Mapping a route to discovery: cross-disciplinary mental health & wellbeing research at UCL

UCL has rich collective expertise in mental health and wellbeing, and a long tradition of working across disciplines to address complex societal issues. As the Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing (GC MHW) embarks on a five-year programme of activities, with the aim to accelerate new discoveries and implementation of interventions, this cross-disciplinary workshop on 7 March brought colleagues together from across UCL to enable ideas to be sparked and expertise to be harnessed for the benefit of our own university community and society more broadly.

The workshop facilitated networking, enabled shared learning through reflections and findings from cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research previously supported, provided an opportunity to discuss trends and direction of travel for mental health and wellbeing research, and broker partnerships and new collaborations between colleagues through designing a cross-disciplinary project in a participatory group workshop.

Sharing the path of cross-disciplinary discovery in mental health and wellbeing, four academics discussed their Grand Challenges-funded research: 

• Dr Keri Wong (Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology and co-director of the UCL’s Centre for Education in Criminal Justice System, Institute of Education) shared her project ‘Humanising Hospitals: Built Environment Contributing to Cancer Patients' Wellbeing & Mental Health’.
• Professor Hugo Spiers (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology and Vice-Dean for Innovation and Enterprise, Faculty of Brain Sciences) discussed his funded project ‘Distorting the Structure of Urban Space’.
• Dr Humera Iqbal (Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology, UCL Social Research Institute) spoke about her project ‘Partition of Identity: An Exploration of Citizenship & Belonging in Pakistani Bengalis (1971 – Present)’.
• Dr Deborah Padfield (Associate Professor, History and Theory of Art, Slade School of Fine Art) shared the project ‘New research dynamics between the arts, health and therapy’,

In addition, attendees heard from four colleagues who discussed how to harness UCL’s potential for cross-disciplinary discovery in a panel discussion. These were Sarah Barnes (Head of Public Engagement for the Co-Production Collective), Jon Roiser (Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience), James Wilson (Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy) and Virginia Mantouvalou (Professor of Human Rights and Labour Law, in the Faculty of Laws). 

Reflections were shared on what the group would like to see from the GC MHW and what would further cross-disciplinary research. The group identified several ideas, that the Grand Challenge of Mental Health and Wellbeing will take into consideration going forward. 

To finish, Professor Essi Viding and Professor Argyris Stringaris, Pro-Vice-Provosts (Mental Health and Wellbeing) announced that in Term 3, GC MHW will open a pump-priming funding call to support cross-disciplinary projects (up to £20,000) that have the potential to be scaled up for larger-scale external research funding. This grant call will be available to complete projects AY 2024-2025.