109,614 over 12 months

Dr Dominic Taunton; School of Engineering Acua Ocean CMDC Round 2 Innovate UK; £127,362 over 12 months

Dr Steve Taylor; IT Innovation Centre, Digital Health and Biomedical Engineering Research Group, School of Electronics and Computer Science Horizon Europe – NEw MEdical CYbersecurity assessment and design Solutions (NEMECYS) European Commission; £737,718 over 36 months

Prof Simon Coles; School of Chemistry A National Electron Diffraction Facility for Nanomaterial Structural Studies EPSRC; £1,686,934 over 36 months

Dr James Gates; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Ultra-precision machining of optoelectronics and microsystems EPSRC; £1,039,465 over 36 months

Dr Stephen Crouch; School of Electronics and Computer Science Understanding and Nurturing an Integrated Vision for Education in RSE and HPC (UNIVERSE-HPC) EPSRC; £158,815 over 36 months

Dr Mark Mavrogordato; School of Engineering Manufacturing by Design EPSRC; £119,560 over 60 months

Dr David Angland; School of Engineering LandONE – Landing Advances of the Next Decade Innovate UK; £845,979 over 48 months

Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong; School of Engineering Academic Cluster Lead – Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) EPSRC; £88,598 over 36 months

Prof Radan Slavik; Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics EVacuAted OptiCal Fibres for Ultimate UV-to-Infrared Light TransMission (VACUUM) EPSRC; £1,075,143 over 36 months

Dr John Walker; School of Engineering Correlative Chemical Metrology EPSRC; £252,487 over 24 months

Dr Katrina Morgan; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Harnessing body heat using 2D thermoelectric generators. Smart Cloth EPSRC; £252,981 over 24 months

Dr Natalie Wheeler, Prof Radan Slavík and Dr Martynas Beresna; Zepler Institute Distributed gas sensing using hollow core optical fibre EPSRC; £685,889 (fEC) over 42 months

Prof Graham Reed; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics CORNERSTONE 2.5 EPSRC; £1,617,296 over 24 months

Dr Seung Lee; School of Chemistry Caught in the act: Aptablotting for decoding the signals by two component systems Leverhulme Trust; £119,989 over 24 months

Yssy Baker; School of Chemistry Novel chemical modifications for nucleic acid therapeutics Royal Society; £705,260 over 60 months

Dr Andrea Da Ronch; School of Engineering OneHeart Innovate UK; £1,276,440 over 36 months

Dr Callum Littlejohns; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics QPICPAC Innovate UK; £156,227 over 12 months

Dr Minkwan Kim; School of Engineering National Space Strategy Sandpit: Green ToolKit Research England; £10,000 over 12 months

Research award highlights

Dr Charlie Ryan; School of Engineering Cross pollination of diagnostic techniques for spacecraft electric propulsion Royal Society; £12,000 over 24 months

Dr Matthias Baud; School of Chemistry Development of pharmacological chaperones stabilizing FGE for therapeutic intervention in Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency MSD Action Foundation and Health Research Board (HRB) Ireland; £20,944 over 36 months

Dr Katherine Kwa; Civil Maritime and Environment Engineering Department, School of Engineering Station-keeping solutions to enable floating offshore renewable energy Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship; £720,570 over 60 months

Dr Manda Banerji-Wright; School of Physics and Astronomy Leveraging multi-wavelength surveys to establish the quasar-galaxy connection Royal Society; £341,167 over 36 months

Dr Shoaib Jameel; School of Electronics and Computer Science Research a fully automated employment law and industrial relations service enabled by Artificial Intelligence Innovate UK Smart Grant; £134,000 over 12 months

FACULTY OF MEDICINE

Prof Stephen Holgate; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Wave 2 support for SPF Clean Air Champions – Addressing the Challenge of the Indoor/Outdoor Continuum Natural Environment Research Council; £749,197.50 over 36 months.

Prof Keith Godfrey; Human Development and Health Impact of paternal obesity on offspring brain structure and function; implications for Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimers Research UK; £18,941 over 48 months

Dr Stephen Lim, Human Development and Health Promoting increased physical activity among hospitalised older adults with trained volunteers National Institute of Health Research; £1,166,261 over 48 months

Prof Issy Reading; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education

Zeus Home Trial: Study of transcutaneous electrical stimulation in obstructive sleep apnoea using the ZeusOSA device National Institute of Health Research; £8,113 over 10 months

Prof Delphine Boche; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

Continued Brain Tumour Research funding for BRAIN UK (2022 – 2023) Brain Tumour Research; £137,806 over 15 months

Dr Hans Michael Haitchi; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

The impact of maternal asthma and being overweight during pregnancy on mediatorsin offspring that may predispose to the development of asthma in early life

British Medical Association (BMA) Foundation – The James Trust grant for research into asthma, £64,996 over 36 months

Dr Mark Lown; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education TOUCAN

National Institute of Health Research; £10,846 over 24 months

Mr Jay Self; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Exploiting human-centred AI and gamification to improve compliance with Amblyopia (lazy eye) treatment National Institute of Health Research; £56,760 over 12 months

Prof Saul Faust; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

The PICBONE study National Institute of Health Research; £15,537 over 36 months

Prof Mike Grocott and Dr Ahilanadan Dushianthan; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Oxidative stress, redox status and surfactant metabolism in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients requiring different supplementary oxygen strategies National Institute of Health Research/MRC; £359,638. for 30 months

