British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Awards 2025-26
The British Academy is proud to announce the award of 244 British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants worth over £2.2 million to support primary research in the SHAPE disciplines.
This round, over 1,200 applications were submitted for assessment, resulting in a success rate of 19 per cent.
Worth up to £10,000 over a period of up to two years, the awards will support academics working at universities and research institutions across the UK- as well as independent scholars- by covering the cost of expenses arising from a particular research project.
Funding for the Small Research Grants programme is a public-private collaboration. Support is provided by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome. The program also receives support from other partners and endowed funds, including the British Accounting and Finance Association, the Journal of Moral Education Trust, the Sino-British Fellowship Trust, and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.
The British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2025-26 awardees are:
Please note: Awards are divided by funder and arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
Dr Sardar Ahmad
SRG2526\261270
Co-applicant(s): Dr Jannine Poletti Hughes
Project Title: Accounting for Equality: Assessing the Impact of Gender Pay Gap Regulation on Board Gender Diversity, Pay Disparities, and Workforce Composition in UK Firms
University of Liverpool
Value awarded: £9,759.66
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how board gender diversity affects gender pay gaps in UK firms, and whether the 2017 Gender Pay Gap (GPG) reporting mandate prompted changes in board and workforce composition. Therefore, the mandate creates a quasi-experimental setting for analysis. Using panel data from 2010–2025, integrating BoardEx, FAME, Refinitiv/Compustat, and public GPG disclosures, with matched S&P 500 firms as a counterfactual, a difference-in-differences design assesses whether mandated firms increased female representation on boards and across their workforce. Dynamic GMM models are used to test whether greater board and remuneration committee gender diversity causally reduces subsequent pay gaps. By linking governance structure to workforce equality, the project provides evidence on the effectiveness of a reporting regulation aimed at enhancing transparency and promoting gender equality. Findings of the research will directly contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5: Gender Equality; SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities) by identifying mechanisms to close pay gaps.
Dr Folahanmi Aina
SRG2526\262112
Project Title: Regional Security Coalitions and Fight Against Terrorism in the Sahel Region: Effectiveness, Legitimacy and Local Dynamics
SOAS University of London
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
The Sahel region located in West Africa, over the years, faced persistent attacks by insurgents and terrorists belonging to various violent extremist organisations, including the Islamic State’s affiliates and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). These attacks have intensified insecurity in the region causing forced mass displacements, loss of lives and livelihood, and political instability among other challenges. In response, states within the region, have established various regional coalition forces aimed at countering these insurgencies. However, despite these efforts, the attacks continue.
The aim of this proposed research is to evaluate the effectiveness and the legitimacy of these established coalitions both at the state level and within the local communities. Through interviews and data collection efforts, this study will be able to critically evaluate the legitimacy and effectiveness of the efforts of these coalitions’ operations, as well as the local dynamics across the region, thereby addressing a critical security studies gap.
Dr Despoina Alempaki
SRG2526\261425
Co-applicant(s): Dr Fabio Galeotti
Project Title: Motivated Memory and Group Identity
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,950.00
Funded by: DSIT
The human mind’s ability to remember and forget is both fascinating and complex. This project explores whether people are more likely to (mis)remember (im)moral actions committed by members of their own group compared to those of other groups. Because group identity strongly shapes social behaviour, understanding how it influences moral memory is key to uncovering hidden cognitive and social biases. Previous research shows that individuals often recall personal experiences selectively, especially those that could challenge their self-image. Yet little is known about how people remember events that might threaten their social identity. By examining whether in-group bias affects how we recall others’ moral and immoral actions, this research aims to reveal how memory shapes group perception and contributes to social polarization. Our findings could reveal new insights into the flexibility of memory and its role in reinforcing or bridging divides within society.
Dr Giota Alevizou
SRG2526\261525
Project Title: Institutional Stewardship and the Politics of AI
King's College London
Value awarded: £9,951.15
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines how public media and knowledge institutions navigate the ecological, cultural and governance obligations attached to AI systems. Moving beyond sustainability understood as efficiency or carbon metrics, it reframes responsible AI as a problem of stewardship: how institutions with public mandates care for knowledge, labour and planetary resources over time.
Through pilot case studies with partners from Wikimedia UK and the BBC, the project explores how ecological concerns, data governance, and cultural custodianship are translated into organisational norms and innovation practices. It reveals the tensions that arise when public-value obligations meet platform logics, extractive data infrastructures, and the demands of creative labour.
By establishing a cross-institutional research network, the pilot will generate conceptual and policy insights and lay the groundwork for a major collaborative funding bid, developing a model of AI stewardship that treats care, custodianship and institutional responsibility as central to the politics of AI.
Dr Nima Ali
SRG2526\261158
Co-applicant(s): Dr Lakshman Wimalasena
Project Title: Inclusive Careers in Engineering (ICE): Supporting the Career Progression of Marginalised Engineers
Heriot-Watt University
Value awarded: £9,665.76
Funded by: DSIT
Engineering remains one of the least diverse sectors in the UK, with women and ethnic minority engineers leaving the profession at significantly higher rates than their White and male counterparts. Existing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives have primarily focused on strengthening the pipeline through higher education and recruitment, while overlooking the need to support individuals’ career development and progression. This research aims to promote equitable career advancement for marginalised engineers, particularly at the intersections of ethnicity, race, and gender. Using a collaborative co-design approach, the study will work with engineers, employers, and stakeholders to identify barriers to progression, co-create a framework of inclusive interventions, and deliver training to support their implementation. By addressing systemic barriers and promoting sustained inclusion, the project seeks to enhance diversity and retention within the engineering workforce. The outcomes will benefit engineers, organisations, and policymakers, ultimately contributing to a more innovative and representative STEM sector.
Professor Ana Aliverti
SRG2526\261788
Co-applicant(s): Professor Sabina Andrea Frederic
Project Title: Between Victimisation and Punishment: Everyday security strategies among youth in the urban margins across the global South and North
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,992.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how young people in structurally disadvantaged urban communities navigate everyday insecurity within welfare retraction and intensified punitive policies. Amid their high exposure to crime and punishment, these youth relate ambivalently to the state while devising various strategies in navigating these risks. Drawing on interdisciplinary expertise across criminology, anthropology, law, and urban sociology, the study documents individual and collective security strategies among youth in the urban margins of Argentina, England, South Africa, El Salvador, Uruguay, Denmark, and the Netherlands. By combining theories of legal pluralism and extra-legal governance, the project advances a novel framework that rethinks security as relational, pluralised, and agentic. Using multi-sited ethnography, it explores how young people forge relations of care, complicity, and resistance with state and non-state actors. The project contributes to a global, comparative understanding of everyday security and offers insights for developing democratic, context-sensitive approaches to urban safety and social inclusion.
Dr Ahmed Almadhwahi
SRG2526\261161
Co-applicant(s): Dr Mohammed A. Al-Sharafi, Dr Yaser Shyyab
Project Title: Trust, Risk, and Sustainability in Emerging FinTech Models: A Cross-Cultural Study of the UK and Saudi Arabia
Buckinghamshire New University
Value awarded: £9,900.00
Funded by: DSIT
Financial technology (FinTech) is reshaping how individuals’ access and manage financial services, with innovations like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), robo-advisors, and AI-powered tools offering enhanced convenience and personalization. Yet, adoption is influenced not only by functionality but also by trust, perceived risk, and cultural values. This research compares FinTech adoption in the United Kingdom, a mature, regulated market, and Saudi Arabia, where rapid growth is driven by Vision 2030 and shaped by Islamic finance principles. Using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys, interviews, and analysis of user-generated content, the study will examine how trust, risk perception, and cultural-financial values affect consumer engagement. It will identify barriers and enablers to sustainable use and develop policy and practice recommendations for regulators and developers. The findings will inform academic theory, support evidence-based policymaking, and guide industry innovation, contributing to the development of inclusive, trustworthy, and culturally responsive FinTech ecosystems.
Professor John Amis
SRG2526\261734
Co-applicant(s): Dr Deniz Öztürk
Project Title: Understanding refugee workforce integration: A comparative study of Syrians and Ukrainians in the UK
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
We intend to explore how inequalities faced by refugees are shaped by their relationships with employers and local workers within various organisational contexts. Focusing on Syrian and Ukrainian refugees in the UK, this research will employ qualitative methods to uncover interconnected processes that may lead to refugee inequality and stigmatisation. Through a comparative lens, we will examine how different political, socioeconomic and cultural contexts influence the experience of refugees in the workforce. We aim to understand the positioning of refugees in organisations and the complex relational dynamics they experience, situated in broader institutional structures. Understanding these relationships will shed light on how inequalities are perpetuated in workplaces and offer insights for scholars, policymakers and employers on creating more inclusive work environment for refugees. It may foster collaboration with UK and international researchers on understanding inequality through the lens of refugee workforce integration.
Dr Christian Arnold
SRG2526\261325
Co-applicant(s): Dr Sebastian Vallejo Vera
Project Title: Large Language Models, Echo Chamber, Rabbit Holes, and Political Bias
University of Birmingham
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Meta LLaMa and Mistral now converse with users, turning algorithms into active participants in everyday online interaction. While these systems are already employed in newsrooms, political campaigns and government communications, little is known about how their dialogue based behaviour might shape public opinion. This project will run three controlled experiments with a UK wide sample, asking participants to engage in conversations with customised LLMs. By varying the model’s pre training and prompts and randomising assignments, we will examine whether these interactions create echo chambers, steer users into ideological “rabbit holes”, or exert a broader partisan bias that polarises or moderates attitudes. Natural language processing techniques will analyse the content and emotional tone of both machine and human responses, revealing how LLM human exchanges influence political viewpoints and informing strategies to mitigate potential democratic harms.
Dr Zaib Aziz
SRG2526\262094
Project Title: Toil and Trouble: Workers, Citizenship and the Afterlives of Empire
University of Cambridge
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
"Toil and Trouble: Workers, Citizenship and the Afterlives of Empire" is a political history of Indian labor beyond the subcontinent from the mid nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Taking an intergenerational view, this project will examine the lives of families and communities who went through these forced and voluntary labor migrations and who were embroiled in, impacted by, and crucially shaped debates on imperial subjecthood, national belonging, and eventually on modern citizenship during this extended period. This book length study will thus meditate on the relationship between labor rights and political belonging in the twentieth century.
Dr Samer Bakkour
SRG2526\260148
Project Title: Reimagining the International Strategic Displacement Encounter– Preparatory Programme (RISDE–PP)
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
RISDE-PP seeks to establish the basis for a multi-dimensional research project (RISDE) that will, in drawing on the insights, perspectives and practical experiences of civil society and political leaders, give more insight into the dynamics and relations of strategic displacement in the Syrian Civil War and ultimately contribute to the development of more effective international policy interventions. In a contribution focused on each part of the RISDE methodology, it will 'scope' the civil society 'landscape' in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus; establish a clearer understanding of working in a country fundamentally altered by sustained and prolonged violence; put in place interview arrangements and structures; contribute to the development of appropriate training and support arrangements; establish an optimal basis for the identification and engagement of documentary material/s. RISDE-PP will ultimately help to identify (potential and actual) operational challenges, enable appropriate arrangements to be put in place, and also contribute essential 'background' material/s.
Dr Andrew Barclay
SRG2526\261175
Project Title: The Political Preferences of British Jews
University of Sheffield
Value awarded: £9,600.00
Funded by: DSIT
The values divide which has emerged across Britain and other democracies over recent elections is largely characterised by attitudes towards minorities and diversity. Despite this, good quality and contemporary evidence of how minorities themselves are divided politically is scarce. This project will collect bespoke survey data to examine the timely case of British Jews to quantify their political preferences, and the extent they differ to demographically similar non-Jews. This will mean examining partisanship, as well as the position of British Jews on the economic and social dimensions that are typically used to measure ideology. Moreover, I will exploit hitherto unavailable representative data to examine within-group variation in Jews' attitudes. This project will shed light on the role that minority status plays more broadly in the formation of political attitudes, and the link that such attitudes have with voting behaviour.
Dr Suriyah Bi
SRG2526\262274
Project Title: (Re)Colonising the Sacred? Mosque Architecture and Bordering in Europe
SOAS University of London
Value awarded: £9,500.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores the role of mosque architecture in shaping, negotiating, and contesting Islamic identity across Europe, with a focus on five countries: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Mosques serve as sacred spaces and cultural markers, yet their design, visibility, and regulation have become flashpoints in wider debates about immigration, secularism, and European identity. Across these contexts, planning restrictions, public opposition, and media scrutiny of mosque construction often function as tools of bordering, suppressing Islamic visibility in the public sphere. The key question that stems from this inquiry explores whether there is a (re)colonising of sacred spaces in Europe, and thus, the project speaks to decolonial and post-colonial discourse (see Bi: 2024).
Dr Tugce Bidav
SRG2526\260926
Co-applicant(s): Dr Smith Mehta
Project Title: Creator Pedagogy in the Platform Age: Mapping Skills, Labour, and Professional Pathways
King's College London
Value awarded: £9,925.94
Funded by: DSIT
Digital platforms (i.e., YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) have transformed how creative work is learned, performed, and professionalised, giving rise to new educational initiatives and courses that teach aspiring creators media production skills, as well as how to build audiences and brands. Yet, the pathways through which individuals become successful creators remain under-researched. Combining media education and creative industries scholarship, this project will explore how content creation is taught, which skills and competencies the industry demands, and how creators use these to build careers in the emerging creator economy within the wider creative and cultural industries. Focusing on London, UK, the study will analyse educational programmes, job advertisements, and interviews with creators to map the overlaps and gaps between institutional training, industry needs, and creator practice. Findings will identify key challenges and opportunities for creator education, informing curriculum design and cultural policy on skills development in the digital creative industries.
Dr Mark Bland
SRG2526\261168
Project Title: The World of Simon Waterson, Stationer
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
The World of Simon Waterson, Stationer, is about a book-trade family c.1555-1666. It involves a study of intergenerational wealth; of the rise, decline, and impact of the family businesses, and their place in the formation of a contemporary literary canon. It is based upon a volumetric analysis of composition by pica ens together with a sheet count to measure the investments made in the businesses. Further, it draws upon detailed copy-specific primary research relating to gift copies, dates, prices, provenance, and bindings. Finally, as well as the records of the Stationers, wills, inquisitions, court of orphans records, inventories, legal disputes, property records, common council of London minutes, correspondence, parish records, and an account of the monuments in old St. Paul's by Dugdale, have been drawn upon for the history of the family and its associates. The intention is to provide a more dynamic understanding of the trade and those involved.
Professor Mary Bosworth
SRG2526\260595
Project Title: Border control and its local consequences
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,986.03
Funded by: DSIT
The UK has, for some years now, been pursuing harsher border control, attempting to ‘stop the boats’ and speed up deportations. The immigration detention system which had been shrinking is expanding once again. While considerable academic attention has been paid to the effect of such measures on immigrants and people seeking asylum, we know little about their impact on the economic and social fabric of local communities where many border control institutions are based. This study starts to fill that gap with a small mixed-method study with residents adjacent to two immigration removal centres which are being re-opened after lying empty for almost ten years: Campsfield House (Oxford) and Haslar (Gosport). It will foster dialogue about this polarising area of public policy, paying close attention to local social, political, and economic effects. In so doing it seeks also to generate new ideas and strategies for a more inclusive future.
Professor Nicholas Branch
SRG2526\260702
Co-applicant(s): Dr Kevin Lane, Dr Frank Meddens
Project Title: Water and Sustainable Heritage in Peru (WASH-PERU)
University of Reading
Value awarded: £9,835.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates pre-Hispanic water management Cultural Heritage Assets (CHAs) in the Chicha-Soras Valley of the south-central Peruvian Andes to address contemporary challenges of water scarcity and climate change. Through a co-produced approach between the University of Reading, Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga, NGO Asociación Andina Cusichaca, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, and local farming communities, the research integrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge, archaeological survey, and geospatial modelling to document, date, and evaluate ancient systems such as micro-dams, canals, amunas, and artificial wetlands. These infrastructures, long central to Andean water storage and redistribution, offer vital insights into sustainable water management and adaptation strategies. By recording, analysing, and promoting the future protection and rehabilitation of these CHAs, the project aims to enhance water security, support agricultural resilience, and embed their cultural and environmental value into inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient development in Peru.
Dr Christos Braziotis
SRG2526\261763
Co-applicant(s): Dr Maria Pia Ciano
Project Title: Industry 5.0: Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,870.59
Funded by: DSIT
This project addresses the urgent need for clarity on the transition to Industry 5.0 to shift the European industry’s focus, from the technology-driven objectives of Industry 4.0, to prioritising environmental sustainability, resilience and human centricity. Despite increasing interest, literature offers limited actionable guidance for implementing these principles, with existing frameworks remaining largely conceptual or overly technological. This lack of clarity risks slowing or misdirecting transformation efforts. To address this gap, our multi-theoretical qualitative research approach in the UK, Germany, and Italy will determine the relevant Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) categorised by their scope and impact. We will provide empirical foundations for a future assessment tool and roadmaps to guide manufacturing firms in effectively evaluating readiness and planning for Industry 5.0 transformation. This is a springboard project that will lead to the formation of a consortium for developing a large grant application.
Dr Katie Brown
SRG2526\260271
Co-applicant(s): Dr Megan Loveys
Project Title: Literacy, Inclusion and Risk: Exploring Teaching Assistant Roles in Supporting SEN Pupils Across Intervention and Whole-Class Contexts
Canterbury Christ Church University
Value awarded: £9,635.24
Funded by: DSIT
This study investigates how teaching assistants (TAs) in mainstream primary schools support children with special educational needs (SEN) in developing their reading skills. Many TAs deliver one-to-one or small-group phonics sessions, but little is known about how these link with whole-class lessons or how pupils are reintegrated afterwards. Through focus group discussions with TAs, the research will explore how they balance individual support with inclusive classroom participation, and how collaboration with teachers shapes this process. By focusing on the voices and experiences of TAs, which are often underrepresented in the research literature, the study will provide practical insights to improve literacy support and promote more cohesive, inclusive approaches to reading instruction. The findings will inform school practice, professional development, and national discussions about effective support for children with SEN.
Dr Martin Bruns
SRG2526\260220
Project Title: Advances in Structural Shock Identification
University of East Anglia
Value awarded: £9,996.00
Funded by: DSIT
The key challenge in empirical macroeconomic models is to establish the direction of causality between the variables under consideration or equivalently, finding shocks with economic meaning that drive the variables under consideration. In a series of projects, I investigate approaches to do so within the workhorse model of modern empirical macroeconomics, structural vector autoregression (VAR). Some of the projects have a methodological focus, namely proposing new approaches to identify structural shocks when multiple shocks are to be considered. Other projects have an applied focus, namely investigating the combined effects of different kinds of monetary policy in the euro area or tracing out the short-run effects of climate shocks. A third kind of project takes stock of the current literature in the form of a survey paper. The findings from this series of projects will be communicated via academic papers, workshop organisation, conference participation, and taster sessions at UK high schools.
Professor Janusz Brzeszczynski
SRG2526\262069
Project Title: Blue Finance: Opportunities and Challenges in Supporting Biodiversity Protection and Sustainable Development.
Edinburgh Napier University
Value awarded: £9,976.45
Funded by: DSIT
Blue finance is the field that is focused on investments, which through their impact help in supporting the sustainable use and conservation of global water resources and protecting marine biodiversity. It is a key element of the wider concept of blue economy, which main goal is to achieve economic development that does not harm biodiversity on the Earth.
This project will allow to comprehensively present the evidence about blue finance as a new research area, and an important field of professional investment practice, which supports marine biodiversity protection and sustainable development. It will focus on challenges and opportunities of blue finance investing, through a unique opportunity to conduct research using newly available data about such key blue finance instruments as blue stocks and blue bonds, but also summarising evidence from professional practice of institutions which are involved in blue finance initiatives.
Dr Olimpia Burchiellaro
SRG2526\260114
Project Title: Towards a queer communism: Past, present and future horizons of liberation
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,915.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project develops a theory and living archive of queer communism, exploring the entangled histories and futures of queerness and communism as mutually constitutive political forces. Challenging historical homophobia within communist organizing and the capitalist co-optation of queer life, the project recovers queer communism as a revolutionary science of liberation. The research traces the communistic principles underlying different strands of queer activism/politics, including early lesbian/gay liberation in the US/UK but also in Global South contexts, paying particular attention to trans, non-binary, and other historically excluded identities. Methodologically, it combines archival research at strategic sites in London, São Paulo, and New York with 30 semi-structured interviews with activists engaged in ‘everyday queer communism’. By foregrounding queer subjects as revolutionary actors, the study re-imagines communism through a queer lens, exploring how queer and communist thought can be brought together in new ways to advance contemporary struggles against capitalism.
Dr Lucas Campos Pahl
SRG2526\261162
Co-applicant(s): Professor Jose Carlos Pimienta
Project Title: Index and Robustness of Equilibria
University of Sheffield
Value awarded: £9,900.00
Funded by: DSIT
Hyperstable equilibria (Kohlberg and Mertens, 1986) is a well-founded and intuitive equilibrium concept used to refine Nash equilibria in game-theoretic models. Though appealing, it is difficult to compute in many economically relevant examples. In this work, we seek a characterization of hyperstable equilibria in terms of the fixed-point index, which is much easier to compute. This will both contribute to the applicability of hyperstability in game-theoretical models and solve a long-standing open question in game theory formulated in Hauk and Hurkens (2002) and Govindan and Wilson (1997a,b).
Dr Laura Annamaria Cariola
SRG2526\262093
Project Title: Digital Belonging and Global Mobility: Natural Language Processing to Explore Third Culture Individuals’ Use of Online Communities
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £9,962.67
Funded by: DSIT
This study examines how Third Culture Individuals (TCIs)—those who spent their formative years outside their parents’ passport culture—use anonymous online discussion communities to share experiences, seek belonging, and engage in mutual support. While TCIs often rely on digital platforms as 'imagined global communities' to connect with others who understand and relate to ‘third cultureness’, little is known about how they engage within these online communities. To address this gap, the study applies Natural Language Processing (NLP) combined with qualitative analysis to user-generated Reddit posts to identify a topography of psychosocial and relational themes that moves beyond a deficit-based model of third culture identity by highlighting global mobility as a source of resilience, thriving, and creativity, rather than as a ‘wound’. The findings will provide a nuanced framework for understanding transnational lived experiences and inform international education and counselling guidelines that promote strengths-based practices to support wellbeing amongst globally mobile individuals.
Professor Carlos Carrillo-Tudela
SRG2526\261949
Project Title: Sectoral Labour Reallocation and Aggregate Productivity
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,985.56
Funded by: DSIT
When recessions strike or technology reshapes industries, workers must decide whether to wait for their old jobs to return or switch to growing sectors and risk losing hard-earned skills. This research examines how barriers to career switching—like skill mismatches and job search difficulties—affect both economic recovery and long-term growth. Using innovative UK data on the sectors targeted by job searchers and recruitment information from vacancy ads, the project develops models for analyzing recessions and technological change. The first study disentangle the roles of labour supply, demand and reallocation and search frictions in determining labour shortages. The second examines how reallocation and search frictions slow economies from adapting to AI and automation, exploring whether financial systems help or hinder transitions. By combining statistical analysis with economic modelling, this research provides evidence for policymakers to design interventions that smooth career transitions while preventing workers from becoming trapped in low-wage employment cycles.
Dr Koldo Casla
SRG2526\261488
Co-applicant(s): Dr María Dalli Almiñana
Project Title: Time to Act: Climate and Social Rights Advocacy and Litigation
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,920.00
Funded by: DSIT
National and international bodies (including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) have recognised that the fact that climate change and mitigating measures take time is no reason for duty-bearers not to act now and be held accountable for their actions and omissions. However, this principle has not been so strongly acknowledged by courts and quasi-judicial bodies in relation to social rights, like housing, health, education and social security. This project will investigate what can be learnt from recent climate litigation for the litigation and advocacy regarding the progressive realisation of social rights. In this endeavour, the project will examine the unequal impact of climate change and mitigating measures on particularly vulnerable groups over time.
Dr Bonnie Wing-Yin Chow
SRG2526\261995
Project Title: Addressing Affective Barriers to Reading: A Reading Anxiety Intervention for Primary School Students
University College London (UCL)
Value awarded: £9,978.78
Funded by: DSIT
This pilot study aims to evaluate the implementation and effects of a classroom-based intervention designed to reduce reading anxiety among primary school children in the UK. Traditional reading interventions typically focus on direct language instruction and the training of cognitive-linguistic skills. Extending this approach, the present study draws on cognitive-behavioural principles and evidence from existing childhood anxiety programmes to design and implement a six-week classroom-based reading anxiety intervention for children aged 8 to 9. Around 158 Year 4 students from six classes will participate, with classes randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The intervention’s effects will be evaluated by comparing changes in children’s reading anxiety and reading comprehension between the two groups across pre- and post-tests. The findings will advance understanding of effective strategies for addressing reading anxiety and inform the development of a larger-scale cluster-randomized controlled trial involving a broader population of children.
