Grand Challenges Small Grant awards announced

The UCL Office of the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) has made 13 Grand Challenges small grant awards for UCL staff collaborations in academic year 2022-23. Ten awards are for cross-disciplinary activities between pairs of researchers based in different Faculties. A further three awards connect Faculty-based researchers with colleagues in in Professional Services, Provost and Vice-Provost offices

Relating to the war in Ukraine,  Dr Konrad Miciukiewicz (Institute of Global Prosperity) and Dr Veena Meetoo (Social Research Institute) were supported by Cultural Understanding for their work on Institutionalising inclusive and multicultural education in the context of mass displacement: experiences of Ukraininian refugee teachers in Lublin, Poland. 

Also concerning the needs of displaced people, two collaborators, both of whom are deaf have received Cultural Understanding support for their project on UCL supporting the needs of Deaf Migrants. Dr Tyron Woolfe (Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences) will collaborate with Ms Indie Beedie, currently on secondment from UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre in the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion unit in the Office of the President & Provost.

Dr Katherine Twamley (Social Research Institute) and Ms Lorren Rea (Human Resources Division) have received a Justice & Equality grant to collaborate on Ensuring equitable access to and experiences of parental and associated leaves [i.e. leave-taking]  at UCL.

Dr Marzena Nieroda (Global Business School for Health,) and Mr Kemil Thomas (Innovation & Enterprise) received a Transformative Technology grant for their Fostering HeathTech innovation to reduce digital exclusion of older vulnerable groups.

The two Sustainable Cities awards both involve co-production collaborations with community-based organisations:

Dr Pablo Sendra (Bartlett School of Architecture) and Mr Dieter Deswarte’s (Anthropology) project ‘A Seat At The Long Table’ will be developed and delivered in collaboration with The Great Regeneration Scheme theatre project creative team and the Granville Community Kitchen, a volunteer-run organisation based in the London Borough of Brent, which aims to empower people through food

Ms Kirsty Badenoch (Bartlett School of Architecture) and Professor Brenda Parker’s (Biochemical Engineering) project Sow / Seed / Shift focuses on the ecological health potentials of transitional - or ‘meanwhile’ - sites – a widely overlooked subject. The project will be developed and delivered in collaboration with Barking Riverside Limited and in consultation with UCL’s People and Nature Lab, to inform the monitoring and assessment of ecological impacts, and citizen science methodologies.

As 1^st Applicants, researchers in six UCL Faculties received awards

• Bartlett Built Environment (4 awards)
  • School of Sustainable Construction
  • School of Planning
  • Institute of Global Prosperity
• Population Health Sciences (3 awards)
  • Institute for Health Informatics
  • Institute of Child Health
  • Global Business School for Health
• Education & Society (3 awards)
  • Education, Practice & Society
  • Social Research Institute
  • Learning & Leadership
• Medical Sciences (1 award)
  • Infection & Immunity
• Brain Sciences (1 award)
  • Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences
• Social & Historical Sciences (1 award)
  • Anthropology