Prof Miriam Santer and Associate Prof Ingrid Muller; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education Trial of IGe tests for Eczema Relief (TIGER): randomised controlled trial of test-guided dietary advice for children with eczema, with internal pilot and nested economic and process evaluations National Institute of Health Research; £507,080 over 48 months

Prof Miriam Santer and Dr Liz Angier; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education Supporting self-care of anaphylaxis: developing digital resources National Institute of Health Research; £8,125 over 24 months

Prof Miriam Santer and Associate Prof Ingrid Muller; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education Rapid and Efficient Eczema Trials (RAPID Programme) National Institute of Health Research; £104,591 over 60 months

Prof Gareth Thomas and Dr Chris Hanley; Cancer Sciences Understanding cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype and function in head & neck cancer: targeting strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance Cancer Research UK; £2,522,274 over 60 months

Dr Cornelia Blume; Human Development and Health The role of sex hormones in modulating the anti-viral immune response in the respiratory epithelium Asthma and Lung UK; £80,000 over 18 months

Dr Leanne Morrison; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education Parents and caregivers experiences of self-managing their child’s constipation: An online survey and nested qualitative interview study National Institute of Health Research, School for Primary Care Research; £54,985 over 12 months

Dr Nigel Hall; Human Development and Health Exploring barriers to implementation of trans-anastomotic tube feeding in babies born with duodenal atresia National Institute of Health Research; £162,640 over 24 months

Dr Nigel Hall; Human Development and Health

Improving understanding of indications for and timing of surgery in infants with Necrotising Enterocolitis

National Institute of Health Research; £429,389 over 36 months

Prof Michaela Reichmann; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

Establishing a multidimensional transcriptomic pipeline of tuberculosis granulomas to determine host therapeutic targets

The Academy of Medical Sciences; £30,000 over 12 months

Dr Jonathan West; Cancer Sciences

Droplet microfluidics for deriving a molecular portrait of the pathogenic platelet and thrombosis risk prediction

British Heart Foundation; £845,837 over 36 months

Dr James Ashton; Human Development and Health

Integration of genomic and clinical data to provide personalised diagnosis, disease prediction and improved patient outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease

National Institute of Health Research; £1,081,000 over 60 months

Dr Adam Dale; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

Defining CD4+ effector T cell responses generated following controlled human infection with recombinant Neisseria lactamica

The Academy of Medical Sciences; £59,762 over 24 months

Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education

Pregnancy protection and pregnancies in women of reproductive age on ACE-Inhibitors (ACEi), Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARB), statins or anti-diabetic medications: an observational study in primary care National Institute of Health Research; £57,507 over 12 months

Prof Nick Francis; Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education

Point of care testing using FebriDx to improve antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections in primary care: a mixed methods feasibility study (PREFIX)

National Institute of Health Research; £86,609 over 12 months

Dr Jinhui Gao (Andy); Cancer Sciences

Investigating the role of Enhancer of Zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) inhibition on Natural Killer cell mediated antitumour effects in high-risk neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma UK; £35,495 over 12 months

Dr Tim Fenton; Cancer Sciences

Validation of a novel therapeutic target for HPV-associated malignancies Rosetrees Trust; £30,000 over 18 months

Dr Chester Lai; Clinical and Experimental Sciences

Development of T-cell costimulatory antibodies for skin cancer immunotherapy MRC; £204,688 over 36 months

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Prof Traute Meyer; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences

Pension reform as path to peace? Egypt after the Arab spring UK Research and Innovation; £49,144 over 12 months

Prof Athina Vlachantoni; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences

Inequalities in pension protection and other forms of saving among men and women from black and minority ethnic communities in the UK: a mixed methods study ESRC; £785,392 over 36 months

Dr Ruben Sanchez Garcia; School of Mathematical Sciences Hypergraph lossless symmetry compression and spectral embedding Alan Turing Institute; £69,752 over 5 months

Prof Kostas Skenderis; School of Mathematical Sciences (Joint PIs: Belyaev, Chakraborty, Di Bari, Dias, Drummond, Evans, Gürdogan, King, Mafra, Moretti, Morris, O’Bannon, Schmitt, Taylor, Turton, Aniceto, Withers, Yaakov) New Frontiers in Particle Physics, Cosmology and Gravity Science and Technology Facilities Council; £2,057,691 over 36 months

Dr Lawrence McKay; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences

The Revival of the Urban-Rural Divide in Western Europe? A comparative study of the geography of discontent and political representation British Academy; £347,071 over 36 months

Dr Rebecca Taylor, Associate Prof; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences

The organisation of open source labour in the delivery of business services: an employers perspective ESRC; £34,519 over 12 months

Dr Viktor Valgardsson; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences Early Career Fellowship Leverhulme Trust; £362,167 over 36 months

Dr Gabriele Lepori and D. Larisa Yarovaya; Southampton Business School

The relationships between employee health and stock market returns during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Uber and taxi hospital rides in large cities

British Academy and Leverhulme Small Research Grants; £9,908 over 20 months

Dr PK Senyo, Associate Professor in FinTech and Information Systems; Southampton Business School

Developing Explainable Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing Algorithms for Project Success Prediction Innovate UK; £185,957 over 24 months

Dr Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences

Perceived threats vs lived threats: affective polarisation among LGBTQ individuals towards religious in- and out-groups British Academy; £7,460 over 12 months

This list encompasses a selection of awards logged with University of Southampton Finance from June to October 2022 that are not considered commercially sensitive.