Dr Emily Christopher
SRG2526\260675
Project Title: Investigating the everyday experiences of grandparents providing grandchild care in the UK
Aston University
Value awarded: £9,686.50
Funded by: DSIT
A lack of available, affordable, flexible and quality formal childcare in the UK has meant working parents rely on grandparents to provide occasional and/ or intensive grandchild care. Changes to public funded early year education and entitlement aim to encourage parents’ labour market participation but there has been little consideration of its effectiveness in easing the pressure on grandparents as the only feasible form of childcare available. Through qualitative interviews with grandparent couples based in the West Midlands, this research explores the impact of childcare policy on configurations of grandchild care, contributing to the evaluation of the policy in meeting the needs of working parents and grandparents. It will explore the experiences of grandparents providing grandchild care and the challenges they face, including how this care is negotiated alongside the demands of grandparents’ paid employment, their unpaid work, such as adult care and housework, and its implications for ageing well.
Dr Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
SRG2526\260100
Project Title: Obstacles to Civilian-Based Defence
Loughborough University
Value awarded: £9,991.10
Funded by: DSIT
The Ukraine conflict has led to a spectacular escalation of militarisation and heightened tensions across Europe, a widespread underlying assumption being that only this way can the threat posed by Russia be confronted. This, however, overlooks the potential for ‘civilian-based defence’ (CBD), which consists in training entire populations in techniques of nonviolent resistance, and which growing evidence demonstrates could lead to better outcomes (and be cheaper). On closer analysis, several cultural, economic and political obstacles seem to hinder the potential wider adoption of CBD. This project will combine the expertise of leading scholars on the topic to better understand (and thus help better overcome) these obstacles, first at a workshop at Loughborough University, then through a careful strategy of both scholarly publication and wider dissemination. The project will also thereby help embed a critical area of scholarship at a time when the drums of war are beating more loudly.
Dr Guido Conaldi
SRG2526\262339
Co-applicant(s): Dr Martina Testori
Project Title: The Open Research Software Dilemma: A Behavioural Study of Researcher Decision-Making in Open Research Software Collaborative Development
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This research investigates how to overcome the collective action problem threatening open research software sustainability through experimental methods. Research software underpins all modern science, yet contributions remain undervalued in academic reward structures, creating a collective-risk social dilemma where individually rational choices undermine communal, open scientific infrastructure. This study represents the first behavioural experiment to test causal mechanisms for motivating contributions to open research software. Using a framed threshold public goods game with researchers as participants, we will test whether formal recognition systems and social influence can effectively motivate contributions to open research software. Our 2×2 factorial design identifies causal effects of recognition systems, social influence, and potential interactions. Findings will provide evidence-based guidance for institutions, funding bodies, and software communities designing incentives that encourage sustainable open science practices. Results will advance theoretical understanding of scientific collaboration whilst addressing the critical challenge of research infrastructure sustainability—essential for reproducible research across disciplines.
Dr Lorenzo Crippa
SRG2526\262214
Co-applicant(s): Dr James Bowden, Dr Annalisa Riccardi
Project Title: Seeing Through the Smoke: Inter-Disciplinary Verification of Corporate Emissions
University of Strathclyde
Value awarded: £9,992.00
Funded by: DSIT
For climate policies to be effective, accurate measures of corporate greenhouse gas emissions are required. However, corporate emissions are self-disclosed, potentially misreporting true levels. This project has two connected aims: first, to verify the accuracy of corporate emission self-reporting by exploiting data that come from satellite observations. Second, to explore the extent to which different regulations affect the accuracy of self-reported corporate emissions. Focusing on industrial facilities in the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States, we will compare self-reported emissions with satellite-based estimates, assessing whether different regulations (e.g., carbon markets or carbon taxes) affect accuracy levels. By identifying where reporting gaps occur, and how policies affect the accuracy of emission self-reporting, the project will advance our understanding of how regulation and governance shape firms’ environmental accountability. Our research will advance understanding of environmental governance while informing the design of more robust corporate accountability frameworks.
Dr Kenny Crossan
SRG2526\262207
Project Title: Small And Medium Sized Enterprises and Responsible Business Practices in the United Kingdom: An Institutional Perspective.
Edinburgh Napier University
Value awarded: £9,614.70
Funded by: DSIT
This study investigates how institutional forces shape responsible business engagement among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom. As SMEs represent over 90% of UK businesses, their participation is crucial to embedding sustainability within the national economy. Drawing on institutional theory, the research examines how regulatory, normative, and cognitive pillars influence SMEs’ adoption of socially and environmentally responsible practices. A qualitative design will be employed, involving 50 semi-structured interviews with representatives from government bodies, local authorities, business support organisations, and SMEs. Archival and policy document analysis will provide additional contextual insight. Thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s framework, will identify coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures that enable or constrain SME engagement. Findings will generate evidence-based insights to strengthen responsible business ecosystems and inform policy strategies that promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth across the UK.
Professor James Crossland
SRG2526\260251
Project Title: Britain Afraid: The Impact of “Fearful Moments” on National Security, 1605-2003
Liverpool John Moores University
Value awarded: £4,662.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how fear politics and societal panics have shaped Britain’s national security culture from the period of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to the War on Terror. This “big history” project examines seven case studies in which a “fearful moment” influenced national security decision-making. By applying close reading and discourse analysis to a range of sources in each case study, this project 1) maps continuities and changes in narrations of and responses to these “fearful moments” over the centuries and 2), explains how these continuities and changes have shaped Britain's domestic intelligence, policing and immigration policies into the present day. I have submitted a BA Senior Fellowship application to support the production of a monograph for this project. As such, this application is for funding to support the project’s public engagement and dissemination activities, with the aim to inform current national security debates.
Professor Peter Davidson
SRG2526\262489
Project Title: An Edition of the Complete Works of Robert Southwell
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,825.00
Funded by: DSIT
Robert Southwell, SJ (1561–1595) was one of the most widely read and influential writers of the English Renaissance. Editions of his poetry outsold those of every other contemporary writer save William Shakespeare. His printed prose and poetic works were read by recusant Catholic and English Protestant readers alike. He is the only remaining major Elizabethan writer never to have received a complete scholarly edition of his works. We have undertaken that edition, a substantial, collaborative project for which Oxford University Press has recently offered a contract for five volumes to be completed and published over the next decade. Work has begun on the first volume of the series on Southwell’s Meditations and Devotional works.
Dr Jennie Dayes
SRG2526\261555
Co-applicant(s): Dr Georgia Wilson
Project Title: How do people talk about the deaths of public figures? Etiquette in public-figure death: implications and applications of discourse and communication.
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,976.99
Funded by: DSIT
Death, bereavement, and grief (DBG) 'etiquette' describes a felt sense of 'right', 'wrong', 'appropriate', 'inappropriate', 'should', and 'must' in death and bereavement contexts (Dayes et al., 2023). There is currently no research exploring etiquette in the context of public-figure death. Yet, parasocial grief - the grief individuals experience for people they do not know - is suffused with etiquette. Parasocial grief is disenfranchised, poorly understood, and influences how 'regular' grief is encountered. We propose working with actors to facilitate workshops using live case studies to capture etiquette around public-figure death in conversation. Participants will be 18-30 year olds, those most likely to be affected by parasocial grief. Conversations will be analysed with a focus on the mechanisms of language. This research has the potential to enfranchise grief and mourning for public figures, inform how to make grief spaces safer and less controversial, and to manage conflict regarding death discussions.
Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos
SRG2526\261833
Project Title: Sovereignty in Contradiction: A case study of the Mariana disaster and the 2025 London trial
King's College London
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Brazil’s extractive development model, anchored in the export of iron ore, soy, and oil, has driven economic growth while deepening social and ecological inequalities. These contradictions are powerfully exposed by the 2015 Mariana dam collapse and the 2025 transnational trial in London. This project explores how Brazil’s legal and political sovereignty is entangled with global capitalist systems, particularly when marginalised communities, including Indigenous and Quilombola peoples, depend on international courts for justice. It examines the paradox whereby global institutions that once enabled exploitation now serve as potential sites of redress, even as Brazilian elites portray such legal actions as threats to national sovereignty. Centring on the Mariana case, this one-year study investigates the tensions between state legitimacy, corporate power, and collective resistance, shedding light on the intertwined dynamics of development, sovereignty, and justice through the lens of the 2024–25 London trial and the prolonged wait for accountability.
Dr Amelia DeFalco
SRG2526\260947
Co-applicant(s): Professor Mark Paterson
Project Title: Building robots for care: Designing inclusive, accessible care robots with difference in mind
University of Leeds
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project takes an interdisciplinary approach to analysing, theorising and developing strategies for inclusive, accessible, ethical care robot design. As care robots are increasingly numerous and entering spaces with diverse and vulnerable human users, and ‘smart machines’ are a UK government priority for the future of health and social care, there is an urgent need to reassess how such robots are designed and how they can accommodate users with a wide range of cultural backgrounds and abilities. This project provides an opportunity for leading scholars in philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies to come together with designers and human-robot interaction (HRI) specialists to analyse the ethical and practical challenges of inclusive care robot design and to speculate on its possible futures.
Dr Jeremy Dell
SRG2526\260468
Project Title: Home and Hierarchy: Domestic Work in Twentieth-Century Senegal
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £9,407.00
Funded by: DSIT
The twentieth century saw domestic work become one of the most common forms of wage labour in West Africa. Emerging in the wake of slavery’s decline, the market for domestic labour facilitated massive migration to West African cities, especially among women. Yet despite linking two of the most important themes in West African historiography—slavery and mobility—domestic labour itself has received little attention from historians. This project seeks to remedy this oversight by providing the first comprehensive history of domestic work in contemporary Senegal. It examines the regulation of domestic labour by colonial administrators as well as the postcolonial Senegalese state, the restructuring of the domestic labour market during the “rural exodus” of the 1970s, and the individual and collective efforts of domestic workers to defend their interests. It also explores the representation of domestic workers in Senegalese literature, music, media and film.
Professor Amrita Dhillon
SRG2526\260449
Co-applicant(s): Dr Chinmaya Kumar, Dr Arka Roy Chaudhuri
Project Title: Can AI-Generated Transparency Rebuild Civic Engagement? Experimental Evidence from Bihar, India.
King's College London
Value awarded: £9,840.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project tests whether AI-generated transparency can influence citizens’ trust and civic engagement. In India, public officials are legally required to file asset declarations, but these are often inaccessible, buried in messy unstructured PDFs and never audited. Using a large dataset of over 1.9 million declarations from Bihar, we apply large language models to extract, summarise, and present asset information in a clear, citizen-friendly format. We then conduct a pilot randomised experiment with 1,200 citizens across four districts, exposing them to summaries of local bureaucrats’ declared wealth. By varying the seniority of the official shown, we test whether reactions differ based on perceived power or distance. We measure impacts on trust in government and civic behaviour using both survey and revealed-preference outcomes. The project produces a clean dataset, a tested AI transparency tool, and causal estimates to inform the design of a larger, scalable accountability intervention.
Dr Ziran Ding
SRG2526\260540
Project Title: The Macroeconomic Effects of Protectionist Industrial Policies
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £9,970.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines the macroeconomic effects of industrial policies and how policy-induced disruptions propagate through production networks. Amid the backlash against globalization, industrial policy has become a key tool for achieving geoeconomic goals. The U.S.–China rivalry illustrates this shift: while the Trump administration relied on import tariffs, the Biden administration emphasized export controls and subsidies. These policy-driven trade shocks likely have significant macroeconomic consequences.
Although trade costs are central to open-economy macroeconomics, they are often modeled simplistically through iceberg costs. In this project, I will provide empirical evidence on the macroeconomic effects of different trade disruptions and incorporates these industrial policies into an open-economy macroeconomic framework featured with production network. The analysis aims to quantify how specific policy instruments affect macroeconomic outcomes and to enhance our understanding of their broader global implications.
Dr YING DING
SRG2526\261380
Project Title: Chunsheng li and the transcendence of the comprador ethos in taiwan, 1850–1920
University of the West of Scotland
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This research explores the life and impact of Chunsheng Li, a prominent Taiwanese businessman and thinker active from 1850 to 1920. Focusing on Li’s unique role as a cultural and economic bridge between local communities and foreign enterprises, particularly British and American, the study examines how his Christian faith, business acumen, and ethical values shaped Taiwan’s tea industry and urban development during a period of significant social and political change. By applying theories of ethical work habits and organizational adaptability, the project seeks to understand how Li’s beliefs and strategies enabled him to navigate and influence the challenges of his era. The research aims to provide new insights into the interplay of religion, business, and society in modern East Asian history, highlighting Li’s enduring significance as both a pragmatic entrepreneur and a principled leader.
Dr Markieta Domecka
SRG2526\262034
Co-applicant(s): Dr Pasquale Foresti, Ms Janina Clare Welburn
Project Title: The Value of Work: Women’s Unpaid Labour in Care, Healthcare and Community Service Delivery in London
University of Roehampton
Value awarded: £9,994.00
Funded by: DSIT
There is a whole spectrum of jobs where the most essential work for societies to function remains unpaid or underpaid. Building on the PI's study of unpaid labour in gig economy, creative industries and care work across Europe, this project will investigate the hidden but essential role of women’s unpaid labour in sustaining care, healthcare and community services in London. Working with women from marginalised backgrounds we will document how unpaid labour is experienced, valued (or not), and sustained, and we'll examine its personal, social, and economic impacts. Using a combination of time-use diaries, in-depth narrative interviews and secondary data analysis, the study will generate fresh evidence on the extent of women’s unpaid contributions and the consequences for their economic (in)dependence. The findings will inform practical recommendations for policymakers, funders, and local commissioners, highlighting the risks of over-reliance on unpaid work in place of funded provision and paid employment.
Dr Ed Donnellan
SRG2526\261883
Co-applicant(s): Dr Chiara Gambi
Project Title: Memory Effects Of Linguistic Prediction
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,768.00
Funded by: DSIT
When we strongly expect something and this expectation is disconfirmed, we experience what is known as prediction error. Influential theories suggest that prediction error is a key driver of learning, enabling us to rapidly learn in situations where our expectations turn out to be incorrect. These theories hold that prediction error temporarily boosts our episodic memory encoding (our ability to remember the details of a specific moment in time) to allow for this enhanced learning, effectively recording a vivid snapshot of what happened. However, evidence for this mechanism is scant. To test this theory, we propose to leverage humans’ natural tendency to predict upcoming words when listening to speech, and fully test their encoding of features of episodes in which they experience prediction error. This novel research will provide crucial evidence to test the plausibility of a fundamental theory of human learning.
Dr Stephanie Dropuljic
SRG2526\260906
Project Title: The use of sufficiently reliable factors in criminal cases in England and Wales.
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £9,944.38
Funded by: DSIT
This research examines how courts in EnglandandWales assess the admissibility of expert opinion evidence in criminal trials, focusing on the requirement for a “sufficiently reliable scientific basis.” It will undertake an empirical analysis of reported cases (2011–2025) to evaluate how legal tests and reliability factors are applied in practice, and whether current approaches adequately safeguard against the use of flawed expert evidence. A second strand will analyse the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) case data to explore how expert evidence features in post-conviction reviews. Using a mixed-methods approach, the project combines quantitative analysis of case outcomes with qualitative insights into judicial reasoning. Findings will inform debates on evidence reliability, fairness, and consistency, contributing to legal reform and policy development. The project includes the recruitment of a research assistant and a dissemination workshop with academic and practitioner stakeholders, laying the foundation for future interdisciplinary research and a major external funding bid.
Dr Julian Dyer
SRG2526\260015
Co-applicant(s): Professor Aline Villavicencio, Professor Arthur Blouin
Project Title: Words Of Change: Using Lexical Transfer To Measure Cultural Convergence
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £9,997.81
Funded by: DSIT
The goal of this project is to create a novel global dataset that traces directional patterns of cross-cultural exchange and influence, even where written records are scarce. We will extend deep-learning automated identification of lexical borrowing to a linguist-curated dataset of thousands of languages. This will allow empirical analysis of loanwords as proxy for cultural transmission, as is common in history, but applied uniformly at large scale. An influential economics literature has studied the long-run impact of culture, using datasets of cultural similarity ((Wichmann, 2022)) and inherited traits (e.g. Michalopoulous and Xue (2021)). Measuring cross-cultural influence would enable broad, novel research into the causes and consequences of intercultural exchange and identify the origins of concepts. This would be especially useful in under-resourced contexts lacking written records. The dataset will also separate words into topic-domains, to measure not just intensity of intercultural exchange, but how groups influenced each other.
Professor Stuart Elden
SRG2526\262089
Project Title: Professors Behind Barbed Wire: French Academics in German POW camps
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,980.00
Funded by: DSIT
With France’s 1940 defeat, 1,800,000 Frenchmen were captured by the Germans, about ten percent of the adult male population. There is a large literature about prisoners of war, often focusing on escape, with some discussion of more everyday experiences of captivity, but with limited attention on what happened to academics. Many prisoners learned new skills, taught others, or used the enforced discipline to write. Compared to research on French collaboration and resistance under occupation, some of which examines teaching and publication, the story of the intellectual life of the camps is under-explored. The project looks at three aspects of academic life during this period: teaching, writing and administration. It examines six academics from different disciplines: Fernand Braudel (history), François Ellenberger (geology), Jean-Émile Hermitte (geography), Étienne Wolff (biology), Jean Leray (mathematics) and Alexandre Koyré (philosophy). From their experiences it draws wider lessons about academic life under captivity and exile.
Dr Hajar Fatorachian
SRG2526\261247
Co-applicant(s): Dr Markus Klahn Laursen, Dr Fariba Darabi
Project Title: Enhanced and Inclusive Curriculum Transformation through Ethical AI Integration
Leeds Beckett University
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can ethically and inclusively transform curriculum design, teaching practice, and assessment in higher education. It investigates how educators, students, and institutional leaders engage with AI as both a learning tool and a catalyst for quality enhancement. Through mixed-methods research across Leeds Beckett University, Bangor University, and IBA Denmark, the study will co-create an Ethical AI Pedagogy and Curriculum Framework that embeds integrity, inclusivity, and responsible innovation into academic practice. The research aligns with the British Academy’s Responsible Innovation and Technology in Society theme, addressing how AI literacy, fairness, and digital ethics can improve educational equity and employability. Outputs include academic papers, an open-access toolkit, and policy recommendations to inform responsible AI integration across the UK and European higher education sectors.
Dr João Ferreira
SRG2526\260693
Co-applicant(s): Dr Thomas Gall
Project Title: Knowing Your Place: How Priority Ranking Transparency Shapes School Choice Outcomes
University of Southampton
Value awarded: £9,566.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how transparency about applicants’ priority rankings affects information acquisition and outcomes in school choice. School admission systems often rely on criteria such as proximity or sibling attendance to determine applicants’ priority for oversubscribed schools. However, families often have limited knowledge of their actual priority ranking in different schools. At the same time, they also face uncertainty about school quality, which they can reduce through costly information acquisition (e.g., school visits). Combining theoretical insights with a controlled incentivised experiment, we examine whether making priority rankings more transparent influences how much information applicants acquire, and whether it leads to better allocation outcomes. The project addresses an important gap in the literature studying educational mechanism design, which tends to ignore transparency in perceived priorities. Findings will also provide actionable evidence for policymakers, linking transparency about priority rankings in school admission systems to applicant behaviour, fairness and welfare consequences.
Professor Santiago Fouz-Hernandez
SRG2526\260401
Co-applicant(s): Professor Alfredo Martínez-Expósito
Project Title: Second Skins: Male Bodies in Crisis in Contemporary Spanish Cinema
Durham University
Value awarded: £9,900.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project offers a critical reassessment of representations of masculinities in Spanish cinema in the first quarter of the 21st century, a period marked by overlapping culture, climate, health, political and social crises. Building on their co-authored volume Live Flesh (2007), co-applicants Fouz-Hernández and Martínez-Expósito examine shifts in cinematic portrayals of male bodies through six conceptual frameworks linked to crisis and instability.
The study situates these changes within broader developments in gender politics, streaming culture, and Spain’s evolving political landscape. Employing visual discourse analysis and body/image theory, this new research interrogates how recent Spanish films reflect and shape contemporary understandings of masculinities amid crises of identity, representation, and systemic inequality. Engaging with current theoretical approaches in gender, queer, post-feminist, and decolonial studies, the project will result in a co-authored monograph and a co-edited journal issue, contributing a timely and intersectional perspective to debates on gender and embodiment in European cinemas.
Dr Andrew Fowler
SRG2526\260660
Co-applicant(s): Dr Ruwani Fernando
Project Title: Exploring death, bereavement and desistance during probation supervision in the community
Sheffield Hallam University
Value awarded: £9,981.00
Funded by: DSIT
In the criminal justice system, the bereaved are overrepresented. Little is known on the impact of bereavement for people involved in the criminal and penal justice process, and even less so for those who are serving a punishment in the community. Whilst there are a small number of research studies in carceral settings, there has been little exploration of how probation practitioners support those experiencing bereavement in the community. Evidence shows probation practice requires emotional labour to skilfully support those in processes of desistance (which refers to how and why people stop offending). Recent research indicates the impact that bereavement can have to desistance processes for those under statutory supervision with the Probation Service. This will be the first study to analyse how probation practitioners respond and adapt to disclosures of bereavement including the emotional skills required to support desistance.
Dr Mara Fuertes Gutiérrez
SRG2526\260261
Project Title: Critical Approaches to Linguistic Variation in UK Higher Education (CLAVE): Investigating the Gap between Spanish Language Instructors’ Claims and Pedagogical Implementation
The Open University
Value awarded: £9,977.43
Funded by: DSIT
Languages are traditionally presented in language teaching as fixed, uniform systems, often overlooking contextual and user-driven variation. Recent critical and decolonising pedagogical perspectives, aimed at aligning languages education with social justice, advocate for an emic approach, recognising diversity within languages shaped by history, culture, and society. This project explores how Spanish language instructors in UK Higher Education engage with these ideas, and examines the potential gap between instructors’ stated commitments and actual teaching practices regarding linguistic variation using a qualitative methodological approach. While instructors might support and claim incorporating linguistic variation, actual classroom practices may be, consciously or unconsciously, influenced by institutional constraints, teaching routines, and student expectations. Understanding this potential gap will help to promote a more inclusive and comprehensive view of Spanish for learners. The analysis of the interplay between perceptions and pedagogical realities also contributes to broader discussions on language ideologies, educational policy, and research-informed curriculum development.
Professor Tim Fulford
SRG2526\260409
Project Title: The Collected Correspondence of John Clare
De Montfort University
Value awarded: £9,952.00
Funded by: DSIT
We seek funding for visits to archives that hold manuscript letters, from which I and my co-editors will produce, in 2030, the first ever scholarly edition of the 1800+ letters FROM and TO John Clare. This correspondence, over 70% of which has never been published, throws new light on a writer who has gone from being largely forgotten in the 1840s and from marginality in the late-20th century to being, now, perhaps the most discussed nineteenth-century poet. Despite this, challenges remain to understanding his significance in his own time and ours -- namely the lack of access to the context in which he wrote, was published and read, a lack that has allowed stereotypes and clichés to persist about him. Our edition, contracted to Liverpool UP, will respond to these challenges. It will feature both sides of Clare's correspondence, transcribed from manuscript. The transcription visits are thus vital to it.
Dr Matteo Fumagalli
SRG2526\261803
Project Title: Survival, adaptation and resourcefulness among the Rohingya communities of Karachi, Mae Sot and Chiang Mai
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Widely regarded as one of the world’s most persecuted communities, the Rohingya are an increasingly transnational one too. The complexities of Rohingya life have been flattened by two narratives: In Myanmar, decades-long state-led claims that the Rohingya are not a separate ethnic group, but illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. This has co-existed with a well-meaning, but simplistic idea of a single powerless way of being Rohingya. This project explores the lives and experiences of Rohingya communities in two neighbourhoods of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest metropolis, and two smaller cities in northern Thailand (Mae Sot and Chiang Mai). The aim of the project is to highlight the multiple ways of being Rohingya and, acknowledging the intersecting forms of discrimination they are subjected to, examine the salience of the hitherto neglected category of class on the Rohingya experience.
Dr Sarah Gibson Yates
SRG2526\262104
Project Title: Conversations with Bots and Story Thinking: Developing Understanding of Attitudes to AI in Young Adults Through Smartphone Filmmaking
Anglia Ruskin University
Value awarded: £9,978.96
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how young adults understand, interact with, and negotiate their relationships with artificial intelligence (AI) through smartphone filmmaking. As AI technologies become increasingly embedded in everyday life, young adults are both key users and emerging critics of these systems, yet their perspectives remain underrepresented in public discourse and academic research. Using smartphone filmmaking and story thinking (Marshall, Wilkins, and Bennett 2025) as creative participatory research methods, Conversations with Bots invites the participants to script, film, and reflect on current dialogues with AI chatbots and imagine AI futures. The project will develop a deeper understanding of young adults’ perceptions, hopes, and anxieties surrounding AI, while empowering critical engagement and reflexivity on emerging technologies. This project will enrich interdisciplinary research and pedagogy on digital culture, education, and AI ethics, providing impactful conceptual and methodological contributions to humanities and social science debates about technological imagination, agency, AI literacy, and psychology.
Dr Duarte Gonçalves Dias da Silva
SRG2526\261355
Project Title: Sequential Sampling Equilibrium
University College London (UCL)
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates whether models of decision-making based on sequential evidence accumulation—through introspection, memory sampling, or active information acquisition—can explain how individuals behave in strategic environments. We focus on strategic settings where people face uncertainty about others’ actions and must decide how much time and effort to invest in understanding their environment before making a choice. The proposal expands on the framework of Sequential Sampling Equilibrium (doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2212.07725), a new equilibrium concept in which players rationally trade off the costs and benefits of acquiring information. The project will test novel predictions of this model, particularly its implications for how incentives and strategic uncertainty affect decision times, beliefs, and behaviour. Through carefully designed experiments, we aim to assess whether this model can account for empirical patterns in strategic reasoning better than existing theories, and to explore its potential as a tool for interpreting time-stamped behavioural data in games.
Chantal Gratton
SRG2526\261646
Project Title: Vowels and embodied emotion
Queen Mary University of London
Value awarded: £9,995.69
Funded by: DSIT
This project advances a sociophonetic theory of embodied emotion by examining how variable vowel pronunciations reflect our emotions and physical states. When we speak, the shape and movement of our mouth and tongue create patterns of vowels known as a vowel space. Building on pilot work that found people subtly reshape their vowel space when happy, frustrated, or excited, it analyses a 67-hour audio-video corpus of friends playing a cooperative video game, integrating facial-expression coding with detailed acoustic measures. The study challenges the assumption that vowel space differences index stable social identities or articulatory clarity, instead treating them as embodied cues of emotional engagement that can accumulate and become socially meaningful over time. In doing so, it reframes vowel space variation as a site where emotion, interaction, and social meaning converge, linking micro-level phonetic dynamics to macro-level sociolinguistic patterns.
Dr Dipsikha Guha Majumdar
SRG2526\260907
Co-applicant(s): Dr Roya Derakhshan
Project Title: Navigating Violence in Entrepreneurship Training: Exploring Lived Experiences of Marginalised Women in Global South
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £9,945.00
Funded by: DSIT
Entrepreneurship among marginalised women in the Global South has become a key neoliberal focus since the 1990s, leading to major policy investments by diverse social intermediaries. Yet, recent studies show mixed outcomes of such initiatives, raising concerns about their real impact on poverty and women's empowerment. This project builds on the PI’s doctoral research on intersectional experiences of entrepreneurship among women of subordinate caste-groups in India, which revealed women’s endurance of multiple layers of violence during entrepreneurship training (ET). The proposed research will study the lived experiences of women-entrepreneurs during ETs in Odisha, one of impoverished provinces, to (a) explore diverse forms of violence experienced by these women during ETs (b) provide recommendations to local government and NGOs to explore possibilities of eradicating such experiences of violence at sites of ET and (c) advance theoretical and practical understanding of the forms of violence experienced by marginalised women during ET programmes.
Professor Jane Hamlett
SRG2526\260336
Project Title: First and Last Things: Family Archiving in Victorian England
Royal Holloway, University of London
Value awarded: £9,115.00
Funded by: DSIT
In Victorian England, family archiving became a mass practice engaged in by people at all social levels, creating a vast archive of albums, scrapbooks, photos, letters and ephemera. This project is the first comprehensive study of this material, exploring how industrial culture shaped family archiving and how new products were invested with emotional significance as family life was transformed by urbanisation. Using a nationwide archival survey, the project will explore how different families, from Essex clergymen to Black Country metal workers, recorded their family histories and identities. It will consider how older genealogical practices were transformed by new technologies such as photography, and assess how and why family things came to be important, revealing a new history of the emotional lives of the Victorians and their lasting influence on the way we remember family life today.
Professor Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
SRG2526\260985
Co-applicant(s): Dr Gareth Roberts
Project Title: Bridging contexts in language change: an experimental investigation into the role of salience
University of Manchester
Value awarded: £9,831.49
Funded by: DSIT
In this interdisciplinary project combining historical linguistics and pragmatics with experimental psychology, we will carry out psycholinguistic experiments pertaining to the notion of bridging contexts in language change. Bridging contexts simultaneously allow for a conventional and an innovative interpretation of a given linguistic construction and can therefore cause that construction to change.
Our principal objective is to investigate the hypothesis that the psychological salience of the innovative interpretation to hearers makes a difference to the ease with which change may be triggered in bridging contexts. Specifically, we will test two different ways in which an innovative interpretation can be made salient despite a low frequency of bridging contexts. We will also compare the effects of such salience with the effect of innovative interpretations being associated with highly frequent bridging contexts. High frequency, rather than salience, has been hypothesized to be the principal trigger elsewhere in the literature.
Dr Caitlin Harvey
SRG2526\260060
Project Title: Tutelage: Higher Education and Decolonization in the British Empire, 1920-1970
University of Hull
Value awarded: £7,525.20
Funded by: DSIT
“Decolonizing” higher education – its curriculum, canon, and pedagogy – has been the subject of much recent public debate and academic research. What has been less debated is the period of Britain’s colonial past in which universities themselves were seen as crucial mechanisms of decolonization and colonial independence. Between 1947 and 1970, academics at the University of London managed the curriculum, standards, and examinations of eight colonial colleges in Africa and the Caribbean, shepherding them towards independent university status, while also influencing the formation of many other universities in Commonwealth territories and in Britain. The proposed study analyzes this major development scheme, known as London’s system of “special relations”, along with its outcomes. In doing so, it offers two new contributions: a transnational and comparative history of the politics of development in the British Empire and, within that, an entangled history of British and colonial higher education after 1940.
Dr Ella Hawkins
SRG2526\260576
Project Title: Shakespeare’s Makers: Locating the people who supplied material goods to the early modern stage
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Value awarded: £9,770.09
Funded by: DSIT
Early modern performance histories often centre on playhouses, playwrights, players, or material objects like printed texts, props, and costumes. This project seeks to reinvestigate Elizabethan and Jacobean professional performance as an industry driven by makers and suppliers of material goods: tailors, haberdashers, mercers, silkworkers, painters, tiremen and tirewomen. Combining a reassessment of early modern theatrical and genealogical documents with new archival research in the collections of London’s livery companies, ‘Shakespeare’s Makers’ will identify the locations, lives, and professional networks of named individuals who supplied playing companies. This work will unseat long-held assumptions about how attire, properties, and furniture made their way onto the early modern stage, and will generate a new body of information about how makers and suppliers shaped the business of playing during this period. The project’s intended outputs include a journal article, walking tour, conference paper, and a major funding bid for further research in this area.
Dr Rumandeep Hayre
SRG2526\261217
Co-applicant(s): Dr Romy Froemer, Dr Frederick Callaway
Project Title: How to take advice: Cognitive, computational and neural mechanisms underpinning the evaluation and integration of advice to support optimal decision-making
University of Birmingham
Value awarded: £9,995.14
Funded by: DSIT
Prioritising superior advice is essential for decision-making. Failure to do so can be drastic for public health and finance (WHO, 2003), lending urgency to understanding how people evaluate and integrate advice to support their decision-making. Our project tackles this problem by combining a novel multiple adviser paradigm with eye-movement and EEG recordings, and computational modelling to identify the cognitive and computational mechanisms by which people evaluate and integrate advice from multiple advisers, and their neural correlates. We build on two eye-tracking pilot studies (N=70) using our multiple adviser paradigm, indicating that people learn to prioritise advice that is more likely to be accurate. Simultaneous EEG-and eye-tracking combined with cutting-edge EEG analysis deconvolution techniques will help overcome ecological validity issues in previous advice taking research and to unfold the temporal dynamics of advice evaluation and integration. We will share our results with stakeholders to inform guidance for identifying trustworthy advice.
Dr Eric Hoddy
SRG2526\262125
Co-applicant(s): Professor Paul Gready
Project Title: Reimagining participation in an era of crisis: Lessons from Poverty Truth Commissions
University of York
Value awarded: £9,992.00
Funded by: DSIT
The purpose of this study is to explore the conducive dynamics of participation within the York Poverty Commission, and to generate insights that can inform the design of local and global truth commissions. Three intersecting global challenges make our project focus on Poverty Truth Commissions crucial. These are: stalled progress on global poverty reduction and rising inequality; the recent emergence of the ‘post-truth condition’, characterised the spread of misinformation and a decline in trust in traditional sources of information; and the decline in democratic politics. By focusing on participation, we want to understand how poverty truth commissions may offer a useful counter to these interlinked challenges that develop more effective solutions to poverty and that centre people’s voice and agency, promote transparency and inclusivity to counter misinformation, and build institutional trust through civic engagement.
Dr Carolin Hoeltken
SRG2526\261002
Co-applicant(s): Dr Yiqi Huang
Project Title: Housing Conditions and Long-Term Outcomes in the UK
University of Cambridge
Value awarded: £9,500.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how housing conditions shape long-term educational, economic, and health outcomes in the United Kingdom. Although neighbourhood effects have been widely studied, much less is known about the role of the dwelling itself. Problems such as overcrowding, damp, and poor insulation remain common, particularly among disadvantaged households. The study will combine the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to examine how exposure to poor housing in adolescence influences later-life attainment and wellbeing. It will also situate these effects in the context of national regeneration programmes such as the Decent Homes Standard, which sought to raise minimum housing quality across England. By linking household-level conditions with individual trajectories, the research will generate evidence on whether improving housing quality enhances opportunity and social mobility, offering new insights for housing, health, and inequality policy.
Dr Quynh Huynh
SRG2526\262302
Co-applicant(s): Dr Anri Sakakibara
Project Title: Mobile Internet and Structural Transformation in Vietnam
University of Leeds
Value awarded: £9,900.00
Funded by: DSIT
The widespread diffusion of the internet holds great potential to accelerate economic growth. One way through which this happens is by reducing information frictions, and lowering search and transaction costs. Despite growing evidence that digital infrastructure can enhance productivity, relatively little is known about its role in shaping the labour market in developing countries. This project investigates the impact of third-generation (3G) networks on labour market outcomes in Vietnam, exploiting the staggered rollout of the 3G networks across the country. We will employ rich microdata both at the individual and firm-level to provide evidence on the impact of 3G on labour force participation, sector of employment and worker formalisation. We will additionally explore whether women benefit more from the new job opportunities that come with internet connectivity, or whether they face barriers that leave them behind.
Dr Atsuko Ichijo
SRG2526\260728
Project Title: Reconsidering universality: human rights activism in East Asia
Birkbeck, University of London
Value awarded: £9,770.03
Funded by: DSIT
The project aims to reconsider what is meant by ‘universal’ in the idea of universal human rights by investigating the understanding of human rights held by human rights activists in East Asia, in particular, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. It is sometimes claimed that human rights are western construct and such, their promotion is an imposition of western values on the non-western parts of the world. However, the idea of human rights is mobilised not only in resisting perceived western hegemony or neo-imperialism but also when citizens of a non-western country demand accountability and restitution from their own government. By conducting an ethnographic study with human rights activists in East Asia, the project seeks to identify how human rights are understood by them based on their experience. The result will be analysed with works on human rights to achieve a re-appraisal of the universality of human rights.
Dr Giuseppe Ippedico
SRG2526\261471
Co-applicant(s): Professor Giovanni Peri
Project Title: Firm-level Effects of Tax-Induced High-Skilled Migration
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,935.00
Funded by: DSIT
Many countries implement preferential tax schemes to attract high-skilled workers from abroad, driven by the anticipated benefits of tax-induced immigration—such as human capital externalities and agglomeration spillovers. However, while these spillovers are theoretically significant, empirical research providing a quantifiable assessment of their actual impact remains limited. In this project, we will build on Bassetto and Ippedico (2024) and quantify the spillover effects of tax-induced return migration in Italy. Using data from the Italian Social Security Institute (INPS) we study the effects of the Italian preferential tax schemes, which reduced substantially income taxes on high-skilled workers arriving from abroad. By leveraging pre-existing variation in firms’ exposure to policy-eligible workers, combined with the introduction of the tax scheme, we will estimate the effects of these high-skilled returnees on productivity, wages, employment and other outcomes of firms and co-workers.
Dr Nora Jaber
SRG2526\261857
Project Title: The Legal Recognition of 'Gender Apartheid': Promises and Perils of Criminalisation
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £8,888.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project critically examines emerging efforts to codify 'gender apartheid' as a new international crime. While the proposed legal category aims to address systemic gender-based oppression – particularly under the Taliban in Afghanistan – its broader legal, political, and epistemological dimensions remain underexplored. This research makes a timely and necessary intervention by analysing how the concept of gender apartheid is being constructed, whose perspectives shape its formulation, and what forms of justice it enables or constrains. It explores the degree to which local actors and feminist knowledges are meaningfully engaged, and how legal recognition may support or displace more contextualised approaches to justice. In doing so, the project offers new insight into how international legal responses to gender-based oppression might be reimagined through deeper collaboration with local feminist movements, enhancing their contextual relevance, legitimacy, and transformative potential.
Professor Daniel Jackson
SRG2526\260854
Co-applicant(s): Professor Julie Firmstone, Dr Jamie Matthews
Project Title: Performing the News: Assessing Journalistic Roles in the UK’s Changing Media Landscape
Bournemouth University
Value awarded: £9,999.10
Funded by: DSIT
Public confidence in journalism is in decline, particularly in the UK. While both journalists and audiences broadly agree on the core roles journalism should play—such as informing the public and holding power to account—many people feel these expectations are not being met in practice. This gap between what the public values and what it perceives journalists to deliver contributes to news avoidance and declining trust, raising serious concerns for democracy. Through a content analysis of UK news from across 2026, this project will map the roles that journalists perform to better understand where these disconnects occur. By linking UK findings to a global dataset covering 59 countries, we will place the UK in international context and identify broader patterns. The research will engage directly with media organisations to inform strategies that better align journalism with public expectations and support the production of more valued and trusted news.
Dr Irene Josa i Culleré
SRG2526\261003
Project Title: Equity in structural safety: uncovering bias mechanisms in design codes
University College London (UCL)
Value awarded: £9,999.46
Funded by: DSIT
Structural design—the rules engineers use to judge whether a building is “safe enough”—is usually treated as purely technical. Yet these rules and models embed social assumptions about “standard” users, acceptable risk, maintenance, and enforcement. This project examines how such assumptions can unintentionally leave some groups less protected. We will analyse published standards, inquiries and design guidance to build a coded evidence base identifying where inequities can enter—for example, average-only performance targets, default user profiles, or uneven retrofit and enforcement. From this, we will develop a mechanism map and case vignettes to make the dynamics visible. The synthesis translates findings into practice-legible levers that fit existing workflows (e.g., clearer distributional reporting, equity-sensitive objectives, attention to buildings with concentrated vulnerable users). The project offers regulators and practitioners a clear, low-burden agenda for sharing the benefits—and burdens—of structural design more equitably.
Professor Tobias Jung
SRG2526\262108
Co-applicant(s): Professor Helen Liu
Project Title: A Comparative Analysis of the Philanthropic Ecosystems in Scotland and Taiwan
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £9,120.00
Funded by: DSIT & National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)
Philanthropy, the use of private resources (time, treasure, talent, ties) for public purposes, plays a vital role in addressing social, economic, and political challenges. Understanding of its structures, motivations, and impacts, however, remains limited. This project compares the philanthropic ecosystems of Scotland and Taiwan, societies with distinct but mature traditions of public welfare, to explore how institutional design, organisational practice, and stakeholder motivations shape philanthropic actions. Drawing on a framework of seven core characteristics developed by the UK Co-Applicant, the study will undertake documentary analysis, focus groups, and in-depth interviews across both contexts. By examining how these systems operate, interact, and contrast, the research will build a theoretical and comparative model linking institutional structures, cultural context, and philanthropic development. The findings will advance cross-cultural scholarship on philanthropy, and generate practical insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to strengthen governance, foster social trust, and promote sustainable and participatory forms of philanthropy.
Dr Pantelis Kazakis
SRG2526\261058
Project Title: Structural complexity and firm green innovation
University of Glasgow
Value awarded: £9,229.51
Funded by: DSIT
Firms differ widely in how their internal structures shape coordination, accountability, and innovation, yet the role of structural complexity in driving sustainability remains unclear. Existing proxies, such as financial report’s length, often reflect managerial discretion. This project develops an objective, structure-based measure that maps subsidiaries, ownership depth, and global span, advancing beyond disclosure-driven indices like Loughran & McDonald (2024). Because these structural features evolve slowly and respond to major regulatory or institutional shocks, the measure enables more credible causal tests of how changes in firm structural complexity influence green innovation. I hypothesize that greater complexity could either hinder green innovation through coordination frictions or enhance it by broadening resources and through exposure to strict green regulations. The findings will show when structural complexity helps or hinders firms’ green innovation and provide practical guidance for policymakers on how firm structures can better support sustainable growth.
Dr Muhammad Umair Khan
SRG2526\261699
Project Title: Understanding Cultural and Structural Influences on ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment in Racialised Communities in England
Aston University
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and prescriptions are increasing across England. However, people from ethnic minority backgrounds often face greater challenges in accessing the right support. My previous research showed clear regional differences in ADHD medication use, strongly linked to the ethnic make-up of local populations. This suggests that deeper structural and cultural issues may be affecting access to care—factors that remain poorly understood. This study will explore the experiences of children, adults, and families from racialised communities using an approach that considers how different aspects of identity interact with structural and systemic factors to affect access to ADHD care. Through in-depth interviews and guided by input from the public, this research will identify what helps or hinders access to care. The findings will support the development of more inclusive and culturally responsive ADHD services and provide a strong foundation for future research to reduce inequalities in ADHD care.
Dr Vatsal Khandelwal
SRG2526\261684
Project Title: Matching Frictions In Firm-to-Firm Networks
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £9,954.87
Funded by: DSIT
In many developing economies, large firms are disproportionately productive and more likely to pioneer new technologies. However, they often operate in isolation from smaller firms due to the presence of various frictions, leading to an inefficient production network. In this project, we will conduct survey experiments with small and large Kenyan firms to identify the frictions (eg: financial, contractual, informational) that reduce inter-firm matching. These insights will inform the focus and design of a structural search and matching model, which we will estimate using (a) administrative data on over 6 million firm-to-firm relationships formed by 76,000 firms (to which we already have access), and (b) data on policy shocks that plausibly reduce matching frictions. By combining survey-based and administrative approaches, the project seeks to improve our understanding of how firm networks form, why they may fail to form efficiently, and how such failures limit the growth potential of smaller firms.
Dr Luise Koeppen
SRG2526\260276
Project Title: Mapping Discontent: Spatial Dynamics and Behavioural Diffusion in the UK
James Hutton Institute
Value awarded: £8,923.53
Funded by: DSIT
Deep-seated discontent has become a defining feature of liberal democracies, reshaping political landscapes and reflecting widening spatial inequalities. Evidence suggests that voting patterns are not independent of space, since people interact with, and are socialised by, their material environment. Yet, research examining spatial voting patterns is fragmented, revealing gaps in understanding spatial mechanisms of discontent – and broader behavioural patterns emerging from it. This project develops a spatial approach to uncover distinct forms of discontent and their micro-foundations, manifested in (voting) behaviour, identifying spatial mechanisms contributing to disruptive politics. Using advanced spatial econometric methods, it simulates behavioural dynamics to reveal how discontent diffuses across space and shapes electoral outcomes. By integrating spatial and behavioural perspectives, this research advances understanding of geographies of discontent, exploring a form of spatial consciousness linked to neighbourhood characteristics. The findings have potential for targeting the infrastructure of ‘place-based’ and ‘people-centred’ interventions in perceived left-behind areas.
Dr Margaret Leighton
SRG2526\262212
Co-applicant(s): Dr Lavinia Kinne, Dr Raphael Brade
Project Title: Team Diversity and Output in Non-Routine Creative Tasks
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £9,686.71
Funded by: DSIT
The share of job tasks that require creative thinking has grown over the last decades and creative tasks are increasingly organized in teams. We will study the impact of group composition on the output in creative team tasks. To do so, we exploit the randomized allocation of first-year undergraduate students to study groups in a large Economics module over multiple years. Students are required to produce a short video on an important invention and its economic impacts. Using human raters and text-as-data methods to construct a variety of output measures, we will analyze how the group composition, e.g., in terms of gender, nationality, and academic background, affects the creativity and quality of videos. Furthermore, we will look at who appears in the videos and in which function to study the representation of group members. Surveys and focus groups with participating students will provide evidence on mechanisms.
Professor Cherry Leonardi
SRG2526\262035
Project Title: Elephants are stories now: oral histories of interspecies relations in South Sudan
Durham University
Value awarded: £9,968.00
Funded by: DSIT
The global extinction crisis both endangers and makes vital our memories of other species and how to live with them. This project asks how the memory of elephants can be recovered in a context of their near-extinction amid human conflicts in South Sudan. It will use unique intergenerational story-telling methods to explore indigenous social and cultural knowledge of a species that is known for its own intergenerational knowledge transmission. This innovative methodology will reveal and restore the memory of elephants to a history which has rendered them invisible. It will reorientate our understanding of elephants’ significance from ivory and Western representations to their massive impacts on African histories, cultures and environments, and from external conservation to indigenous interspecies knowledge. Ultimately, the memory of elephants in South Sudan will be a vital resource for combating extinction by reminding us that human history and existence everywhere is fundamentally entangled with other species.
Dr Yiwei Li
SRG2526\262509
Co-applicant(s): Professor Claudia Girardone,
Project Title: Bank Mergers and Workplace Safety at Borrowing Firms
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,973.16
Funded by: DSIT
This study investigates how bank mergers affect workplace safety outcomes at borrowing firms. As banking sector consolidation accelerates, understanding the spillover effects on client firms' non-financial performance has become increasingly important for both corporate managers and regulators. We examine whether disruptions to lending relationships following bank mergers lead to deterioration in borrower workplace safety, measured through injury rates and safety violations. The research explores potential mechanisms including credit availability changes, monitoring intensity shifts, and relationship banking disruptions. We also analyze how borrower characteristics such as financial constraints, relationship duration, and firm size moderate these effects, alongside examining potential trade-offs between financial performance and safety outcomes during periods of banking relationship transitions.
Dr Chong Ming Lim
SRG2526\260245
Project Title: A Theory of Commemorative Justice
University of Sheffield
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Contemporary philosophical examination of the ethics of public commemoration has tended to centre on monuments and statues that make the news (especially in the United States). My project seeks to articulate a general theory of commemorative justice, which comprises principles that can provide a multifaceted assessment of a plurality of public commemorations (including artefacts, practices and institutions) across different contexts. I plan to organise two workshops in support of my research. The first will examine the fittingness of certain evaluative attitudes towards historical subjects. I aim to collate the research at this workshop for submission to a reputable journal as a special issue. The second will be a book manuscript workshop, to solicit critical feedback on my manuscript. These publications will pave the way for deeper understandings of the public commemorative landscape in various national contexts.
Dr Gabrielle Lin
SRG2526\260738
Co-applicant(s): Dr Xinyang Liu
Project Title: Human and Artificial Judgement under Uncertainty: A Global Comparative Study of Forecasting Reasoning in Tourism
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,840.00
Funded by: DSIT
Decision-making under uncertainty increasingly involves both human experts and artificial intelligence (AI). This project examines how each reasons, justifies and anticipates the future, contributing to social-science debates on judgement, explainability and hybrid intelligence. Using global tourism forecasting as a data-rich and high-stakes context, the study conducts a systematic comparison of human expert panels (Delphi) and large language models (LLMs) forecasting and reasoning across ten leading destinations and their major origin markets. Both will independently produce 12-month-ahead tourist arrivals forecasts for 2027 using identical data and contextual information, allowing direct comparison of reasoning transparency, contextual awareness and predictive performance. The project’s findings will advance understanding of human-AI decision-making, develop frameworks for explainable forecasting and produce practical guidance for policymakers and industry on integrating human and AI judgement in transparent, accountable forecasting systems.
Dr Zheng Liu
SRG2526\261021
Co-applicant(s): Dr Yongjiang Shi
Project Title: Advancing a circular economy through industrial symbiosis implementation: Developing a resilient multi-dimensional model from empirical case studies
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £9,989.50
Funded by: DSIT
As global manufacturing intensifies, energy demand continues to rise, making the transition to a circular economy urgent. Industrial symbiosis (IS) is an approach to advancing circularity, where underutilised resources from one company become inputs for another. Whist recognised by the UK Government as a promising sustainable development strategy, IS faces significant challenges in practice due to high operational costs and poor execution. This project seeks to develop a resilient model addressing key success pillars for IS – value creation, resource cascading, and network configuration. Drawing on empirical case studies from energy-intensive manufacturing sectors in Taiwan, the research will deepen understanding of IS dynamics through the lens of firms and their supply chains – a perspective underexplored in the current literature. A practical toolkit will be developed and assessed in the South Wales Industrial Cluster, supporting Wales/the UK’s manufacturing companies in identifying effective strategies for transitioning towards a circular economy.
Dr Claudio Lombardi
SRG2526\262514
Project Title: Legal Promises Vs. Empirical Realities: A Quantitative Study Of Access To Justice In Competition Damages Actions
University of Aberdeen
Value awarded: £9,730.98
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how ordinary people and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can exercise their right to obtain justice (in the form of compensation or injunction) when harmed by a competition law infringement. It focuses on competition law—the framework designed to prevent abuses of economic power—and asks a simple but vital question: Can consumers, workers, and SMEs realistically obtain justice when harmed by unfair and anticompetitive practices? To answer this, the study combines two approaches: a systematic review of court decisions and direct conversations with key stakeholders, including legal professionals and consumer organisations. By blending data analysis with real-world perspectives, the research aims to uncover barriers to justice and identify practical solutions that make legal remedies more accessible. Ultimately, the project aims to inform policies that protect vulnerable groups and foster trust in markets, ensuring that fairness is not just a principle on paper, but a reality in practice.
Dr Bowen Lou
SRG2526\260198
Co-applicant(s): Dr Neil Shepherd, Dr Andreas Strobl
Project Title: Missing from the Table: Women’s Underrepresentation in Mergers & Acquisitions
University of Bristol
Value awarded: £9,893.73
Funded by: DSIT
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) play a crucial role in shaping the global economy by influencing market structures, driving corporate growth, altering competitive landscapes, and fostering innovation. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of gender diversity in corporate leadership—and the critical soft skills that women leaders contribute, such as emotional intelligence, stakeholder management, and risk assessment—M&A remains heavily dominated by men, particularly in senior roles. The persistent underrepresentation of women in this field may offer new insights into why 70%–90% of acquisitions fail to deliver their intended value(Christensen et al., 2011). This project proposes to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on UK-based M&A transactions to investigate the underlying causes of gender imbalance and to examine the impact of gender diversity on acquisition decision-making and performance. The findings are expected to provide valuable implications for fostering a more inclusive environment for women in M&A, while also contributing to broader efforts.
Dr Agata Ludwiczak
SRG2526\260553
Co-applicant(s): Dr Martyn Broadhead
Project Title: Seeing Effort: How Context Shapes Perceived Exertion in Virtual Reality
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how environmental context shapes the way people perceive and exert physical effort. Within virtual reality (VR) environments, participants will perform a series of simple hand-grip tasks. These will be done while immersed in two types of VR settings: one designed to convey high effort (e.g., a gym or construction site) and another associated with relaxation and low effort (e.g., a garden or living room). Across these settings, participants will either follow specific effort instructions or freely determine their own level of exertion. Comparing perceived and actual effort across conditions will reveal whether contextual cues influence the subjective experience and behavioural expression of effort. The findings are expected to offer new insights into the nature of effort, challenging traditional views that treat it as a purely physiological response and instead defining it as a perceptual and context-dependent construct.
Dr Jane Lugea
SRG2526\261515
Co-applicant(s): Dr Carolina Fernandez-Quintanilla, Dr Louise Nuttall
Project Title: Enacting mind style: what readers do when reading fictional minds
Queen's University Belfast
Value awarded: £9,998.00
Funded by: DSIT
One of the great pleasures in reading fiction is ‘trying on minds’ of fictional characters or narrators (Zunshine 2006). Over the last fifty years, literary linguistics has explored the ways that fictional prose uses language to construct and elaborate ‘mind styles’ in characters (Fowler 1977; 1996). In light of the fifty-year anniversary of the concept, this project aims to explore readers' responses to mind style to understand what happens when readers ‘try on’ fictional minds by applying new questions to an existing dataset of reader responses. In doing so, it advances an empirically-informed understanding of mind style’s effects on readers, bringing about a new wave of research on mind style. It is vital to understand what readers do in response to fictional mind styles, to have a better understanding how ‘trying on minds’ can facilitate second-order effects, such as awareness, understanding and empathy.
Dr Louise Luxton
SRG2526\261122
Co-applicant(s): Dr Lotte Hargrave
Project Title: Voter perceptions of party issue ownership on gender issues
University of Strathclyde
Value awarded: £9,900.00
Funded by: DSIT
Gender issues - encompassing the rights and roles of women and LGBTQ+ people – have become increasingly salient in European electoral politics. Issue ownership, defined as voters’ perceptions of which parties most care about and are most competent on an issue, shapes campaign strategy and vote choice. Yet no research has systematically examined voter perceptions of parties’ ownership of gender issues, or variation across dimensions, such as abortion or transgender rights. This project fields an original cross-national survey in Denmark, Germany, and Britain to measure both associative and competence-based perceptions of party ownership across gender issue areas. Pairing voter survey data with party manifesto analysis, it provides the first systematic evidence of gender issue ownership from both voter and party perspectives. It thereby advances understanding of how gender issues are politicised and linked to electoral behaviour across contexts, an urgent task amid a growing backlash against gender equality globally.
Zeeshan Mahmood
SRG2526\260279
Project Title: (Re)configuring Accountability Through Sustainability Reporting Awards in Emerging Economies
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,500.00
Funded by: DSIT
This research aims to investigate how sustainability reporting awards actively (re)configure corporate accountability in Pakistan. Moving beyond the view of awards as simple recognition, the study examines them as powerful sites where the very rules of ‘good’ corporate conduct are established. It focuses on a critical institutional shift: the abandonment of the pioneering ACCA-WWF Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards and their replacement by the ICAP-ICMAP joint Sustainability Reporting Awards. Drawing on the sociology of worth and valuation, the project employs a longitudinal case study to examine how these schemes standardise metrics, define boundaries of relevance, and create hierarchies of value through their criteria, judge networks, and corporate reporting. The findings will reveal the politics behind these processes, showing how global norms are localised and whose interests are served. This will produce crucial insights for designing more equitable and effective mechanisms for genuine corporate transparency in emerging economies.
Dr Andrea Mallaburn
SRG2526\261746
Co-applicant(s): Professor Linda Seton, Dr Rick Tynan
Project Title: Who Gets to Belong in Science? A Study of Equity, Motivation and Identity in Secondary Schools in England through the Equity-Informed Motivation and Identity Framework (EIMIF)
Liverpool John Moores University
Value awarded: £9,988.38
Funded by: DSIT
This project applies the Equity-Informed Motivation and Identity Framework (EIMIF) to examine how motivation, identity, and structural recognition interact to shape engagement in secondary science education. Through a national survey of 2,500-3,000 students in Years 8–10, the study will use latent profile analysis to identify distinct patterns of motivation, cost, belonging, and recognition across demographic groups. By embedding intersectionality and ecological systems thinking within established motivation theories (Self-Determination Theory and Expectancy–Value Theory), the project moves beyond deficit explanations of disengagement to reveal how systemic inequities restrict who can authentically identify as a ‘science person’. The findings will produce the first national mapping of science identity through an equity lens, offering a diagnostic tool for schools and policymakers to address participation gaps and positioning EIMIF as a novel, scalable model for equitable science educational research.
Dr Sarah Marks
SRG2526\260605
Project Title: Talking Money, Doing Gender: exploring gender, money and financial wellbeing among the self-employed.
Swansea University
Value awarded: £7,858.60
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores how gender norms shape how self-employed workers talk about money and how this impacts their financial wellbeing.
A key element of the UK’s financial wellbeing strategy is the promotion of open conversations about money and finances at all stages of life from childhood to the workplace, family and retirement (Money and Pensions Service, 2025). Theoretically, this assumes that while talking about money is socially taboo, an individual's ability to do so underpins financial literacy and this will in turn drive optimal saving, budgeting and planning financial behaviours. This qualitative research project draws on in-depth interviews with women and men entrepreneurs to deeply explore two entwined and neglected issues pertinent to this vision of financial wellbeing; how is the capacity to talk openly about money shaped by gender norms and how gendered moneytalk constrains or enables the ability to derive financial wellbeing from self-employment.
Dr Akitaka Matsuo
SRG2526\261821
Project Title: Generative Models as Coders: Implications for Measurement in Political Text Analysis
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,749.20
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT and Gemini, can be used to assist political science researchers in analyzing complex text data. It focuses on the use of AI to label texts for text scaling, a method that places documents, such as political speeches or policy statements, in a continuous space like political ideology, policy position, and sentiment. The project evaluates whether the annotation of texts by generative AI is reliable and how it compares to those created by humans. It applies these methods to two areas: international negotiations on plastic pollution and sentiment and stance in parliamentary debate. By comparing different AI models, both closed, proprietary models and open-source models and prompting strategies, the research aims to assess the feasibility of AI-assisted coding for political text analysis while promoting transparency and reproducibility of quantitative social science research.
Dr Matt McLain
SRG2526\260611
Project Title: Reimagining Design and Technology Education: Policy Development and Reform in the UK and Global Contexts
Liverpool John Moores University
Value awarded: £9,999.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates the urgent need for reform in UK Design and Technology (D&T) education policy, responding to its declining status and misalignment with future skills demands. Drawing on comparative data from Sweden, China, and Australia, selected for their distinct policy trajectories, innovation ecosystems, and relevance to UK challenges, the research will explore how international models can inform UK reform. Using Stakeholder Salience Theory, the study will identify influential and underrepresented actors in the policy ecosystem, including teachers, teacher educators and researchers. A mixed-methods approach will combine document analysis, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, surveys, and participatory workshops to co-develop actionable recommendations. Outputs will include a comparative policy report, peer-reviewed publications, practitioner toolkits, and targeted stakeholder briefings. The project will engage with policy windows such as the 2027 curriculum review and aims to influence national reform through strategic dissemination and collaboration with key stakeholders and curriculum influencers.
Dr Michelle Meinhart
SRG2526\260124
Co-applicant(s): Dr Karen Leistra-Jones, Professor Christina Baade
Project Title: Hearing Maternity: Forging Critical Intersections in Music and Motherhood Studies
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Value awarded: £9,859.00
Funded by: DSIT
'Hearing Maternity' explores how music shapes—and is shaped by—experiences and representations of motherhood. While feminist research on motherhood and reproductive justice and feminist music studies share many concerns, they have largely evolved along separate paths. At a time when motherhood is increasingly visible in the media and political discourse, this project brings these conversations together to ask what insights emerge when we study music through the lens of motherhood—and what music studies can contribute to understanding motherhood, mothering and reproductive justice. The project will lay the foundations for this new interdisciplinary field through a two-day international workshop at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London) in July 2026. Drawing on feminist traditions of collaboration and collective authorship, nine scholars from diverse backgrounds will define key questions, frameworks and methods for studying music and motherhood, shaping future research and revealing how music gives form to maternal experience and cultural life.
Dr Suzy Mejía-Buenaño
SRG2526\260711
Co-applicant(s): Dr Serena Tomlinson
Project Title: Stakeholder Perspectives of Feeding and Sleep Interventions for Children with Intellectual Disabilities
University of Kent
Value awarded: £9,968.03
Funded by: DSIT
Feeding and sleeping are vital aspects of life, yet children with intellectual disabilities often struggle with these. Feeding or sleep difficulties can have a range of impacts for the children exhibiting them, their parents, and their families. Interventions for these are common and behavioural feeding and sleep interventions are some of the most researched and efficacious interventions. However, they commonly use aversive and restrictive (AAR) procedures. Encouragingly, there has been a recent focus on behavioural feeding and sleep interventions which do not use AAR procedures. Despite this, the perceived social acceptability of these interventions remains underexplored , and in particular, a comparison of the perceived social acceptability where behavioural feeding and sleep interventions with and without AAR procedures has not been carried out. This study aims to obtain stakeholder perspectives regarding the social acceptability of the use of behavioural feeding and sleep interventions for children with intellectual disabilities.
Dr Matthew Melia
SRG2526\260223
Project Title: Ken Russell and the BBC
Kingston University
Value awarded: £9,425.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project will be the first dedicated, fully archival, study of Russell at the BBC - filling a necessary gap in the research. It aims to collate, annotate and offer critical commentary on the collected correspondence surrounding the director Ken Russell's work for the BBC between 1956 and 1970. This material is stored in the BBC Written Archives, Caversham (WAC) where the research will bemainly focussed. Ken Russell worked as an employee and then as a freelance film maker for the BBC during this time making biographical and highly innovative arts documentaries for Monitor and then Omnibus – at a period when the BBC was in an era of major technological and ideological modernisation. This research is not just about Russell and his relationship to the BBC but about the BBC’s relationship with Russell and what the archived materials can tell us about the BBC and arts programming after WWII.
Dr Chengcheng Miao
SRG2526\261992
Co-applicant(s): Dr Rebecca Yusuf
Project Title: From Expatriates to Entrepreneurs: Unpacking the Journey of ‘Expat-preneurs’ in Sub-Saharan Africa
University of Reading
Value awarded: £9,999.00
Funded by: DSIT
This proposed project investigates the career trajectories of expatriates who transition into entrepreneurship upon completing or terminating their contracts in host countries, distinguishing them from those who repatriate or seek alternative employment. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for capturing the evolving nature of career transition in the global context. This ethnographic study focuses on two Sub-Saharan African countries, Tanzania and Nigeria, which exhibit some of the highest rates of entrepreneurship globally, alongside considerable challenges such as institutional instability, bureaucratic hurdles, and weak infrastructure. Despite their significance, these contexts remain underexplored in expatriation and entrepreneurship research; this study examines the motivations, resources, and contextual factors that shape expatriates’ entrepreneurial transitions. By bridging insights from career transition, migrant entrepreneurship and expatriation literature, this interdisciplinary study aims to advances the theoretical understandings of expat-preneurship and highlight entrepreneurial pathways as a distinct and meaningful outcome of embarking on an international career.
Dr Fernanda Monteiro Amaral Comber
SRG2526\261005
Project Title: Inherited Memories: How recollections of historical police massacres shape new generations' lives in the Brazilian favelas
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,610.00
Funded by: DSIT
Two significant police massacres have shaped the history of Rio de Janeiro: the Acari Massacre (1990) and the Vigário Geral Massacre (1993). Although these events occurred over 30 years ago, they continue to influence the imagination and shape identities, behaviours, and narratives within the city's favelas, which experienced 240 police massacres between 2019 and 2024 (Instituto Fogo Cruzado, 2025b), highlighting that violent encounters remain a significant part of daily life. This research will analyse the impact of historical police massacres on subsequent generations in affected communities, aiming to address a crucial gap in scholarship by exploring how individuals who did not directly experience the events are still profoundly affected by them decades later. It will also examine the role of mediated narratives in this process and produce two significant outputs that will contribute to a larger project on the memories of police violence and cultures of resistance in South America.
Dr Oliver Moss
SRG2526\262569
Co-applicant(s): Professor Sarah Aiston, Dr Gary Williams
Project Title: Hidden in Plain Sight: Understanding the Scholarly Contributions of Research Professionals in UK Higher Education
Teesside University
Value awarded: £9,871.56
Funded by: DSIT
The aim of this project is to understand the motivations, experiences, and scholarly contributions of researchers working in professional services roles within UK higher education. This growing group of researchers, who are substantively employed in service-focused roles such as impact management, research development, and knowledge exchange, is responsible for a significant and expanding body of scholarship. Despite this, they are largely overlooked in recent discussions about what constitutes a healthy and inclusive research ecosystem. To address knowledge gaps identified in a previous British Academy project, a mixed-method approach will be used to investigate the activities of these hybrid professionals, the networks they are part of, and the extent to which their behaviours and values align with those of traditional academic colleagues. This project will critically deepen our understanding of these individuals and provide valuable insights for improving research ecosystems more broadly.
Professor M Lynne Murphy
SRG2526\261725
Project Title: Defining the Undefinable: The Lexicography of Functional Vocabulary
University of Sussex
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Words that have grammatical functions rather than meanings (eg 'the', ‘on’, 'if') are difficult to write dictionary definitions for; yet little has been written about how to create or use such definitions. This project considers how English dictionaries (general, learner, and crowd-sourced) and AI tools treat these function words. It does so in the wake of developments in grammatical theory regarding these words and technological changes that have unsettled both dictionary publishing and dictionary use. By analysing definitions, consulting with publishers, and testing/surveying dictionary users, this project investigates:
- A. How are function words categorized, defined and explained in different reference resources?
- B. (When/why/by whom) are these entries consulted? How usable are they for different user types?
- C. Has function-word lexicography changed in the internet age? Does it need to change for the AI age?
- D. Can function-word lexicography exploit ideas from recent usage-based approaches to grammar and language pedagogy?
Dr Quan Pham Minh Nguyen
SRG2526\261220
Co-applicant(s): Dr Huong Vu
Project Title: The Rating Game: Analyst Assignments And The Prices Firms Pay
University of Sussex
Value awarded: £9,999.11
Funded by: DSIT
Considering entering capital markets but concerned about losing out due to an information disadvantage? No problem, a credit rating agency (CRA) can help you make the right decision. For nearly a hundred years, rating analysts have been trusted by investors for their expertise and independence in risk assessments. Perhaps one question that you, like many investors, have not asked is: “Is the CRA assigning the right analyst to the right company?” Failure in this process results in subsequent rating failure. Our research will reveal insights into this area. We believe raising this question at this time is very important because rating failures have occurred in the past. Analysts are human, hence subject to personal bias regardless of their expertise. The bias, once it interferes with their rating decisions, might ultimately cause massive losses to investors who rely on ratings for guiding their decisions.
Dr Hanh Nguyen
SRG2526\261338
Project Title: Generative AI Adoption and Its Impact on Decision-Making in Vietnamese Firms
University of Southampton
Value awarded: £9,995.35
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how Vietnamese firms adopt Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies and how such adoption shapes organisational decision-making. Using a two-stage mixed-method design, the study will survey 250 senior executives and conduct 50 in-depth interviews across diverse industries. It aims to identify key drivers and barriers to GenAI adoption, examine how GenAI tools are integrated into strategic, operational, and managerial decisions, and explore the influence of organisational culture, digital readiness, and regulatory environments. By combining quantitative breadth with qualitative depth, the research will generate the first comprehensive analysis of GenAI adoption in Vietnam’s transitional economy. The findings will inform the development of a Generative AI Adoption Framework for Decision-Making, offering practical insights for responsible and effective GenAI use. Outputs include academic publications, policy briefs, and practitioner reports, advancing digital transformation research and strengthening UK–Vietnam collaboration.
Dr Dilan Okcuoglu
SRG2526\261694
Project Title: From Guerrillas to Governors: Gendered Control, Displacement and Political Life in Kurdish Borderlands
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how gendered relations of control and informal governance operate in Turkey’s Kurdish borderlands, where state authority is exercised not only through formal institutions but also through everyday practices shaped by displacement, militarization, and engineered uncertainty. Drawing on 12 months of immersive fieldwork and rare access to a wide range of actors—including guerrilla-affiliated families, displaced villagers, women’s cooperatives, state officials, and informal brokers—the research explores how land, law, and gender intersect in the production of state power. It builds on feminist international relations, political geography, and border studies to foreground the micro-politics of control and the symbolic and material significance of land and displacement. A comparative dimension with Iraqi Kurdistan further illuminates how different state logics shape gendered experiences of governance. By centering women’s voices and everyday practices, the project offers a rare, empirically grounded contribution to debates on sovereignty, informality, and gendered state-making in conflict-affected borderlands.
Dr Uche Okere
SRG2526\261441
Co-applicant(s): Dr Rebecca Rawson, Dr Yaw Asamoah
Project Title: Education for Sustainable Development in Ghanaian Tertiary Education: Current Practice, Gaps, and Future Pathways
University of Derby
Value awarded: £9,988.38
Funded by: DSIT
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been recognised globally as a vital catalyst for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet its integration within African tertiary education remains limited and uneven. This gap is particularly evident in Ghana, where universities and colleges play a pivotal role in shaping future leaders and professionals. Despite increasing awareness, there is little empirical evidence on how ESD principles are currently embedded within teaching, leadership, and institutional policy.
Focusing on Ghana, this project will explore the state of ESD practice across fifteen tertiary institutions and co-develop a context-specific framework for embedding sustainability in higher education. Working closely with a Ghanaian partner university, the study will employ document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions with key stakeholders. The project will produce actionable recommendations and policy guidance, disseminated through national workshops, academic conferences, policy briefs, and peer-reviewed publications.
Dr Michaela Oliver
SRG2526\260234
Co-applicant(s): Dr Cristina Costa
Project Title: From Risk to Reason: Developing AI Literacy in Primary Schools
Durham University
Value awarded: £9,988.90
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores how primary school teachers can support young people (YP) in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy - a vital component of digital literacy. As AI technologies increasingly shape how we live, work, and learn, schools face growing pressure to prepare pupils for ethical and informed engagement with these tools. Yet current approaches often focus on risk avoidance, limiting YP’s autonomy and missing opportunities for reasoned discussion about their digital engagement and for development of their digital citizenship. This project addresses the lack of guidance, teacher involvement, and pupil voice in AI Education (AIED). Using an Ethnographic Participatory Action Research (EPAR) approach, researchers will collaborate with teachers and YP across three phases. First, mapping participants’ perceptions and experiences of AIED; second, co-developing curriculum principles and lesson plans that embed AIED; and third, evaluating and refining these practices through iterative feedback to produce research-informed curriculum principles and adaptable teaching resources.
Dr Richard Oosterhoff
SRG2526\262270
Project Title: The Racialised Empire in the Archive: Harnessing AI to Digitise the Correspondence of the Phrenologist George Combe
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
A vast body of correspondence exists between the leading nineteenth-century phrenologist George Combe and agents of empire, including scientists, doctors, colonial officials, and former slavers. This archive reveals the practices that established racialised systems of knowledge. These 199 volumes remain largely inaccessible to researchers, without transcriptions or even an index. Meanwhile, the new wave of AI-assisted transcription and research methods promises to speed up imaging and transcription of archives hitherto neglected—but we currently lack a standardised model for such work. We propose to establish and test a working model of AI-assisted transcription and data mining of handwritten correspondence using the Combe archive. Although this is a self-contained pilot, focussing on testing a variety of OCR systems, the long-term goal is a workflow scalable to encompass the whole archive. This pilot will be disseminated in a public dataset, a published paper, and a workshop with expert partners.
Dr Fran Pilkington-Cheney
SRG2526\260143
Co-applicant(s): Professor Ashleigh Filtness
Project Title: Understanding the Lived Experience of Habitual Caffeine Use in Professional Truck Drivers
Nottingham Trent University
Value awarded: £9,956.54
Funded by: DSIT
Professional truck drivers often experience sleep disruption due to their working hours and sleeping patterns, increasing the risk of sleepiness and fatigue-related incidents. Caffeine is widely used as a temporary countermeasure to sleepiness yet provides questionable long-term benefit to safety due to habituation and poorer sleep health. This project aims to explore the social factors influencing caffeine consumption, the variation in patterns of behaviour, and how these factors impact on sleep, health, and safety outcomes. Using a mixed-methods design, Study 1 will involve in-situ qualitative interviews to capture lived experience, while Study 2 will identify caffeine-user profiles and examine their relevance to sleepiness management. The research will produce a nuanced understanding of caffeine use in context, highlighting implications for road safety. Findings will inform future educational interventions for fatigue management, ensuring messaging is tailored to drivers’ workplace realities. Dissemination will include academic publications, stakeholder briefings, and engagement with transport networks.
Francesco Proto
SRG2526\262238
Project Title: The Obliterated Archive: Inside Jean Baudrillard’s Unpublished Architectural Manuscripts
Oxford Brookes University
Value awarded: £9,885.65
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines the unpublished manuscripts of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard preserved at the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC) in Caen. Although Baudrillard is celebrated for ideas such as simulation and hyperreality, his sustained reflection on architecture and urbanism remains largely ignored. Extending my previous work (Mass Identity Architecture, 2006; Baudrillard for Architects; 2020), the study analyses his unedited texts on the built environment and their significance for architectural and philosophical research. It also addresses his distinctive writing method - marked by the deliberate erasure of explicit statements - as a contemporary model for inquiry across the humanities. The acquisition of Baudrillard’s manuscripts at IMEC is recent, his archive remains unexplored, especially his writings on architecture. The project therefore pursues an unprecedented field of research, aiming to establish architecture, design, and urban design as a central, indeed the central, dimension of Baudrillard’s oeuvre.
Professor Heather Pulliam
SRG2526\262305
Co-applicant(s): Dr Catriona Murray
Project Title: The National Museum of Scotland Past and Future: Rethinking National Collections in a Changed World
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £9,911.87
Funded by: DSIT
Established in 1998, the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) exemplifies late-twentieth-century curation strategies, scholarship, and values. Global financial crises and the pandemic have delayed redisplay, creating a disjuncture between its galleries and contemporary concerns such as diversity, inclusion, climate change, and postcolonialism. With the prospect of redisplay on the distant horizon, the galleries stand at a tipping point between the past and the future. This application seeks seed funding to evaluate stakeholder interest, research questions, and impact pathways for a larger grant application on the NMS and related national collections in London, Belfast, Cardiff, and Dublin.
This phase will
- (1) gather recollections from the individuals who created the NMS in 1998 and their equivalents in related UK and Irish institutions,
- (2) organise interdisciplinary activities, meetings, and workshops,
- (3) develop an interdisciplinary network and research framework for a comprehensive study on the evolving relationship between museums, national identity, and cultural representation.
Dr Rossella Pulvirenti
SRG2526\261293
Project Title: Witnesses in the Era of Open Source Evidence: Navigating Testimony and Protection in Modern Atrocity Trials
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,950.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores the evolving role of witnesses' testimonies in mass atrocity trials, following the growing use of digital open-source evidence, including photographs and videos. Using a qualitative research method based on semi-structured interviews, this project investigates the insider knowledge held by the legal professionals (including judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers) about the criteria they use in the selection of appropriate evidence for a mass atrocities trial case and how these criteria interact in practice. Moreover, it also critically assesses the advantages and challenges of the increasing use of digital open source for witnesses, particularly focusing on their safety, protection, visibility and credibility. By refocusing attention on one of the most overlooked groups, this project aims to create new knowledge and develop a set of guidelines for legal professionals when using this new set of evidence in a way that is more informed by the experiences and rights of witnesses.
Dr Simon Quick
SRG2526\260252
Co-applicant(s): Professor Timothy Baghurst
Project Title: An Exploration of the Ethical Foundations Underpinning Coach-Athlete Relationships in High-Performance Sport
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,985.10
Funded by: DSIT
Ethical practice in sport coaching is under scrutiny, particularly in high-performance environments where athletic performance is prioritised over athlete well-being. While high-profile reports have exposed malpractice across sport (e.g., the Whyte Review in British Gymnastics and the Leander Club in British Rowing), less attention has been given to the everyday ethical foundations that underpin the coach-athlete relationship in these high-performance environments. Therefore, this research will critically examine the ethical foundations of the coach-athlete relationship—particularly how power dynamics, philosophical approaches, and context-specific practices shape, challenge, or compromise ethical conduct within high performance sport. The findings from this research will offer recommendations for policymakers and professional sports bodies internationally at various levels and clarify what should and should not be expected by coaches and athletes in high-performance sport.
Dr Thomas Rabensteiner
SRG2526\261470
Co-applicant(s): Dr Luca Tasciotti, Dr Navjot Sangwan
Project Title: The effects of immigration on the UK rental market
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how immigration affects the rental market in the UK. While immigration has long been linked to changes in housing demand, surprisingly little is known about its impact on rents—the part of the housing market where most new migrants live. Using newly available data from Rightmove, covering over a decade of rental listings across England, Scotland and Wales, this research will provide the first systematic, causal analysis of immigration’s impact on UK rental prices. The study will examine whether immigration affects rents, whether effects differ across local markets and price levels, and how housing supply constraints and policy environments shape these outcomes. By combining econometric analysis with detailed demographic and rental data, the project will generate new evidence to inform balanced, evidence-based housing and immigration policy in the UK, contributing to more informed academic and public debate.
Dr Rohini Rai
SRG2526\260972
Project Title: Dancing Indigeneity in the Eastern Himalaya: Politics of recognition and state appropriation through Sakela Sili
Brunel University London
Value awarded: £9,976.20
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines the resurgence of Indigenous dances as a form of cultural politics in the Eastern Himalaya, focusing on the Sakela Sili dance in Sikkim and Darjeeling, Northeast India. While dances like Sakela Sili have gained increasing visibility, serving as tools for representation and recognition as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ within India’s Reservation System, they are also increasingly appropriated by state-sponsored tourism festivals. Its re-emergence raises important questions about how indigeneity is articulated, represented, and contested in contemporary South Asia. Through ethnographic fieldwork, participatory “storytelling through dancing” workshops co-organised with grassroots organisations, and observation of festivals across four sites in the Eastern Himalayan region, the research will examine how communities mobilise dance as a form of identity assertion while navigating state-led commodification. By situating Eastern Himalayan experiences within global debates on indigeneity, the project contributes to critical indigenous, performance, tourism, and South Asian studies. Outputs include peer-reviewed articles and online dissemination.
Dr Robert Ralston
SRG2526\261319
Co-applicant(s): Dr Julian Maria Hörner
Project Title: Remembering the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How Reflecting on the Past Affects Views of and Pride in Britain, Germany, and the United States
University of Birmingham
Value awarded: £9,555.00
Funded by: DSIT
How does thinking about your country's past--the good or the bad--affect how you feel about your country? This project seeks to understand whether nostalgia for a national past influences political opinions and attitudes in the present. Using the cases of Germany, Britain, and the United States this project examines how positive or negative reflections on one’s country’s past affects the extent to which individuals feel an attachment to their country, and how they believe their country’s past should be presented to future generations. Our research will generate theoretical and empirical insights for scholars, policymakers, and the public regarding the powerful role that collective memory plays in shaping national identity and political behaviour. By comparing how different societies remember and interpret their histories, we aim to explore how thinking about the past shapes how we understand politics today.
Dr Tatiana Reid
SRG2526\261491
Co-applicant(s): Professor Matthew Baerman, Dr Oliver Bond
Project Title: RECORDS (Remote Elicitation and Community-Oriented Recording for Dialect Studies): Developing a next-generation methodology for remote linguistic data collection in unmapped regions
University of Surrey
Value awarded: £9,956.00
Funded by: DSIT
Language documentation is essential for preserving the world’s linguistic diversity, yet many communities remain inaccessible due to conflict, remoteness, or limited infrastructure. RECORDS addresses this by developing and testing a methodology for fully remote, offline linguistic data collection, focusing initially on Nuer speakers in South Sudan. The project will create a pilot version of lightweight mobile software based on LIG-Aikuma, functioning without a backend at this stage. This trial platform will test and refine features for low-literacy users, allowing community members to record speech independently using simple visual prompts and audio cues. By combining technological innovation with local collaboration, RECORDS will evaluate the feasibility, usability, and ethical dimensions of remote documentation. The project will provide a scalable, replicable approach for recording endangered or under-described languages in challenging contexts, establishing a foundation for future, more comprehensive digital language documentation efforts globally.
Professor Alona Revko
SRG2526\261953
Co-applicant(s): Professor Marya Besharov
Project Title: Community-Driven Resilience: Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development through Collaborative Leadership Practices in Extreme Contexts
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,950.00
Funded by: DSIT
Social enterprises play a pivotal role in addressing complex social and environmental problems. However, social enterprises often struggle to maintain resilience due to resource constraints, regulatory ambiguities, and the challenge of balancing dual objectives of social impact and financial profit. These challenges are particularly acute in the Ukrainian context, where social entrepreneurship faces additional obstacles due to ongoing conflict.
The project is guided by the following research questions:
- 1.How does multi-stakeholder collaboration contribute to SEE resilience, and how do community-driven collaborative leadership practices enhance this resilience in extreme contexts?
- 2.What factors enable or inhibit intra- and inter-group collaboration among stakeholders in addressing systemic challenges and increasing SEE resilience in conflict zones?
- 3.How can a collaborative leadership framework be designed to increase Ukraine's SEE resilience in conflict and post-conflict settings through evidence-based community engagement approaches?
Dr Laura Mariana Reyes Carranza
SRG2526\262439
Project Title: Urban Currents: Political Ecologies of Water, Art and Activism in London and Mexico City
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £8,481.40
Funded by: DSIT
This project proposes a cultural, social, and more-than-human exploration of urban rivers, focusing on how artistic practice, environmental activism, and everyday labour(s) are reshaping human-water relations. By comparing two geographical sites, the River Thames in London and the canal system of Xochimilco in Mexico City, it investigates how collective efforts to confront water pollution, uneven access to water resources, and ecological degradation generate alternative knowledges and political imaginaries. Through ethnographic research, I will trace how diverse communities cultivate practices of care, reciprocity, and responsibility towards urban rivers. In doing so, the project contributes to emerging debates in urban political ecology, the geographies of water infrastructures, and the making of hydro-social territories and waterscapes.
Dr Wilfred Rhoden
SRG2526\261815
Co-applicant(s): Mr Dan Copley, Professor Alyson Brown
Project Title: Developing an understanding of women’s teacher training colleges in Britain and their archives, 1836-1914
Bishop Grosseteste University
Value awarded: £9,574.00
Funded by: DSIT
The transformation of the teaching profession into one that is dominated by professionally-qualified women dates back to the expansion of women's teacher training colleges in Britain from 1836 until 1914. This project is a collaboration between academics and archivists at two former women's teacher training colleges, Lincoln Bishop University (formerly Bishop Grosseteste University) and Edge Hill University.
The programme will utilise a workshop event and employ a research assistant to develop our knowledge of women’s teacher-training colleges, those who attended and taught at them, their experiences at college and lives thereafter. We will bring together scholars to build a national picture of what archival resources exist for these trainees and what research questions they can answer.
The project will produce a national archival directory of where relevant materials survive today and the collaborative methodologies employed will be demonstrated in a peer-reviewed journal and initial findings presented to local history societies.
Dr Daniele Rinaldo
SRG2526\261160
Project Title: Climate change vulnerability and deforestation in Africa
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
Deforestation is continuously occurring worldwide at alarming rates, with wide-ranging adverse consequences for carbon emissions, biodiversity and the livelihoods of local populations. The project seeks to explore how the vulnerability to climate change of local forest-dependent populations drives sub-Saharan deforestation. We will investigate how exposure to increasingly volatile crop yields can incentivize forest smallholders to resort to forest clearing, as forest products act as a form of informal insurance against climate change-driven food insecurity. In order to achieve this goal, we will first compile existing survey data on Nigerian agriculture, and extend it with satellite-based climate and forest cover information, yielding a novel dataset that provides key insights into the joint social and ecological dynamics. We will then identify, both theoretically and empirically, the climate change-driven vulnerability and deforestation nexus, focusing in particular on how this phenomenon disproportionately affects ecologically marginalized communities.
Dr Javier Rivas
SRG2526\260807
Project Title: Designing and Testing Online Review Mechanisms: Insights from a Laboratory Experiment
University of Bath
Value awarded: £8,500.00
Funded by: DSIT
In this proposal we seek the support for the second stage of a broader research project that investigates how consumers respond to online product reviews. Stage 1 of the project has already established a theoretical framework showing how biased or fake reviews distort consumer decisions and undermine trust in digital marketplaces, while Stage 3 will involve machine learning analysis of large-scale review data. Stage 2, for which funding is requested, focuses on laboratory experiments with human participants to validate the theoretical predictions and capture real decision-making patterns. We have designed experimental treatments that vary the sequence, type, and credibility of reviews, and we hope to observe how participants process information and make purchase decisions. The results will help refine our theoretical model, provide the test framework for analysing the large-scale data in Stage 3, and guide practical recommendations for regulators and online platforms to protect consumers in the digital marketplace.
Professor Katharine Rockett
SRG2526\261272
Co-applicant(s): Professor Olivier Gergaud
Project Title: The New Economics of Food Aid Provision and Food Waste Management: Digital Food Waste Platforms
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,982.56
Funded by: DSIT
The landscape of food aid and food waste management has evolved recently due to the entry of digital actors who collect and distribute food waste. To date, little is known about the effect of this entry on food waste management, food waste generation, and food poverty. Our project investigates theoretically, empirically, and through survey analysis the demand and supply of food waste where digital food waste platforms (DFWPs) are present. We focus on the policies and experience of a major actor, Too Good to Go (TGTG), and its effects on food donations and food demand in the presence of recent changes in food waste legislation in France. We will determine why TGTG has become so dominant, whether its presence has cut into supplies of food going to food banks (as has been alleged), and whether the legislation has been effective at improving food waste management.
Dr Jessica Runacres
SRG2526\261595
Co-applicant(s): Dr Edward Tolhurst
Project Title: Negotiating care and relationships in couples where one partner has dementia, and one partner has a physical disability
Staffordshire University
Value awarded: £8,047.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project aims to investigate the experience of spousal relationships when one member of the couple has dementia, and their partner has a physical disability. It will evaluate how couples experiencing the direct impacts of both dementia and disability negotiate relationships and care. There is often more than one vulnerable member in a care relationship, and the challenges could be compounded when the care dynamic is two-way. A qualitative (non-statistical) approach will be adopted. A sample of couples will be interviewed on a joint basis, with both members of the couple taking part together. This approach will enable analysis of individual perspectives, but also how these are constructed within conversation. It can therefore explore how the members of the couple negotiate the complex links between dementia, disability, and care. This will generate recommendations that can help to improve the experience of people with dementia and carers who have a disability.
Professor Sharon Ruston
SRG2526\260923
Co-applicant(s): Professor Daniel Cook
Project Title: Launching the Oxford Complete Works of Mary Shelley: Research Foundations for a Scholarly Edition
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,981.18
Funded by: DSIT
The Oxford Complete Works of Mary Shelley (OCWMS), contracted with Oxford University Press for publication between 2029–2035, will provide the first complete edition of the works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in fifteen volumes. A British Academy Small Research Grant will support a postdoctoral research associate to conduct preliminary research and set up the project’s core infrastructure. Each volume will include authoritative texts, critical introductions, and extensive annotations, supported by supplementary materials in digital form via Oxford Scholarly Editions Online. For the first time, Shelley’s diverse oeuvre, including her novels, short stories, poetry, translations, travel and biographical writings, will be presented in a definitive edition that reflects the latest bibliographical and attributional scholarship. OCWMS will foreground Shelley’s European networks and innovations in form and genre, reframing her achievement for twenty-first-century readers and researchers. Oxford University Press has also contracted The Handbook of Mary Shelley (comprising 43 essays) alongside this edition.
Dr Irfan Ullah Sahibzada
SRG2526\261358
Project Title: Ethics, Professional Judgment, and ESG Reporting: Experiences of Early-Career Accountants
University of Winchester
Value awarded: £5,322.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project explores how early-career accountants in the UK experience ethical dilemmas in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting. As ESG disclosure expands under new sustainability frameworks, junior professionals are increasingly required to exercise judgment without clear standards or organisational authority. This study investigates whether, and in what ways, these conditions give rise to ethical dissonance or contribute to the risk of greenwashing. Using a mixed-methods design, the research will combine an anonymous national survey with follow-up interviews to examine how early-career accountants interpret ethical guidance, respond to workplace pressures, and navigate reporting ambiguity. The findings will inform professional bodies, educators, and regulators working to strengthen the ethical foundations of ESG disclosure. Funding is sought to support research assistance, transcription, participant engagement, and stakeholder dissemination. The study will be conducted over 18 months and aims to contribute practical insights into ethics, judgment, and accountability in contemporary accounting.
Dr Nar Saud
SRG2526\262409
Project Title: Reimagining Community Trust through Arts, Faith, and Local Memory: Post-Conflict Cultural Regeneration in Nepal
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £9,300.00
Funded by: DSIT
This research explores how community arts and local cultural practices can strengthen trust, faith, and social cohesion in Nepal’s far western region (Sudurpashchim province), a region deeply affected by historical marginalisation and post-conflict transitions. As an independent scholar and native resident of Sudurpashchim, I will conduct a two-year ethnographic study to examine how traditional rituals, storytelling, and artistic expressions changed to contributing local peacebuilding and intergenerational understanding. Through participatory arts-based methods, reflexivity and community collaboration, the project will document lived experiences of faith and trust and evaluate how creative practices facilitate social transformation and sustainable community relations. The study aims to generate theoretical insights into the role of culture in peacebuilding and to provide practical frameworks for policymakers, educators, and cultural practitioners. The findings will be shared through academic publications, community engagements, and digital archives to ensure long-term accessibility and impact.
Dr Elisa Serafinelli
SRG2526\260598
Project Title: Reimagining Vision: The Cultural Impact of Visual-AI on Youth Perception and Literacy
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,927.10
Funded by: DSIT
This project investigates how children and young adults engage with AI-generated visuals and the implications of these interactions for visual literacy, creativity, and cultural understanding. As algorithmically produced images proliferate across platforms (e.g., TikTok and Midjourney), young people encounter new forms of visual representation that challenge established notions of realism, authorship, and truth. Despite their ubiquity, little is known about how such images are interpreted, experienced, and appropriated by younger audiences. Through creative participatory workshops, embedded dialogue, and semiotic analysis, this project explores how AI-generated images are made meaningful by participants aged 10–21. Drawing on theories of technological mediation and visual culture, the project foregrounds youth perspectives to enrich the current understanding of algorithmic visuality. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates in digital media, science and technology studies, and visual communication, offering novel insights into the visual and cognitive cultures emerging in an AI-saturated world.
Dr Pedro Silva Rocha Lima
SRG2526\261957
Co-applicant(s): Dr Margherita Scazza, Dr Natalia Valdivieso Kastner
Project Title: The edge of governance: mapping narco-deforestation in Amazonian borderlands
University of Bristol
Value awarded: £9,840.00
Funded by: DSIT
The UN has raised the alarm on “narco-deforestation”, or how major drug cartels and organizations have encroached on illicit extractive economies in the Amazon rainforest. However, there has been insufficient attention to how local, small-scale extractive networks provide necessary social and technical infrastructure to support this expansion of drug economies. This project investigates the extent to which existing environmental and drug governance in the triple border between Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia is able to capture the participation of small-scale extractive networks in drug trafficking. Importantly, we analyse how the existing policy make-up across different countries shapes and enables the transborder dynamics of these small-scale illicit economies. By recruiting and working with local researchers to collect and analyse data on the issue of narco-deforestation, this project will produce two research articles, an institutional map of narco-deforestation governance, and a workshop with local stakeholders.
Professor Sanjay Singh
SRG2526\262488
Project Title: Brightest and Best Global Talent in the UK: Key Roles of Sustainable HRM and Sustainable Careers
University of Dundee
Value awarded: £8,675.00
Funded by: DSIT
The United Kingdom (UK) government recently established a Global Talent Taskforce – reporting to the Prime Minister and Chancellor - to identify and attract high calibre global talent to work in the priorities industries to support economic security, resilience, net zero, and regional growth. We know that the global talent relocates to the world which offers sustainable careers to them; however, the UK Global Talent Taskforce is silent on providing sustainable careers to the global talent. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study seeks to identify the factors that contribute to sustainable careers and the ways in which sustainable human resource management promotes them in the organisation. The study’s findings will contribute to advance science-based knowledge of sustainable careers to ensure good health & wellbeing (UN SDG 3) and sustainable decent work (UN SDG 8.8) to the global talent in the UK.
Dr Sheeja Sivaprasad
SRG2526\260493
Co-applicant(s): Dr Tugba Bas, Dr Yunxu Chen
Project Title: Biodiversity Finance: Evidence from the UK SME construction sector
University of Westminster
Value awarded: £9,785.00
Funded by: DSIT
Biodiversity finance is an emerging area within the broader field of sustainable finance, encompassing public and private financial instruments designed to protect and restore ecosystems (Biofin). Financial strategies and mechanisms are required to support the conservation, sustainable use, and restoration of biodiversity. According to the OECD (2020), the finances required for biodiversity purposes were estimated at $78–$91 billion per year. Previous studies note that biodiversity finance research is fragmented and largely theoretical, with limited empirical evidence on SME engagement, leaving policy and practice underdeveloped compared to climate finance. The UK government has recently introduced new regulatory measures in the construction sector to preserve biodiversity. Focusing on SMEs in the UK construction sector, this project addresses a key gap in biodiversity finance research and generates practical insights for policymakers, SMEs, investors, and the construction sector. It ultimately seeks to strengthen the evidence base and support capital mobilisation toward nature-positive outcomes.
Dr Arun Sood
SRG2526\262156
Project Title: Sonic Islands: Sound, Memory, and Ecology in the Caribbean-Atlantic Imaginary
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines the relationships between sound, writing, and ecology in two geographically distinct but deeply interconnected archipelagos: the Outer Hebrides (UK) and the Windward Islands (Caribbean). It involves the close study of textual and sonic materials and two place-based workshops led by writers working at the intersections between sound and writing. Primary texts to be considered include Griffith Hughes, 'Natural History of Barbados' (1750) and Thomas Pennant's 'Voyage to the Hebrides' (1774/1776). Historical representations of sound in these texts will be analysed in relation to selected sound archives held at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the University of the West Indies Global Campus. My research will form the basis of two research articles which will contribute to a much broader study on the intersections between sound, writing, and ecology in Caribbean-Atlantic Island writing.
Dr Harriet Soper
SRG2526\261825
Project Title: The Long Game: Recovering Theories and Practices of Child’s Play in Early Medieval England
University of Bristol
Value awarded: £9,435.00
Funded by: DSIT
This transdisciplinary project uncovers the hidden history of children’s play in early medieval (‘Anglo-Saxon’) England, c.650–1066. It looks to solve two problems: 1) the difficulty of finding evidence of children’s play activity in pre-Conquest England and 2) the lack of sustained scholarly analysis of how play was understood in the medieval period. Addressing the first challenge, this project will create a small open-access digital repository that draws together all extant archaeological and textual evidence of children’s games and other forms of play in early medieval England, laying the foundations for a more structured, searchable database. Addressing the second challenge, a journal article underpinned by archival research at The Strong National Museum of Play (Rochester, NY) will set out the fundamentals of medieval play theory and how it relates to modern theoretical traditions. Two workshops and a conference paper will support this programme of research and enable its wider dissemination.
Dr Andrew Stubbs-Lacy
SRG2526\260637
Project Title: Talent Intermediaries and “just-in-time” Production Cultures: An ethnographic and discourse analysis of the field
Staffordshire University
Value awarded: £9,998.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project will explore the roles that UK-based talent intermediaries play in the contemporary film and television industries, and how they make sense of their work, shedding much-needed light on important but under-researched industry players. Shrinking advertising spend and prolonged industrial action in Hollywood have caused mass unemployment in the British film and TV industries, hitting people of colour, people with disabilities, and people with caring responsibilities the hardest (Bectu, 2024). Matthews and Maguire (2014, p. 6) argue that intermediaries become more important in cultural economy contexts marked by increasingly complex global commodity chains alongside increases in personal consumption as a proportion of gross domestic products and immaterial labour as a proportion of labour markets. Through interviews and ethnographic observations, therefore, this project will explore how industrial change impacts the work of talent intermediaries, what the implications are for their clients and prospective clients, and how talent intermediaries adapt.
Dr Shamala Sundaray
SRG2526\260995
Project Title: Do bilingual children ROFL differently from monolingual children? A pilot study
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,994.05
Funded by: DSIT
Humour comprehension (HC) and humour appreciation (HA) are important social skills where we 'read' others’ mental states (Theory of Mind) and identify incongruity in language and actions resulting in humour. HC develops before age two. Little is known about how bilingual children, who are acquiring multiple languages and cultures, process humour compared to monolingual children. This study will investigate how language exposure, cognitive abilities, culture, and socioeconomic status affect HC/HA in children aged 4–12. Using a novel, culturally-adapted HC tool, monolingual (English) and bilingual (English-Tamil) children's HC/HA, brain activity, physiological responses, and cognitive abilities will be measured. This pilot study will pave the way for fine tuning the humour assessment tool, future research, including interventions for children with developmental language disorders, and contribute to ongoing debate on bilingual cognitive advantages. The BA/Leverhulme Grant will support tool development, pilot testing, and cross-cultural pilot data collection in Singapore and the UK.
Dr Andrew D. Swan
SRG2526\260797
Co-applicant(s): Dr Anne Schiffer
Project Title: Powering Water: Human-Centred Design for Integrating Decentralised Energy and Water Services in Rural Africa
Leeds Beckett University
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project focuses on how solar-powered pumps, linked with a commercial smart-battery rental model, might create viable, long-term water–energy systems in rural Africa. Using mixed-methods stakeholder engagement, this project seeks to evaluate the social, institutional, behavioural and economic feasibility of using decentralised solar energy rental services to sustain rural water infrastructure. It builds upon a previous technical pilot study and will integrate longitudinal household and service-provider surveys, qualitative interviews, and participatory design workshops to examine payment behaviours, governance arrangements, and operational models for integrated water–energy hubs. Trained local researchers will lead fieldwork to ensure high-quality data, culturally appropriate translation, and capacity building. Outputs will include a REF-relevant case study, a peer-reviewed article, practical design guidance, policy briefs, and community dissemination workshops. The project provides actionable evidence for key stakeholders on financing, regulation and scalable delivery pathways, contributing to improved access to sustainable and clean water.
Dr Jonathan Swarbrick
SRG2526\262174
Project Title: Innovation, Labour Reallocation, and Macroeconomic Adjustment
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
The aim of this project is to study how innovation and structural transformation affect inflation, unemployment, and policy design in small open economies. Periods of disruptive innovation are defining features of economic development, yet their short-run transitional costs and implications for monetary policy are not well understood. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and the green transition illustrate how new technologies can boost long-run productivity while creating short-term labour-market dislocation and price pressures. The project will develop a multi-sector macroeconomic framework with segmented labour markets and costly reallocation of workers across sectors to analyse these dynamics. It will identify the conditions under which innovation amplifies or dampens inflation, and the policy trade-offs between stabilising prices and facilitating reallocation. The findings will inform how central banks and governments can support innovation while managing the short-term costs of creative destruction.
Professor David Tal
SRG2526\260957
Project Title: Dual Loyalty: The American Jews Between Israel and the United States
University of Sussex
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This study explores the enduring accusation of dual loyalty among American Jews, a charge that has resurfaced with renewed intensity following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war. Drawing on archival research and discourse analysis, the project traces how this accusation has shaped American Jewish identity, political behavior, and public perception from the late 19th century to the present. It examines how both Jewish and non-Jewish actors have constructed, challenged, and responded to claims of conflicting allegiance over time. The study situates Jewish political advocacy within the broader context of American ethnic politics and debates over assimilation and pluralism. It argues that the dual loyalty charge is not only a recurring trope but also a powerful lens through which to understand American anxieties about ethnicity, power, and belonging. The project contributes to broader conversations on identity, minority integration, and national loyalty in democratic societies.
Dr Janja Tardios
SRG2526\262085
Co-applicant(s): Dr Elizabeth Yi Wang
Project Title: Multinational enterprises as institutional entrepreneurs in host countries: the case of AstraZeneca fostering gender equality in the Gulf Region
Brunel University London
Value awarded: £9,583.00
Funded by: DSIT
Multinational enterprises (MNEs), through their global networks of subsidiaries, are key contributors to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an example being gender equality. Yet our understanding of how MNEs engage with the wider host context to drive institutional change is limited. Building on the institutional entrepreneurship literature applied to the phenomena of gender inequality, this project will develop a multiphase, multilevel and multiactor process model of MNE strategic sustainability practices in challenging institutional conditions abroad. By identifying the key mechanisms, constraints and outcomes unique to each phase, this project extends the literature on how MNEs strategically engage to alleviate inequalities, relevant across different host contexts and SDGs. The proposed methodology is qualitative, contextualised case study approach drawing on secondary and interview data. The case study is of AstraZeneca, identified through a pilot study based on archival data.
Dr Phoey Lee Teh
SRG2526\260896
Co-applicant(s): Professor Chi-Bin Cheng
Project Title: Integrating Affective Computing and Natural Language Processing in a Multi-Agent LLM Framework for Online Hate Speech Detection
Wrexham University (formerly Glyndwr University)
Value awarded: £9,998.16
Funded by: DSIT
The rise of cyberbullying and hate speech poses serious challenges to digital wellbeing and governance. This project introduces a multi-agent large language model (LLM) framework that integrates linguistic, contextual, behavorial, and biometric sentiment analysis to detect and interpret harmful online behaviors. Multiple LLM-powered agents perform sentiment scoring, pattern recognition, and context analysis under the coordination of an orchestrator agent. A key innovation is the use of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) data to link emotional stimulation with textual sentiment, improving affective interpretation accuracy. A knowledge graph–driven reasoning module, built from expert sources such as the Global Handbook on Hate Speech Laws, integrates evidence from multiple agents to assess whether text constitutes hate speech. Implemented using Microsoft’s AutoGen framework, the system supports dynamic agent orchestration and external tool integration. The project also fosters collaboration through workshops between Tamkang University and Wrexham University, advancing AI-driven social computing and ethical online behaviour analysis.
Dr Camille Terrier
SRG2526\262341
Project Title: Improving College Access Through Transparency: Evidence from a National Admissions Reform
Queen Mary University of London
Value awarded: £9,920.00
Funded by: DSIT
Choosing which university programs to apply to is a major decision for high school students, yet many struggle to judge their chances of being admitted. This project studies a recent reform in France that helps students make more informed choices. In 2025, the French college application platform, Parcoursup, began showing students their chances of getting into each program based on their grades. This reform aims to reduce the number of students who underestimate their abilities—especially girls and students from less privileged backgrounds—and to encourage them to apply to more ambitious programs. Using large-scale data and surveys, this research will evaluate how access to better information changes application behavior, who benefits the most, and whether increased competition creates new challenges. The project will also test how further improving the information provided can help more students find programs that match their true potential.
Dr Felipe Torres Raposo
SRG2526\262105
Project Title: Bridging Evidence and Practice: Meta-Analysis and Empirical Study of Accountability Mechanisms in Bureaucracy
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project examines how accountability mechanisms, particularly government audits, shape bureaucratic corruption. Despite extensive research on politicians and institutions, much less is known about how audits influence bureaucrats’ rent-seeking behaviour or how informal networks mediate these effects. The project makes two main contributions. First, it conducts a meta-analysis that systematically synthesises existing evidence across disciplines on the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms in reducing bureaucratic corruption. Second, it undertakes an empirical analysis using a novel dataset of one million Chilean bureaucrats (2015–2025), linked with audit outcomes, declarations of interest, and political affiliations. Leveraging both the staggered rollout and random assignment within audits, the project causally estimates their effects on rent extraction and explores how family and political ties condition these effects. Complementary survey data will provide insights into bureaucrats’ perceptions of audits, sanctions, and networks, offering a comprehensive understanding of accountability in practice.
Dr John Towler
SRG2526\260377
Project Title: Validating the i5 Model of Interpersonal Influence: Representative UK Evidence for Structure, Facets, and Predictive Outcomes
Swansea University
Value awarded: £9,990.00
Funded by: DSIT
Human life depends on influence — from persuasion and leadership to manipulation and coercion — yet research on these behaviours remains fragmented across disciplines. Social psychology examines persuasion, organisational psychology studies leadership, clinical research explores manipulation, and forensic psychology investigates coercive control. Despite decades of parallel work, no unified framework situates these behaviours within a shared psychological ecology. The i5 Model of Interpersonal Influence addresses this gap. Developed from bottom-up analysis of 200 behaviourally specific items, it identifies five domains: Supporting Others, Assertive Leadership, Charismatic Influence, Emotional Manipulation, and Coercive Control. Preliminary data (N = 310) support this five-factor structure and show incremental validity beyond the Big Five and dark traits.
British Academy funding will support recruitment of a representative UK sample (≈1,000 adults) to validate the i5 model, test links with aggression, wellbeing, work, and relationships, and produce short-form scales, open datasets, and applied practitioner briefs.
Dr Vineet Upreti
SRG2526\261442
Co-applicant(s): Dr Yihui Jia
Project Title: Financial Materiality of Sustainability Reporting and the Environmental Component of ESG Ratings
Swansea University
Value awarded: £9,642.69
Funded by: DSIT
The growing importance of environmental considerations in financial markets has intensified the need for reliable and comparable sustainability information. While ESG ratings are widely used, their lack of consistency—particularly in the environmental dimension—creates uncertainty for investors and other stakeholders. This research focuses on the financial materiality of environmental factors within ESG ratings and examines whether sustainability disclosures aligned with IFRS S1 and S2 standards can improve the consistency and comparability of environmental assessments across rating agencies. The study will map environmental factors used by rating agencies to IFRS S1 and S2 disclosures and construct alternative ratings to evaluate their association with corporate financial performance.
Dr Saffet Aras Uygur
SRG2526\262284
Co-applicant(s): Dr Matthew C. Li
Project Title: Quantum Technologies for Tackling Fraud: From the perspective of the Auditors
Royal Holloway, University of London
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: DSIT
This research explores the emerging intersection between quantum technologies and financial fraud detection from the perspective of auditors. With the UK Government’s £121 million investment into quantum innovation, this study responds to national strategies aimed at leveraging advanced technologies for crime prevention. Given the estimated £219 billion annual cost of fraud, integrating quantum computing into auditing offers significant potential for enhancing data analysis, anomaly detection, and financial integrity. Yet, little is known about auditors' current use of these technologies, their perceptions, or expectations from regulators. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study draws on Institutional Theory and the Technology Acceptance Model to examine how auditors adopt and evaluate quantum tools. By assessing current capabilities, stakeholder expectations, and the impact of quantum technologies on audit processes, the project aims to inform policy and practice. This timely investigation addresses a critical gap and offers practical insights for aligning innovation with regulatory standards.
Dr Chrysovalantis Vasilakis
SRG2526\261221
Project Title: Identifying Investor Beliefs in Asset Demand: An Experimental Approach
Bangor University
Value awarded: £9,952.50
Funded by: DSIT
Why do investors choose certain assets over others? This research explores how investors’ beliefs about future asset values shape their investment decisions, influencing financial markets. By conducting a controlled experiment, we will investigate how people make choices when faced with varying levels of uncertainty about asset returns and probabilities. Participants will decide how to allocate resources between two assets, with some knowing the potential outcomes and others facing uncertainty. This setup will help us uncover the hidden beliefs driving their decisions, testing whether these beliefs can be reliably identified from their choices. The findings will deepen our understanding of investor behavior, improve financial models, and guide policies to enhance market stability and protect investors. Our work aims to bridge economic theory with real-world decision- making, offering insights for both investors and policymakers.
Professor Helen Vassallo
SRG2526\260168
Project Title: Fostering Bibliodiversity in and through Translation
University of Exeter
Value awarded: £9,988.00
Funded by: DSIT
Academic researchers and industry stakeholders recognise the imperative to increase the volume of translated literature and the importance of translation in intercultural dialogue and cross-cultural representation. However, funding cuts and rising costs are restricting publishing activity, while the rise of AI threatens both the sustainability of translators’ careers and diversity in what is translated. Fostering Bibliodiversity in and through Translation addresses the need for collaborative action and the urgency of bolstering diversity initiatives in the translated literature sector of the publishing industry. A launch workshop and subsequent quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis will investigate whose voices are missing from literature translated into English. This will shape a programme of public engagement events to connect findings to local communities, leading to project outputs that will show how choices made regarding literature translated into English, and the people who make these choices, can challenge dominant ideologies and shape cultural exchange.
Dr Juan Ignacio Vizcaino
SRG2526\261486
Co-applicant(s): Dr Jorge Sabat
Project Title: Returns to Higher Education and the Role of Student Loans: Evidence from Chile
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,648.22
Funded by: DSIT
This project evaluates the long-run effects of student loan programs on educational and labor market outcomes in Chile using a structural model. It exploits the 2006 introduction of the Cr´edito con Aval del Estado (CAE), which expanded access to student debt for higher education. By combining administrative and survey data on educational attainment and loans with longitudinal income histories from Chile’s pension system, the project tracks cohorts over time to estimate how credit constraints affect enrollment, graduation, occupational choice, and earnings. It also examines heterogeneity by gender, parental education, and field of study. The results will inform higher education financing debates, particularly in contexts such as the United Kingdom, where the 2012 tuition fee reform introduced income-contingent loans with expanded borrowing limits and deferred repayments.
Dr Juanxi Wang
SRG2526\260715
Project Title: The Double Edge of Artificial Intelligence: Measuring and Managing AIwashing in Corporate Disclosure
Oxford Brookes University
Value awarded: £9,933.50
Funded by: DSIT
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries and driving innovation, but it also gives rise to “AIwashing,” where companies exaggerate their AI capabilities to attract investors and gain attention. This behaviour poses significant ethical and financial risks, distorting market valuations and undermining responsible innovation, reminiscent of the dot-com bubble. This project aims to address the research gap by developing a validated AIwashing Index to quantify the prevalence of AI-related misrepresentation across various industries. By incorporating insights from behavioural finance and corporate governance, it will explore the impact of AIwashing on investor behaviour, market stability, firm valuation, and ethical governance. Employing a mixed-methods approach that combines textual analysis, interviews, and econometric modelling, the research aims to provide a comprehensive framework for policymakers to understand and manage AIwashing. Project outputs will include academic publications, policy briefs, and a public case study, ultimately guiding regulatory practices and promoting ethical accountability in AI-driven markets.
Dr Demi-Mae Wilton
SRG2526\260216
Project Title: Methodologies in World-Literature
Birmingham City University
Value awarded: £9,617.00
Funded by: DSIT
In an era defined by global challenges including conflict, migration, and climate change, literature offers a platform through which the voices excluded from political debates might be amplified. The challenge of researchers is to develop approaches to engage with texts that ensure that marginalised perspectives are studied rigorously and inclusively. Comparative studies often face a trade-off between global breadth and local depth: how can we study large numbers of diverse texts without losing cultural nuance?
This project confronts this challenge by connecting varied approaches to studying world literature from literary studies, the humanities, and data science to create new understandings of comparative method. A hybrid workshop, coordinated with the Women in World Literature Network, will inform an edited volume and open access teaching resources showcasing innovative world literary approaches. Through its collaborative foundation, the project will provide students and scholars with adaptable methodologies for the world literary challenges they encounter.
Dr Sam Wood
SRG2526\262275
Co-applicant(s): Dr Greg Wood
Project Title: Developing an Education Resource to Support Neuroinclusive Environments in UK Sport
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £8,341.30
Funded by: DSIT
This 24-month research project aims to improve how neurodivergent athletes are supported within UK performance sport by developing a practical, co-designed education resource for sport practitioners. Through focus groups and participatory workshops with athletes, parents, and support staff, the study will explore real-world challenges and successful strategies for inclusion. Findings will inform the creation of a training resource that offers practical tools, reflective exercises, and case studies to help practitioners better understand and support neurodivergent athletes. A national conference will launch the resource and promote collaboration across sport, education, and health sectors. As diagnoses of ADHD and autism rise significantly in the UK, this research is essential for ensuring high-performance sport environments are accessible, inclusive, and supportive of neurodiversity.
Dr Motonori Yamaguchi
SRG2526\261248
Project Title: Investigating Neural Correlates of Encoding, Maintaining, and Accessing Working Memory
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,160.00
Funded by: DSIT
Working memory (WM) refers to our cognitive ability to temporarily store information in the brain. Investigating the neural mechanisms underlying this cognitive function helps us understand how we remember the goal of our actions at any given time, which is essential for our adaptive behaviour. This project will carry out three cognitive neuroscience experiments to examine the neural markers of WM by using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to observe brain activities reflecting different component processes, which include (1) encoding of information into WM, (2) retaining the information in WM, and (3) accessing the information in WM. The results of the project will make important contributions to such applied areas as targeted pedagogical interventions based on individuals’ WM capacity, improvement of medical conditions related to memory impairment, and development of neural technologies that monitor cognitive states based on brain activities.
Professor Noam Yuchtman
SRG2526\260928
Project Title: Collecting Comprehensive Data on British Historical Trade: Digitizing the CUST 3 Ledgers
London School of Economics and Political Science
Value awarded: £9,909.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project aims to construct a novel and comprehensive historical British trade database, converting 35,000 handwritten pages from the National Archives (the “CUST 3” series of ledgers) into a standardized economic dataset on trade by product, port of origin/destination, and year for the 17th-19th centuries. Thus far, I have worked with an AI firm to apply a machine learning package that is able to transcribe historical handwritten records with an accuracy rate above 90%. Human expertise is needed now to correct transcription mistakes made by the AI algorithm, as well as to produce a dataset that standardizes (often esoteric) goods’ names, units, and port names, which change over time. A skilled research assistant trained in economic history will work with me over the coming year to produce the final dataset, which will serve as an input into multiple research projects and be made available to the scholarly community.
Professor Francesco Zanetti
SRG2526\261943
Project Title: Measuring Supply Chain Adjustments and Assessing Their Macroeconomic and Policy Implications
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,989.00
Funded by: DSIT
This project develops new empirical and theoretical tools to measure how global maritime supply chains adjust to shocks and how these adjustments shape macroeconomic and policy outcomes. Using high-frequency satellite data and advanced machine learning, we construct a novel Maritime Supply Index (MSI) to capture real-time changes in global shipping capacity, vessel routes, and port congestion. These measures will underpin an econometric and structural modeling framework assessing the macroeconomic effects of supply chain disruptions and the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary responses. The project integrates empirical evidence and theory to identify how disruptions propagate through production networks, affect inflation and output, and alter policy transmission. By linking maritime logistics to macroeconomic dynamics, this research offers the first comprehensive framework for understanding how supply chain frictions influence global economic stability and policy effectiveness.
Dr Jiwei Zheng
SRG2526\261022
Project Title: LLMs in Tacit Bargaining: Decision processes, Behaviour, and Outcomes
Lancaster University
Value awarded: £9,750.00
Funded by: DSIT
The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years has made AI advisors increasingly accessible to individuals. This project aims to experimentally investigate how Large Language Model (LMM) advisors affect individuals’ decision processes, behaviour, and outcomes in tacit bargaining, the situations in which agreement must be reached without explicit communication among bargainers. Due to the mixed-motive nature of tacit bargaining, where bargainers benefit from reaching an agreement but face conflicts over which agreement to choose, the role of AI advisors in such settings is fundamentally different from the contexts in which they are primarily used to migrant human biases or cognitive limitations. This distinction lends the project both theoretical and practical importance. Theoretically, it contributes to a better understanding on how AI advisors shape human reasoning and behaviour in strategic interactions. Practically, it informs policies on when and how AI should be employed in context involving tacit bargaining.
Dr Jingyu Zhu
SRG2526\261406
Co-applicant(s): Dr Lijun (Shirley) Zhang
Project Title: Giving That Lasts: Encouraging Recurring Donation for Sustainable Social Impact
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,942.00
Funded by: DSIT
Non-profit organisations face growing financial pressure, making stable cash flow a priority. Although recurring giving offers continuity, most donors do not move from one-off gifts to sustained support. This project draws on behavioural science and consumer psychology to test how discount framing and message framing (e.g., “subscription” vs. standard “monthly donation” language) shape willingness to enrol in recurring donations. We aim to identify the underlying mechanisms of these effects, focusing on guilt, perceived sacrifice, and perceived mindfulness, and to assess the consequences for donors’ subjective well-being. By examining the interplay between discount and message framing, we evaluate whether framing can shift behaviour from impulsive, one-off giving to ongoing contributions. The findings will contribute to extant literature on prosocial behaviour, framing effect, and consumer psychology, offering practical guidance on how to enhance non-profit organisations’ sustainability and donors’ subjective well-being.
Leverhulme Trust
Dr Matthew Abbey
SRG2526\261334
Project Title: The Future of Quantum Computing: Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Governance
University of Leeds
Value awarded: £8,525.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Quantum computing promises to transform society by surpassing the limitations of classical computation, reshaping artificial intelligence (AI), ethics, and governance. Yet its rapid development remains insufficiently explored from the wider social sciences. This project examines the emerging revolution in quantum computing from a critical geography perspective, drawing on insights from quantum engineers across public and private institutions in the United Kingdom. Conducting interviews, ethnographic observations, and discourse analysis, the project analyses quantum computing’s relationship to AI, its ethical implications, and its implications for governance. The research is driven by a fundamental lesson of AI: ethical and political concerns must be addressed during the design and development phase, not after. The project’s outcome will be a critical, practitioner-informed account of the potential effects of quantum computing on government infrastructures, providing valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and civil society.
Professor Kiff Bamford
SRG2526\261758
Project Title: Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard: Connections Reconsidered
Leeds Beckett University
Value awarded: £6,774.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard are among the most recognizable and influential figures in recent French thought. However, their intellectual relationship has been given little detailed or sustained attention. This research will begin to remedy this situation by undertaking archival research to reveal the shifting relationship between these two thinkers, and allow for a more sustained and detailed interpretation of their mutual influences and intellectual crossings. The small grant is to fund archival research to consult correspondence and recordings held at four institutions in Paris and Normandy, and for the transcription and translation of selected findings. The research will inform the writing of a 6,000-word introduction for 'The Derrida-Lyotard Reader', a two-volume anthology of texts edited by the lead applicant and co-edited by Peter W. Milne (Seoul National University), to be published by Bloomsbury academic.
Dr Michela Bariselli
SRG2526\260686
Co-applicant(s): Dr Leo Charles Townsend
Project Title: J.L. Austin’s Notes for 'How to Do Things with Words': a Case Study for the Performative Approach to Archival Material
University of Reading
Value awarded: £8,251.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Published works are the canonical objects of philosophical scholarship because they are thought to contain their author’s finalised views. Archival materials, like notes and drafts, because provisional and unpolished, are customarily considered valuable to philosophy only if they illuminate their author’s published views. This project challenges this position and develops a novel approach to archival materials that captures their distinctive philosophical contribution precisely in virtue of their provisional and unpolished elements. This approach, named the performative approach, captures the unique value of archival materials by shifting the attention from the views expressed within them to the unique linguistic acts performed by their provisional and unpolished linguistic elements. To do so, this project uses J.L. Austin’s notes for 'How to Do Things with Words' as a case study. Austin’s notes will be transcribed and analysed to show that attending to their unique linguistic acts enriches philosophical scholarship beyond illuminating Austin’s views.
Dr Charlotte Bates
SRG2526\260159
Project Title: Shifting Seasons: Weather, Nature and Everyday Life in the Mass Observation Archive
Cardiff University
Value awarded: £9,300.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
The seasons and the weather are often perceived as part of the backdrop of everyday life, and how a rainy day, a strong wind or the arrival of spring blossom shapes our lives, relationships and connections with people and places is taken for granted. The impact of climate change and the increased risk of extreme weather events is changing the ways in which we think about weather and bringing it sharply into focus, but the more ordinary ways in which seasons and weather shape everyday life remain largely unnoticed. Digging into the collections of the Mass Observation Project, an archive of everyday life, thought and feeling in Britain, this project explores how seasons are noticed and felt, and how weather shapes our everyday experiences of the climate crisis. It asks, what does it mean to notice the weather and the seasons when those seasons are shifting?
Dr Emilia Belknap
SRG2526\260825
Project Title: Intersectional Identities and Constitutional Futures: A Feminist Constitutionalist Analysis of Minoritised Voices in Scotland
University of Southampton
Value awarded: £6,562.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project investigates how people from minoritised intersectional identities, specifically, racially minoritised communities and non-binary individuals, support or oppose constitutional change in Scotland. Recent findings from the 2021 Scottish Election Study reveal significant variation in constitutional attitudes across ethnic and gender identities, yet small sample sizes limit deeper analysis. This project addresses that gap through identity-specific focus groups with people of colour and gender-diverse individuals in Scotland. Rather than compare groups, the study centres each group’s unique perspectives on identity, exclusion, and democratic futures. Recent legal and political developments, including the UK Government's invocation of Section 35 to block Scotland’s gender recognition reforms, highlight growing tensions over devolved power and underscore the urgency of understanding how marginalised groups experience constitutional legitimacy. Using feminist constitutionalism and intersectional theory, the project explores how lived identity informs democratic imagination. Findings will support academic and policy debates on representation, devolution, and democracy.
Professor Michael Berkowitz
SRG2526\260444
Project Title: Helen Husek and photographic science
University College London (UCL)
Value awarded: £6,048.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
While on a fellowship at Philadelphia's Science History Institute (2022) I came across a scientist, Helen Husek. She was hired by Edwin Land, founder and director of Polaroid (Cambridge, Massachusetts), in 1939. Husek was a Jewish woman, born in Poland, 1903, who studied for a PhD in chemistry at the University of Vienna, awarded 1928. Her career was not flourishing up to the time she fled Austria after the Anschluss of March 1938. At Polaroid she was a crucial member of teams that made immense advances in photographic colour processes (applied later to 'instant' photos) and vectography--both of which were extremely important in the Allied war effort. The interviewer for the only existing testimony of Husek was not interested in her professional career--asking mainly about the coincidence that Husek lived at the Jewish students' hostel when Adolf Hitler's half-sister was employed there. I seek information about Husek's studies and life.
Dr Brian Boyle
SRG2526\262044
Co-applicant(s): Dr Heinz Brandenburg
Project Title: Bias and Impartiality in UK Public Broadcasting: How Traditional and Social Media Frame Bias on BBC Question Time
Newcastle University
Value awarded: £5,834.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Public broadcasters such as the BBC serve as a crucial source of information in allowing citizens to make informed decisions when participating in politics. Despite the BBC charter’s requirement to meet ‘due impartiality’ standards, the organisation is regularly accused of bias in its political programming from the public, media, and political elites. This project examines the BBC’s flagship political debate programme ‘BBC Question Time’ across two main dimensions: how the public engages with the programme via social media, and how it is covered by traditional news media. The project uses two novel datasets, and combines qualitative content analysis with state of the art machine learning text analysis techniques, to offer insights into how both the public and media frame bias and impartiality in UK public broadcasting.
Dr Matthew Cracknell
SRG2526\260842
Project Title: Lived-Experience and Practitioner Experiences, Perspectives and Challenges of Remand and Immediate Release
Brunel University London
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
The remand population in prisons in England and Wales has risen significantly in recent years, with people now spending longer on average in custody waiting for trial and sentencing. This can result in some remand prisoners securing ‘immediate release’ due to time served, once they are eventually sentenced or acquitted. This impacts on an overstretched probation service and has implications for resettlement and public protection outcomes. Despite the recent growth in this population, the experiences of remand imprisonment and of immediate release in England and Wales remains significantly underexplored. This empirical research seeks to fill this gap by highlighting the experiences, perspectives and challenges of remand and immediate release. Qualitative data will be collected via semi-structured interviews, from two prisons and community probation offices to gain practitioner and lived-experience perspectives. This research will provide valuable insights into an important area of punishment, contributing to our theoretical understanding of remand imprisonment.
Dr Francis Dodsworth
SRG2526\261974
Project Title: The Self Defence Scenario: Crime, Security and Ideology in Martial Arts and Self-Defence Publications, 1960-1999
Kingston University
Value awarded: £9,232.11
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project explores the ways in which martial arts training manuals, magazines and self-defence instruction books framed self-defence situations for the general public in Britain, 1960-1999, a period in which there was rising incidence of, and growing anxiety about, violent crime. Through the (often illustrated) instructions and advice about avoiding, managing or responding to attack, these popular cultural sources transmit messages about the potential of (largely violent) crime, its locations, patterns, targets, consequences and means to address it, to a wide variety of readers. This project will sample and systematically survey the available sources in the British library. The research will contribute a novel empirical study to debates about the nature and development of a 'security society', with an emphasis on the role of popular culture in this process, also contributing to debates about 'true crime' and the ideology of the martial arts.
Dr Roch Dunin-Wasowicz
SRG2526\261888
Project Title: Civic ecosystems on the sidelines of war in Ukraine: drivers of reconstruction and co-creators of community resilience
University College London (UCL)
Value awarded: £9,118.39
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project examines businesses and entrepreneurs in Poland and Britain who have supported Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of 2022, focusing on their contributions to the country’s reconstruction. It particularly highlights the role of Ukrainian diasporic communities who are embedded within these civic ecosystems, providing aid to Ukraine and facilitating the social integration of Ukrainians abroad. First, the project compares how Ukrainian business leaders and entrepreneurs in Poland and the UK advance both economic and broader civic outcomes, becoming drivers of reconstruction in Ukraine itself and co-creators of community resilience among Ukrainians abroad. Second, it investigates the policy implications of these findings for governmental and private stakeholders in the two countries engaged in efforts to rebuild Ukraine. The expected outcome is a framework for understanding how Ukraine's long-term resilience and recovery can be linked to the needs and contributions of displaced communities due to war.
Dr Hind Elhinnawy
SRG2526\260229
Project Title: The Intersectional Experiences of Egyptian Feminists in Exile: A Case Study
Nottingham Trent University
Value awarded: £8,934.47
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Following the ‘Arab Uprisings’ of 2010–2011, many Egyptian feminists were forced into exile, where their activism has been overlooked or reduced to narratives of victimhood. This project challenges such framings by examining the intersectional experiences of Egyptian feminists to understand how exile reshapes feminist activism. Through in-depth narrative interviews and digital collaborative storytelling, the project documents and analyses how gender intersects with race, class, sexuality, disability, and language to shape identity, resistance, and belonging in exile. The project thus advances inclusive and decolonised feminist scholarship by amplifying marginalised voices and fostering intersectional transnational solidarity. Findings will contribute a chapter to a broader monograph on Arab feminist activism in exile and a standalone journal article. Outputs will be disseminated through academic publications, a public storytelling platform, and partnerships with feminist organisations to amplify exiled voices and introduce Egyptian feminist thought and praxis in exile to international feminist and scholarly arenas.
Dr Xinchuchu Gao
SRG2526\260804
Co-applicant(s): Dr Xuechen Chen
Project Title: Digital Power Europe? Assessing the European Union’s Role in Shaping Global AI Governance
University of Lincoln
Value awarded: £8,905.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
The European Union (EU) plays a key role in shaping global digital norms, notably through initiatives like Convention 108, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). These efforts have had significant extraterritorial impact, influencing digital governance beyond EU borders. Yet, there is limited research on how effectively the EU’s norms and regulations are adopted globally. This project uses a mixed-method approach to examine the EU’s influence as a norm- and regulation-shaper in digital governance, focusing specifically on AI. It aims to contribute to a growing stream of academic literature on the EU’s role as a norm-shaper and a regulation-shaper in digital governance, with a specific focus on the case of AI governance. Additionally, the project seeks to provide policy-makers and business sectors with new insights into the effectiveness of the EU’s extraterritorial influence and the “diffuse-ability” of the EU’s AI governance model.
Dr Julia Giese
SRG2526\261393
Project Title: The Cultural Memory of Mis- and Disinformation: Remembering the 2022 Leicester Unrest
University of Derby
Value awarded: £8,878.57
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Recent incidents of social unrest in Leicester (2022) and many parts of the UK (2024) have raised concerns among British media, academia, and policymakers about the role of (online) mis- and disinformation in catalysing violence. While existing research examines the production, dissemination, and persuasive power of such media content, little is known about how affected audiences interpret and make sense of mis- and disinformation over time. This project bridges media and cultural memory studies to investigate how individuals process and reflect on contested information in the aftermath of unrest. Focusing specifically on the 2022 Leicester Unrest, the study will draw on interviews with Hindu and Muslim British Asians living in Leicester to explore how communities navigate questions of truth after heavily mediatised episodes of violence. In doing so, it aims to address a critical gap in current scholarship on the long-term audience reception of mis- and disinformation following civil disorder.
Dr Chunjia Han
SRG2526\261777
Co-applicant(s): Dr Mu Yang
Project Title: When Transparency Backfires: How Showing Information Sources in AI Outputs Affects Human Judgement
Birkbeck, University of London
Value awarded: £9,836.93
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Efforts to enhance transparency in artificial intelligence (AI) often advocate revealing the information sources underlying AI-generated outputs. However, greater transparency does not necessarily lead to better decision quality. This project examines how displaying information sources functions as a heuristic cue that can shape, and sometimes distort, users’ cognitive processing and judgments. Grounded in the Heuristic–Systematic Model (HSM), the research investigates when and why source transparency promotes careful, systematic evaluation versus reliance on superficial heuristics. Through three controlled online experiments involving lay users and domain experts under varying cognitive effort conditions, the study will identify the mechanisms and boundary conditions of transparency effects. Findings will advance theoretical understanding of human–AI interaction and inform the design of AI interfaces that foster informed, unbiased decision-making without unintentionally increasing cognitive bias.
Dr Joseph Harley
SRG2526\260080
Project Title: Material Life in the English Workhouse during the Old Poor Law, c. 1690-1834
Anglia Ruskin University
Value awarded: £9,507.03
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
During the Old Poor Law (1601-1834), hundreds of thousands of people entered workhouses and the ability of authorities to offer ‘the house’ played a considerable role in many paupers’ experiences of poverty and welfare. Although there is extensive research on workhouses under the New Poor Law (1834-1948), there is relatively little work on workhouses before this when this form of relief was first used on scale. Using underutilised sources from counties across England, this research will, for the first time, assess life in the workhouse at a national and regional level through the lens of material culture and food consumption. This will address a significant gap in welfare history and the experience of poverty. It will allow us to get to the core of institutional poverty by assessing inmates’ everyday lives and how they conducted activities such as sleeping, dining, cooking, domestic chores and work.
Dr Rodrigo Hernaiz
SRG2526\260571
Project Title: Describing and (auto-)documenting Thuntai, a little-known language of Papua New Guinea’s multilingual southwest. (THUNTAI-DOC)
The Open University
Value awarded: £9,184.86
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project aims to document and preserve Thuntai, a minimally-described language spoken by a few hundred people in a highly diverse and multilingual region of Papua New Guinea. It explores collaborative approaches to language documentation that actively involve the community in ‘auto-documenting’ their language, by contributing entries to a digital glossary and self-recorded materials to an audio-visual archive. This collaboration also explores the potential for remote engagement between the community and the researcher, opening possibilities for sustained participation beyond fieldwork. The project contributes to global efforts to mitigate language loss and aligns with the UN’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032), which advocates for the protection of indigenous languages to improve the lives of their speakers. Fieldwork and linguistic analysis will produce a comprehensive description of Thuntai, while raising its profile within the discipline of linguistics and supporting local efforts to preserve their unique linguistic and cultural heritage.
Dr Gethin Hughes
SRG2526\261711
Co-applicant(s): Dr Natalia Joanna Zarzeczna
Project Title: The interaction between stress and cognition in shaping political beliefs.
University of Essex
Value awarded: £9,222.22
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Extreme ideological thinking and political polarisation have severe consequences for social cohesion and trust in institutions, often leading to delayed implementation of evidence-based solutions to urgent existential threats. Yet, it is precisely when existential threats become salient that people turn to extreme ideological thought for comfort. While ample evidence illustrates motivational reasons behind extreme thought following experiences of distress (i.e., reducing uncertainty and regaining control), the underlying cognitive mechanisms shaping extremity remain unexplored. In an integrated framework, we propose and test the idea that stress exacerbates ideological thinking through core cognitive traits previously associated with extreme ideological positions. We predict that stress reduces people’s capacity for cognitive flexibility and metacognition (thinking about thoughts/perceptions), and that this in turn leaves people more likely to develop extreme ideological thinking. Our findings will provide a theoretical foundation for interventions aimed at fostering greater social cohesion and institutional trust.
Professor Peter Hulme
SRG2526\260152
Project Title: The Caribbean Routes of William Carlos Williams
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £6,129.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Born in 1883, the US poet William Carlos Williams did not visit the Caribbean until 1941, when he attended a conference in Puerto Rico. He then made three further trips before his death in 1963. However, both his parents had grown up in the Caribbean and Williams was raised on stories about his family's background there, which he consistently drew on in his writing. This research proposal has three main elements. It traces the routes of Williams’s father and mother through the Caribbean, paying particular attention to their connections with leading political figures of the era. It studies Williams’s versions of these routes in his poetry and other writing, in particular the last book he published before his death, "Yes, Mrs. Williams". And it looks in detail at that 1941 trip, undertaken at a moment of high tension in Puerto Rico and the wider region.
Dr Fatemeh Jabbari
SRG2526\262543
Project Title: Exile in Practice
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £6,200.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project examines how forced migration from Kashmir to Delhi has shaped the personal and cultural identity of a Kashmiri Pandit man who has lived in exile since the early 1990s. Through in-depth oral history interviews and a close study of his family’s personal photographic archive, the research traces how memories of home, loss, belonging and community are narrated, re-narrated and woven into everyday life. Focusing on one individual life history as a central narrative thread, the project aims to illuminate broader processes of cultural continuity and transformation within displaced Kashmiri Pandit communities. The study contributes to visual anthropology, memory studies and South Asian displacement research, while also producing a historically informed account of exile as a lived condition rather than a fixed political category. The research will result in a written article and a short film-essay drawing on interview recordings and family photographs.
Dr Richard Jones
SRG2526\261143
Project Title: Sewage farming in Victorian and Edwardian Britain
University of Leicester
Value awarded: £9,540.16
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Sewage, in its modern, highly diluted form, has its origins in Victorian Britain. The sewering of towns and cities brought significant public health benefits, but did so at environmental cost. The pollution of Britain’s rivers became a matter of national concern and disgrace. Sewage farming, intended to divert polluting effluents away from watercourses and on to the land where its fertilizing potential might be harnessed, was an innovative response to this first great environmental crisis of the Industrial Age. This project explores the practice of farming with sewage, from its tentative beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century, through its perfection c. 1870-1900, to its replacement with biological treatments at the start of the twentieth century. The project will deliver the first historical evaluation of sewage farming’s environmental credentials and the operational effectiveness of sewage farms in converting liquid waste into agricultural profit.
Dr Nirali Joshi
SRG2526\262086
Project Title: Drinking Water, Moving Bodies: Urban Infrastructure and the Politics of Care
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £8,470.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project examines the rationale, progress and consequences of contemporary programmes that seek to expand public access to drinking water in urban spaces. Focusing on two distinct yet resonant initiatives: the Mayor of London’s Refill Scheme (2019) and the Delhi government’s announcement to install 3000+ water ATMs as part of its Heat Plan 2025, this study interrogates the ways in which public drinking water infrastructures are mobilised, politicised, and experienced across divergent urban contexts.
The project pursues a cross-city comparative analysis, weaving together policy review, infrastructure mapping, semi-structured interviews with city officials, civil society actors, and private stakeholders, and ethnographic observations at sites of drinking water provision and use. Through this multi-method approach, the research seeks to foreground the everyday geographies of thirst, while tracing how public water infrastructures are entangled with broader dynamics of urban commercialisation, governance, and climatic uncertainty.
Dr Shradha Kapoor
SRG2526\262428
Co-applicant(s): Professor Spyros Angelopoulos
Project Title: WEAVE: Waste Eliminating Apparel Value Ecosystem
Durham University
Value awarded: £9,263.32
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Small and medium-sized textile manufacturers in India face growing pressure to reduce waste and carbon emissions while maintaining competitiveness. This project examines how such firms develop zero-waste fabric supply chains by recycling and repurposing scraps into new, sustainable fabrics. Drawing on the perspectives of the Circular Economy and Dynamic Capabilities, we explore how small manufacturers reconfigure their routines, technologies, and partnerships to “close the loop” in production. Using field evidence from garment and fabric mills and modelling their material flows through dynamic optimisation, we aim to generate new theoretical insights into circular manufacturing and practical tools for SME sustainability. The findings will inform both academic debates on circular operations and policy discussions on low-carbon textile production. This study combines qualitative content analysis and mathematical modelling, producing a scholarly article and a practitioner guide on zero-waste operations.
Dr Zeynep Kilicoglu
SRG2526\261468
Project Title: Arts-Based Asylum Activism: Refugee Women's Political Empowerment in the UK
London School of Economics and Political Science
Value awarded: £8,315.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Refugee assistance programmes construct women as victims devoid of agency and reinforce dependence on the host society, a narrative currently weaponised by the far right. This project critically counters such narratives by engaging with emerging feminist scholarship that recognises refugee women as active political agents practicing creative grassroots activism, highlighting how refugehood can foster political empowerment. It asks: How can art programmes support refugee women’s activism and empowerment in the UK? The project aims to (1) generate new original empirical data (through the creation of artworks by refugee women and the collective analysis of the artworks in a focus group) that advances literature on refugehood and empowerment; (2) explore art as an innovative research methodology; and (3) co-produce academic knowledge with migrant communities. The grant will fund an advocacy-focused artistic collage workshop and a focus group involving twenty-five refugee women, in collaboration with Women for Refugee Women London.
Dr Hyerhim Kim
SRG2526\261947
Co-applicant(s): Dr Wei Liu, Professor George Chryssochoidis
Project Title: Narrative Risk: Quantifying the Financial Power of Competing Social Media Frames in the Global Biofuel Sector
University of Essex
Value awarded: £4,470.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project investigates how the strategic framing of major Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) controversies create quantifiable financial risk for firms in the biofuel sector. Focusing on the world’s two largest ethanol producers, the United States (corn-based) and Brazil (sugarcane-based), we ask a fundamental question: how do competing narratives act as a mechanism of financial power in the digital age? Using a longitudinal dataset of social media and news discourse, we combine natural language processing to detect and measure competing frames (e.g., ‘Energy Security’ versus ‘Food Crisis’; ‘Climate Solution’ versus ‘Greenwashing’) with econometric modelling of stock market data. We will deliver the first replicable framework for measuring ‘narrative risk’, a novel category of corporate risk that captures the financial impact of competing storylines. The findings will offer crucial, comparative insights for corporate accountability, ESG risk assessment, and our understanding of how narratives govern the transition to a global bioeconomy.
Dr Xavier L'Hoiry
SRG2526\260272
Co-applicant(s): Dr Keith Spiller
Project Title: Cycling Warriors: Exploring the phenomenon of citizen-led policing on the UK’s dangerous roads
University of Sheffield
Value awarded: £6,765.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Roads in the UK have become a new battleground in recent years, with the perceived rise in dangerous driving and the safety of cyclists a key concern. Cyclists are increasingly taking action against dangerous driving, using digital technologies such as GoPro cameras and drones to capture footage of bad driving, passing this onto police and, sometimes, disseminating footage online. This proposal terms these actors ‘Cycling Warriors’ and positions their activities as a form of citizen-led policing focused on road safety. This is part of a growing phenomenon of individuals and groups reacting to a perceived security concern and proactively responding to address this issue. The project will engage directly with Cycling Warriors and associated stakeholders (such as police and cycling campaign groups) to understand the motivations with induce Cycling Warriors to act, document the range of activities they perform, and explore the potential benefits and harms arising from their activities.
Dr Jamie Lingwood
SRG2526\260406
Co-applicant(s): Dr Emma Vardy
Project Title: Think Dads: Fathers’ experiences of shared reading practices
Liverpool Hope University
Value awarded: £9,180.62
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Shared reading between caregivers and young children is strongly linked to language, literacy, and socio-emotional outcomes. However, most existing research focuses almost exclusively on mothers, with fathers’ voices underexplored. Where studies with fathers do exist, they are largely small-scale and lack the depth of personal experience, limiting our understanding of fathers’ experiences and the unique role they play in family literacy. This project will use the innovative Co-Navigator (Co-Nav) tool to capture fathers’ perspectives on shared reading with their children aged 0–7. Unlike traditional focus groups or surveys, Co-Nav is an accessible, interactive tool, enabling participants to reflect openly and collaboratively on their experiences, generating richer insights. This research is timely, aligning with the Year of Reading 2026 and responding to recent National Literacy Trust findings showing a decline in family reading practices. Findings will inform literacy policy, father-inclusive interventions, and practical strategies to support fathers’ engagement in shared reading.
Dr Christopher Lizotte
SRG2526\261292
Co-applicant(s): Dr Joshua Watkins
Project Title: Disputed Facts: Fact-Checking Immigration Claims in an Era of Polarized Knowledge
Oxford Brookes University
Value awarded: £8,548.93
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Misinformation about immigration is spreading rapidly on social media, fuelling political tensions and shaping public debate in countries around the world. In response, fact-checking organizations have taken on a prominent role in verifying claims and challenging false or misleading information. This project explores how fact-checkers in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia evaluate immigration-related information: what kinds of claims they choose to investigate, how they assess them, and how they present their findings. Incorporating quantitative lexicometric analysis with content and discourse analysis and interviews, the research asks:
- 1.How do fact-checking organizations decide what to evaluate and what counts as true and false?
- 2.What linguistic framings and rhetorical strategies are used by fact-checking organizations to assert the truth and falsity of immigration-related content on digital media?
- 3.How do these framings and rhetorical strategies align with broader and polarized social and cultural understandings of misinformation?
Mr John Lloyd
SRG2526\262625
Co-applicant(s): Mr Fabrizio Cocchiarella
Project Title: Lets Talk About Death
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,750.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust & DSIT
We aim to investigate and establish foundational research into how society understands and engages with death (Chapple et al, 2019), dying (Kellehear, 2007), and remembrance (Neimeyer, 2012) in an era marked by declining religious affiliation, the rise of digital memorials and renewed political/ethical debate around the “right to die.” (Farley, 2025). Through public engagement in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, the research aims to create inclusive and reflective physical and digital spaces where individuals can explore these issues through creative, participatory methods. Through workshops, interviews, discussion groups and surveys, the project will capture diverse personal, professional and academic perspectives on mortality. Community and public workshops will focus on themes such as death mask making, spirit photography, creative writing and burial rituals, offering experiences alongside opportunities for dialogue and reflection leading towards a collaborative exhibition which will feature the artwork created side by side with testimony and reflection.
Dr Jason Luger
SRG2526\260157
Co-applicant(s): Dr Tilman Schwarze, Dr Kirsteen Paton
Project Title: Generation-Z and the Post-Industrial City: Imagining Past, Present and Future
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £8,084.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This proposed project invites young people (18-24) in two cities often portrayed as ‘post-industrial’, Newcastle and Glasgow, to tell a new story. Whilst much research focuses on the legacy of industrial decline and stigma in these cities, this project considers how Generation-Z connects the industrial past to the present and future. This opens up space for imaginations of urban life that move beyond dominant narratives of decline, ‘left behind’, and ruination. Substantively, the research will consist of collaborative workshops in Newcastle and Glasgow with Generation-Z participants, organised around themes of (a)labour, (b)sense of place, (c)identity and play, and (d)housing/home. Through workshops, photo-elicitation and site-based walking interviews, the research will paint a picture of how historical legacies connect with today’s realities of labour, place, and play in these two cities, and how these things are imagined in the future, thereby developing new languages and images that move beyond simply ‘post-industrial’.
Dr Stephanie Luke
SRG2526\261834
Co-applicant(s): Dr Junyan Zhu
Project Title: Measuring Online Party Contact: A UK Pilot Study of Voter Perceptions and Survey Design
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £8,000.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Social media has allowed political parties to reach voters by broadcasting messages, with voters able to directly engage by commenting, reacting, and sharing the post. While national election studies have shown an increase in reported contact via social media, there are continued concerns that contact via social media is being under-reported, which affects our understanding of the impact of different campaign methods. One explanation for this could be that social media ‘contact’ is perceived differently from more traditional forms of campaigning. This study surveys UK voters to examine how they define and perceive party contact on social media. Therefore this research improves the accuracy of survey measures of party contact but also sheds light on how political parties can more effectively use social media to engage voters, generating insights that extend beyond the UK context.
Dr Marta Mangiarulo
SRG2526\260366
Co-applicant(s): Professor Emmanuel Pothos
Project Title: Do Internal Probabilities Exist?
University of Leicester
Value awarded: £8,970.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Do internal probabilities exist, and if so, how precise are they? This project investigates whether people use internal, numerical representations of uncertainty when making decisions, or whether they simply generate probability estimates as a task demand, epiphenomenal to other processes. We examine situations where people may lack such internal probabilities, especially when questions are vague or personally irrelevant. Conversely, when people do use internal probabilities, how fine-grained is their mental scale? Are they rough approximations or do people track probabilities with precision? Our studies will test how knowledge, personal relevance, and psychological importance affect people’s probability judgments, and whether they seek greater precision when it matters more to them. By combining psychological experiments with formal mathematical analysis, this work will offer novel insights into how humans navigate uncertainty and conceptualise probabilities.
Dr Angela Mazzone
SRG2526\260457
Co-applicant(s): Professor Harriet Tenenbaum
Project Title: Young people’s attitudes towards UK-Europe relations: A cross-temporal analysis
University of Surrey
Value awarded: £9,922.40
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Fewer than a third of young voters in the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU). Despite the outcome of Brexit, the UK must work with Europe for security, prosperity, and global influence. Young people have a critical role in shaping the future relationship between the UK and Europe. Building on a previous project conducted by the applicants and existing theory, this project will investigate several predictors of young people’s attitudes towards the relationships between the UK and Europe, including their tendency to value democracy, human rights, cultural diversity, self-efficacy towards understanding EU decisions, European identification, and their worries for the future of the UK. To this aim, young people aged 16-20 (N=250) and 26-30 (N=250) will complete an online survey. In doing so, we will compare two key developmental stages for political socialisation. The findings will contribute to integrating the views of young people into existing policies.
Dr Aishling Mc Morrow
SRG2526\261480
Project Title: The Lived Experience of Violent Misogyny on the Island of Ireland
Queen's University Belfast
Value awarded: £9,179.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
There has been increased political attention to misogyny – the hatred of women and girls – in contemporary society. However, despite both increased prevalence of, and attention to, misogyny, there remains limited understanding of its violent manifestations. This research will, firstly, set out a working definition of violent misogyny (VM) and secondly, from a grassroots perspective, analyse the causes of, and potential solutions to, VM.
Through examining the lived experiences of VM across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, this research will create an educational database that details what VM is, what it can look like, and resources to tackle this problem. Bringing together academics, activists, policymakers, and politicians, on both sides of the border, the project will work with key stakeholders to formulate policy recommendations to counteract VM. This project will tie directly into the Northern Ireland Executive’s 2024-2027 Strategic Framework to end violence against women and girls.
Professor Dinusha Mendis
SRG2526\262276
Co-applicant(s): Dr Rossana Ducato
Project Title: "The Imitation Game”: A Comparative Study of Digital Replicas and the Law - Opportunities and Challenges
Bournemouth University
Value awarded: £9,173.44
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Earlier this year, Scarlett Johansson warned about the “misuse of AI” after a deepfake video showed her and other Jewish celebrities sending a message of protest to the disgraced Kanye West. Deepfakes, or ‘digital replicas’, are used to create convincing image, audio and video hoaxes, often without consent and for exploitative purposes. The technology is advancing rapidly, and policy initiatives are emerging worldwide to address the most pressing concerns. In the EU, the issue has been partially tackled through the AI Act and the DSA. Japan has recognised a right of publicity and currently considering new interventions to protect voice actors. The USA has just introduced a Take it Down Act. However, the UK is lagging behind. Learning lessons from a comparative analysis, this project will explore the legal implications of deepfakes, bringing together a broad range of stakeholders from UK, EU, Japan and USA to identify the way forward.
Dr Giulia Palazzolo
SRG2526\261289
Project Title: The evolution of syntactic hierarchy
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,360.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Hierarchy (i.e. the embedding of linguistic units within higher-order structures) is a key feature of human syntax, but we currently lack a satisfactory account of its evolution. My project will fill this lacuna, by providing a novel and empirically informed account of the emergence of hierarchical structure in human syntax from capacities similar to those present in extant non-human animals. Using philosophical tools, and combining evidence from comparative psychology, linguistics and neurobiology, this project will provide, specifically: (1) an account of the origins of hierarchical human syntax from bounded forms of animal hierarchical cognition and (2) an incrementalist account of the emergence of hierarchical processing.
Dr Annayah Prosser
SRG2526\261796
Project Title: Moving forward by looking back? The Impact of Neo-Folklore Festivals on Social and Environmental Connection
University of Bath
Value awarded: £9,994.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
British society has become fractured and bitterly divided in recent years. For many years, there have been calls to reclaim a national ‘English’ identity, creating a more hopeful and collegial national identity that can be celebrated by all members of UK society. This project aims to understand how more positive visions of national and local identity can be fostered among a community through an in-depth investigation of a local festival: the Bradford-on-Avon Green Man Festival. This festival is steeped in local tradition and community, yet it is only seven years old. The festival brings over 10,000 attendees to the town, to engage in dance, performance and seasonal traditions. This project investigates the impact of this event on the local community. Through an in-depth audio-visual ethnography, co-production workshops and field interviews, this project helps us to understand the dynamics of neo-folklore festivals, and their impact on social and environmental connection.
Dr David Roberts
SRG2526\262328
Co-applicant(s): Mr Héctor Mangas, Dr Matthew Harley
Project Title: Do multiple diacritics trigger visual crowding and inhibit word identification? An orthography experiment in Yoruba (Nigeria)
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £6,078.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
We will run an experiment in Nigeria to investigate the effect of visual crowding on diacritics in the Yoruba orthography, which has an exceptionally high diacritic density. We will investigate whether the crowding effect that has been widely demonstrated in other languages to occur between letters also occurs between diacritics, and the density threshold beyond which crowding is triggered. If the inhibiting effect of crowding can be proved experimentally in Yoruba it will have considerable repercussions for orthography developers in other tone languages in Africa and beyond.
Dr Wendy Ross
SRG2526\261930
Project Title: More than a feeling? Insight and illusory truthiness
London Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £8,703.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
When people decide if something is true without having all the facts, they rely on feelings. One potential feeling could be the feeling of “Aha"– that sudden, satisfying feeling when everything clicks and feels right. The "Aha" moment makes people more likely to believe incorrect statements they encounter soon after but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Research in misinformation points to one potential explanation, it is possible that this is caused by the feeling of an increase in processing fluency when the solution becomes clear after a time of impasse. An increase in processing fluency has also been theorised to underlie the illusory truth effect, a robust phenomenon whereby belief in an incorrect statement increases after repetition. This project will be the first to combine these two domains. Doing so will provide a rich set of new research avenues and more informed interventions to increase people’s skill at assessing truthiness.
Dr Alexander Sergeant
SRG2526\260428
Project Title: The Herbert Brenon Project
University of Westminster
Value awarded: £7,262.50
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Herbert Brenon (1880–1958) was a pioneering but now largely forgotten filmmaker whose career spanned Europe and the United States during the silent and early sound eras. He directed major productions for Fox, Paramount and Universal, helping to both define and shape the large-scale feature filmmaking practices that have characterised Hollywood film production throughout the twenty and twenty first centuries. Yet, despite his influence, Brenon’s work has been marginalised due to his focus on fantasy and spectacle rather than the so-called 'prestige' genres traditionally favoured by critics. I am writing the first academic monograph on Herbert Brenon, recovering his contribution to film history and reassessing his work through the lenses of gender, colonialism and transnationalism. This British Academy grant will fund three research trips to Jamaica, Los Angeles and Italy to gather essential archival and oral history material for that book, which will be published by Bloomsbury in 2028.
Dr Marlee Tichenor
SRG2526\260980
Project Title: Producing Parents and Datifying Babies: Understanding App-Mediated Childrearing and Parenthood
University of Edinburgh
Value awarded: £7,466.80
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project aims to understand new parents’ use of “baby apps” – mobile applications that track the tangible minutia of early babyhood, like feeds, dirty diapers, sleep and its lack, and so on. It will use qualitative methods to interrogate the meanings that parents attach to these apps and the data they produce about their babies, while also attending to the ways that these apps are situated in larger conversations about biometric self-making, prescriptive advice about “good parenting,” and critical engagements with the production, storage, and use of personal quantified data. To interrogate these issues, I will conduct qualitative interviews and focus groups with parents in Scotland and Northern England, digital ethnography of my own experience with the apps, and attend to conversations about the apps on public online forums. In parallel, I will conduct interviews with research teams working on these apps, document analysis, and literature review.
Dr Anna Tuckett
SRG2526\260534
Project Title: An ethnographic study of UK immigration advice
Brunel University London
Value awarded: £7,909.50
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
Immigration systems are universally characterised by their opacity and complexity. Professional advisers play a crucial role in assisting migrants in their navigation of labyrinthine bureaucracies and enabling the functioning of immigration systems. Focusing on the United Kingdom, where assistance from a professional adviser is essential for most basic immigration applications, this project will investigate the forms of knowledge and practices that constitute “good” immigration advice and will examine how these are acquired and reproduced. Closely examining advice practices, the project will explore the extent to which top-down policies can be shaped and challenged by advisers’ technocratic expertise. Paperwork has been central to studies that analyse how migrants navigate immigration regimes. This project will pay attention to the ways in which advice practices are being shaped by the UK’s recent transition to a digitalised immigration system.
Dr Lauren Wilcox
SRG2526\261616
Co-applicant(s): Dr Kandida Purnell
Project Title: Land and Flesh: Corporeal Formations in Global Politics and (In)Security
University of Cambridge
Value awarded: £8,395.00
Funded by: Leverhulme Trust
This project explores corporeal formations through interdisciplinary lenses to consider the epistemological and political possibilities opened up by writing the politics of security and violence through the heterogeneous configurations of 'land' and 'flesh'. Inspired by Indigenous feminist formulations of 'cuerpo-territorio' that challenge the modern/colonial relations of sovereignty, territory, and body that structures 'security', this project proposes a reformulation of ‘the land’, not as backdrop, but lively site of global politics. Simultaneously, inspired by Black feminism, this project engages the grammars of ‘the flesh’ as a frame for the embodied politics of global order and (in)security that is materially and symbolically indebted to the practices of enslavement and colonialism. This project seeks a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, as well as cross-regional and cross-cultural work to advance a radical conceptual-vernacular shift in thinking about security. The outputs will be a journal special issue, an edited volume, and two journal articles.
Wellcome
Dr Birgit Altrichter
SRG2526\260694
Co-applicant(s): Dr Valentina Pitardi, Professor Maria Laura Di Domenico
Project Title: Paradoxical Tensions Emerging with Conversational Agents Used by Older Adults
University of Surrey
Value awarded: £9,971.69
Funded by: Wellcome
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used increasingly across industries and user groups. However, healthy over-65s are often overlooked in technology design. We will fill this gap by examining paradoxical tensions between empowerment and disempowerment created by AI conversational agents. We employ a mix of qualitative case studies, interviews, and a quantitative study, collating views and evidence from health policy representatives, technology firms, and those in later life using conversational agents. Based on our results we will conceptualise the paradox of (dis)empowerment through technology that holds benefits and can simultaneously be accompanied by feelings of isolation, manipulation, loss of control, and reduced autonomy in the healthy over-65s. We develop recommendations for policy makers and technology companies to minimize potential ethical risks while safeguarding benefits of AI-powered conversational agents for this user group. This research holds significant wider impacts in line with several UN sustainable development goals (e.g., reducing inequalities related to age).
Dr Liliane Binego
SRG2526\260426
Co-applicant(s): Dr Julia Wright
Project Title: Deconstructing food security vulnerability: Insights into Resilience Among Subsistence Farmers and Fresh Produce Traders at the Rubavu Cross-Border Market (Rwanda).
Coventry University
Value awarded: £9,855.00
Funded by: Wellcome
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed systemic fragilities across societies worldwide, revealing vulnerabilities linked to complex unsustainability while community-led crisis responses remain underrepresented in mainstream narratives. This study explores how communities facing persistent vulnerabilities perceive risk and build resilience amid overlapping crises. Focusing on adaptation to individual hazards, the study aims to inform crisis management policy and practice. Building on a pilot case study initiated in Rwanda during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, we employ participatory and creative methods to explore how communities understand hazards, develop adaptive strategies, and sustain livelihoods – particularly subsistence farming and fresh produce trading. Two workshops in Rubavu and Kigali (Rwanda) will provide platforms for key stakeholders to co-generate insights into crisis response, climate adaptation, and resilience building. Through international collaboration, the project enhances the capacity of Lead and Co-Lead applicants while expanding research networks in this critical field of resilience in food systems.
Dr Shun Chen
SRG2526\260242
Project Title: Intersectionality in Higher Education: Transitions and Transformations of Sexual Minority International Students
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,890.22
Funded by: Wellcome
The challenges international students face in higher education are well recognised. Yet little is known about sexual minority international students, whose experiences range from increased freedom to deeper marginalisation. This project examines how sexual minority international students adapt during the transition to higher education, using a mixed-methods longitudinal design. Quantitative analysis will advance understanding of how students’ psychological factors interact with shifting external environments to affect their wellbeing and functioning. Qualitative data will provide detailed insights into how these students experience their sense of self, relationships, and environments over nine months. By integrating individual–social and temporal–contextual dimensions, this research advances an intersectional understanding that goes beyond sexuality and international status, illustrating how personal and contextual dynamics shape sexual minority international students’ adaptation and potential transformative growth. This project will produce academic outputs, workshops, and a policy brief to inform intersectionally inclusive policies, practices, and support systems for diverse student populations.
Dr Man lai Cheung
SRG2526\262609
Co-applicant(s): Dr Maher Georges Elmashhara, Dr Oguzhan Essiz
Project Title: From Expertise to Affinity: How Influencer Power Shapes Medical Tourism Behaviours
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £8,050.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Public healthcare systems such as the NHS face increasing delays for elective treatments, prompting many patients to seek faster and more affordable options abroad through medical tourism. Despite its advantages, adoption remains limited due to uncertainty about quality, safety, and credibility. Social media influencers have emerged as key opinion leaders capable of reducing such uncertainty, yet existing findings on their effectiveness remain inconclusive. Drawing on social power theory, this research examines how expert and referent power, in combination with influencer type (micro versus macro), reduce uncertainty, and thereby driving behavioural intention toward medical tourism. Three sequential studies will be conducted: two online experiments using UK participants recruited via Prolific, and a field-based Facebook A/B test to capture actual engagement through click-through rates. The findings will advance understanding of power–influencer congruence in high-risk health contexts and provide practical guidance for optimizing influencer strategies in medical tourism communication.
Professor Eddy Davelaar
SRG2526\261827
Co-applicant(s): Professor Almuth McDowall, Professor Dorina Cadar
Project Title: Testing the feasibility of personalised health guidance
Birkbeck, University of London
Value awarded: £9,937.80
Funded by: Wellcome
This feasibility study aims to investigate whether health guidance tailored to the communication needs of individuals with communication challenges, such as those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, enhances engagement, confidence, motivation, and adherence. Many individuals with these conditions experience barriers in understanding and acting upon generic public health guidance, especially during infectious disease outbreaks. Building on our previous work using the Health Belief Model (HBM), we will co-create and test adapted guidance formats to determine their effectiveness. The project consists of three phases: a survey to explore initial preferences; co-creation workshops with people with lived experience; and an experimental survey testing guidance formats across HBM dimensions. Results will inform a scalable framework for personalised public health communication, with the ultimate goal of supporting autonomy and well-being in vulnerable populations.
Dr Robert Dempsey
SRG2526\260002
Co-applicant(s): Dr Andrew Denovan, Professor Neil Dagnall
Project Title: Identifying the perceived social norms implicated in British parents' vaccine uptake decisions and hesitancy towards the Whooping Cough and Chickenpox vaccines.
Manchester Metropolitan University
Value awarded: £9,956.02
Funded by: Wellcome
Vaccinations are vital for preventing serious illnesses, especially in young children and pregnant mothers. However, vaccine hesitancy remains a significant public health challenge, contributing to lower vaccine uptake and rising cases of preventable diseases like Whooping Cough and Chickenpox in the UK. Parents play a key role in childhood vaccination decisions, yet many underestimate how many other parents choose to vaccinate. This project explores how social norms—beliefs about what others do—influence British parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children. Focusing on Chickenpox and Whooping Cough vaccines, we will examine parents’ perceptions of vaccine uptake, hesitancy, and related beliefs. By modelling how these perceptions predict vaccination intentions over time, we aim to better understand the role of social norms in vaccine decision-making. The findings will inform future interventions that use social norms feedback to encourage higher vaccination rates, improve public health and avoid preventable serious illnesses.
Dr Puteri Fauzi
SRG2526\261234
Co-applicant(s): Dr Beth Nolan
Project Title: Breaking the Housing–Health Cycle: Risk-Sharing Approaches to Proactive Maintenance for People with Cognitive Disabilities
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £9,931.85
Funded by: Wellcome
Across the United Kingdom, many homes quietly damage their occupants’ health. In the North of England—where ageing housing, fuel poverty, and health inequalities intersect—the effects are especially severe for people with cognitive disabilities and their carers. This project asks: what if maintaining a home were treated as a form of healthpromotion? It will develop a Risk-Sharing for Healthy Homes Framework (RSHFF), a financial and governance model that shifts housing maintenance from reactive repair to proactive prevention through collaboration between housing providers, insurers, and health agencies. Drawing on UK policy and comparative insights from Spain and Switzerland, the framework will ensure timely repairs, reduce energy inefficiencies, and improve living conditions for tenants living with cognitive disabilities and their carers. By integrating health and housing responsibilities, the research could significantly reduce maintenance costs, enhance health and wellbeing, and generate long-term savings for both the housing and health sectors across the UK.
Professor Dulini Fernando
SRG2526\261253
Project Title: Sustaining a career amid chronic illness: a qualitative study of employees in the UK
Aston University
Value awarded: £9,480.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Chronically ill employees (CIEs) are a fast growing minority group. They, however, remain disadvantaged in work. While protected by the Equality Act 2010 to some extent, employers have little understanding of the complex unpredictable nature of chronic illnesses and the needs and aspirations of CIEs, and/or are reluctant to offer flexible roles. CIEs are slow to exercise agency to negotiate required adjustments on time. Drawing on sustainable career theory and temporality, my pilot study will develop knowledge and guidelines to support the career sustainability of CIEs. My research design combines in-depth interviews with 20 CIEs in the UK, with drawings that they create of their past, present and anticipated future experiences of employment. I aim to advance career sustainability theory by combining spoken and written accounts to reveal how the temporal negotiation of past, present and anticipated future selves, facilitates sustaining a career under conditions of uncertainty.
Dr David Frayman
SRG2526\262219
Project Title: Is wider diagnosis of autism helping children and young people?
London School of Economics and Political Science
Value awarded: £9,987.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Autism diagnoses among children and young people (CYP) in England have been growing rapidly, with an estimated 3% now diagnosed. Yet, we lack evidence on whether CYP on the autistic spectrum are benefiting from everything that comes with a diagnosis. This project evaluates autism diagnosis as an intervention, with both potential benefits and harms. Using a newly linked national dataset that connects health and education records for 20 million individuals in England, it asks how being diagnosed as autistic affects CYP’s healthcare use, school attendance, attainment and access to support. It will apply quasi-experimental methods from economics to estimate the causal influence of diagnosis. It will also provide evidence on which groups of children benefit most (or least) from being diagnosed and how consistent diagnosis is across the country. This evidence can help target assessment and support more effectively, contributing to addressing current crises in autism assessment and school provision.
Dr Samanthika Gallage
SRG2526\260047
Co-applicant(s): Dr Roberto Mansilla, Dr Patrico Sanchez Campos
Project Title: Poverty amidst abundance – Tackling energy poverty in the UK through a marketplace literacy intervention
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,506.84
Funded by: Wellcome
Energy poverty is a multifaceted global challenge affecting an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide, creating significant barriers to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 3 on Good Health and Well-Being and 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy. Contrary to common perceptions, energy poverty is not confined to developing economies but is also a serious concern in high income countries such as the United Kingdom, where nearly one in five households are affected. While marketing scholarship has begun to address such complex social issues, much of it remains limited to maximum of one or two stakeholder perspectives and a single method. However, tackling energy poverty involves a wide range of actors, including consumers, policymakers, charities, and businesses, each facing unique trade-offs. This project addresses this gap by exploring how multiple stakeholders tackle the issue and manage trade-offs through a multi-method approach. Consequently, a marketplace literacy programme will be piloted as one sustainable solution.
Dr Kate Gooch
SRG2526\260073
Project Title: Murder and the Mind: Prison Homicide, Mental Health, and Justice
University of Bath
Value awarded: £9,986.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Prison homicide is an increasing but little researched problem. This ground-breaking project answers an urgent need to understand fatal and near-fatal prison violence at a time where the number of homicides and serious assaults in English and Welsh prisons is rising (Ministry of Justice, 2025). Specifically, this project analyses the prevalence of mental illness and personality disorder amongst perpetrators of homicidal and near-fatal prison violence. This research sits at the interface between secure psychiatric care and prison custody, excavating how, when and why prisoners move to (and from) secure hospital in the aftermath of a violent assault and addressing questions of power, justice, and human flourishing. This qualitative project is an international first; representing the first attempt to undertake qualitative research with prison homicide assailants detained in secure psychiatric hospital. In so doing, it seeks to deepen our understanding of the individual, social, penological and environmental causes of prison homicide.
Dr Ava Green
SRG2526\262057
Co-applicant(s): Dr Claire Hart
Project Title: Unseen vulnerabilities, unseen risks: vulnerable narcissism and harm-related behaviour in women
City St George's, University of London
Value awarded: £4,675.00
Funded by: Wellcome
This study explores a less visible form of narcissism known as vulnerable narcissism, which involves emotional sensitivity, insecurity, and difficulties managing feelings. While the more familiar grandiose type is linked with confidence and dominance commonly portrayed by men, vulnerable narcissism is often seen in women and can be easily overlooked in existing assessments. This may hide important risk factors for self-harm and aggression. The research will recruit women online who report past experiences of self-harm, aggression, or contact with the criminal justice system. Using short, validated questionnaires, the study will examine how vulnerable narcissism relates to aggression directed at the self and others. The findings will provide early evidence on whether this personality pattern increases the risk of harmful behaviour and will support the development of more gender-sensitive approaches to mental health assessment, intervention, and future research in both community and forensic settings.
Dr Sonya Hanna
SRG2526\260863
Co-applicant(s): Dr Sara Parry, Dr Graeme Pearce
Project Title: Nudging for nature: reducing single-use litter through smart behavioural design
Bangor University
Value awarded: £9,795.72
Funded by: Wellcome
Branded as an environmental disaster single-use plastic and the littering and disposal of single-use items is a major contributor to climate change and land pollution. Anti-littering campaigns have been common since the 20th century; however, the continued presence of litter shows this approach’s lack of success. An individual’s behavioural intentions are intrinsically linked to drive for the greater good. However, there is a significant difference between what people intend to do and what they do. This gap can be caused by factors such as a preference for immediate gratification over long-term benefits, ingrained habits, external barriers like convenience, and psychological biases. This highlights the need for actions that go beyond simple awareness-raising.
We aim to mitigate (if not prevent) the problem of single-use plastic pollution through the engagement of citizen science, as well as media and policymakers, to positively influence individual long-term consumer behaviour.
Dr Craig Hedge
SRG2526\260729
Project Title: What can models of choice reaction time tell us about age-related slowing?
Aston University
Value awarded: £9,922.50
Funded by: Wellcome
Evidence accumulation models are popular for understanding individual and group differences in behaviour on reaction time tasks. In ageing research, these models have offered an alternative to historical interpretations of slower reaction times in older adults reflecting reduced information processing ability. Instead, modelling indicates that slower perceptual-motor processes and a more cautious response strategy are the sources of age-related slowing. Before we act upon these conclusions, we must first test some critical underlying assumptions. In this project I will administer a battery of tasks to a large group of younger and older adults. I will use this data to test for measurement invariance, which is a set of assumptions supporting our ability to make meaningful group comparisons. The results of this project will either validate the conclusions drawn from evidence accumulation models if the assumptions are supported, or they will identify important caveats and boundary conditions for their interpretation.
Dr Charlotte Kerner
SRG2526\260040
Co-applicant(s): Dr Oliver Gibson, Dr Adam Cocks
Project Title: Weight loss injectables, body image, and physical activity behaviours: a mixed method study of UK-based GLP-1 users
Brunel University London
Value awarded: £9,823.90
Funded by: Wellcome
There has been a rapid uptake in the use of Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) medications in the UK since they were first approved for weight loss in 2023. Whilst these medications are highly effective for weight loss, little is known about the impact on social, psychological, and behavioural outcomes. As such, this study proposes to comprehensively investigate how GLP-1 weight loss treatment influences physical activity motivation, physical activity behaviours, and body image. The proposed project is a mixed-method study comprising of two phases. In phase one, 200 participants will complete online questionnaires exploring their physical activity motivation, physical activity behaviours, and body image prior to (retrospective) and during (current) treatment. Phase two will involve conducting and thematically analysing interviews with 20 current GLP-1 users to discuss experiences of GLP-1 use and relationships with body image and physical activity. Results will inform public health messaging and provide guidelines for clinical support.
Dr Feni Kontogianni
SRG2526\260297
Co-applicant(s): Dr Deborah Crossland, Dr Celine van Golde
Project Title: Improving evidential reporting for witnesses and victims of recurring abuse: effects of alcohol and repeated events
University of Winchester
Value awarded: £9,683.60
Funded by: Wellcome
In 2023/24, an estimated 2.3 million adults (1.6 million women) experienced repeated domestic abuse in England and Wales. Many incidents occur when one or both individuals have been drinking alcohol, yet research so far has focused on recall for a single event such as sexual assault or theft. Little is known about how sober adults remember and report repeated, emotional and stressful events or how alcohol intoxication influences memory for such experiences. The proposed experiment will investigate memory for repeated domestic abuse incidents, comparing recall between sober and intoxicated participants. As interviewees are required to report instances with high prevision, this research will also test evidence-based interview techniques to improve reporting detail and accuracy. Findings will advance theoretical understanding of memory during encoding and retrieval, and enhance interviewing practices to support evidential reporting for vulnerable individuals in domestic abuse, intimate-partner violence, and human trafficking cases.
Dr Francesca Lanz
SRG2526\261151
Project Title: Visitor Responses to Mind Museums in Adaptively Reused Former Mental Asylums: A UK-Italy Comparison
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £9,988.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Despite growing public awareness of mental health, stigma and discrimination remain widespread, limiting recovery and affecting individuals and families. However, data also show that interventions that support dialogue and reflection can help reduce stigma. This study examines mind museums—mental health museums housed in former asylums—as potential sites for challenging prejudices and promoting awareness and well-being. Through comparative fieldwork and visitor studies at UK sites (Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Crichton Heritage Centre) and Italian museums (Museo Laboratorio della Mente in Rome and MAPP - Museo d'Arte Paolo Pini in Milan), the project explores whether museum visits prompt critical reflection on mental health. The study focuses on museums' display and design and their relationship with surrounding estates, notably adaptive reuse as public parks.
Using photo-elicitation and narrative methodologies, the research will produce one open-access journal article and a Rome practitioner workshop, supporting knowledge exchange and impactful mental health heritage programming internationally.
Professor Melie Le Roy
SRG2526\260075
Project Title: Feasible study to track entheseal changes in subadult anatomy
Bournemouth University
Value awarded: £9,618.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Child labour is a globally significant issue, affecting as many as one in ten children worldwide (IPEC). Yet its origins, underlying social mechanisms, and, crucially, its impact on biological child development remain poorly understood. This project introduces an innovative approach that will, for the first time, allow us to identify and quantify the active role of children within the economic systems of past populations. We aim to develop a novel protocol combining medical imaging and the biological study of child remains to assess children’s economic participation, addressing a previously unexplored dimension of childhood in past societies. This proposal will establish the first steps of the protocol through a feasibility study on a sailor population from Plymouth, where both occupational activities and relevant biological data are already available. The focus of this phase will be on developing the medical imaging component, laying the groundwork for a robust methodology with transformative potential.
Dr Huidi Lu
SRG2526\260306
Project Title: The role of AI in supporting emotional labour and the impact on employee mental health
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,400.00
Funded by: Wellcome
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into workplaces, its influence extends beyond tangible task performance to how employees experience their jobs. While prior studies have explored AI’s role in boosting productivity and creativity, its impact on mental health remains underexplored. This proposed research investigates how AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) might alleviate communication-related stress, such as the pressure to maintain clarity and professionalism, and support well-being. Besides the main effect, I plan to explore two key areas: (1) how individuals with varying communication abilities, including neurodivergent employees with autism, ADHD or social anxiety, interact with AI, and how disadvantaged users can be better supported through inclusive design principles; and (2) how organizational factors, such as workplace culture or job autonomy, moderate the relationship between AI use and mental health. The findings aim to inform more inclusive and context-sensitive approaches to AI implementation that promote psychological well-being in diverse workplace settings.
Dr Lucia Macchia
SRG2526\262090
Project Title: Sleep and pain around clock changes: A natural experiment of the Daylight Saving Time in the United Kingdom
City St George's, University of London
Value awarded: £8,085.00
Funded by: Wellcome
The relationship between sleep and pain is well established and bidirectional: poor sleep increases pain, and pain disrupts sleep. Yet, evidence on how sleep disruption from national clock changes affects pain is lacking. This study addresses this gap by exploiting a natural experiment created by the Daylight Saving Time (DST) clock change in the United Kingdom. It will examine population-level variations in bodily pain around the autumn clock change in October 2026, when clocks are set back one hour. This transition induces an exogenous shift in sleep and circadian patterns across the population, offering a unique opportunity to test the short-term effects of altered sleep on pain. By leveraging this natural experiment, the study aims to provide causal evidence on the relationship between sleep and pain, advancing understanding of the behavioural and physiological mechanisms that underlie pain regulation.
Dr Ron Mahabir
SRG2526\260656
Co-applicant(s): Professor Levi Gahman, Dr Olga Gkountouna
Project Title: Empowering Youth for Climate Resilience in Kingston, Jamaica: A Participatory Approach
University of Liverpool
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Jamaica faces escalating climate hazards, including hurricanes, flooding, coastal erosion, and heat stress, disproportionately affecting young people, who comprise nearly 28% of the population. Despite their visibility in global climate activism, youth perspectives remain marginal in formal policy processes. This project focuses on Kingston, where rapid urbanisation intersects with climate vulnerability and socio-economic inequalities, to empower youth in co-creating climate resilience strategies. Using a participatory action research framework, the initiative combines participatory mapping, Photovoice, and narrative storytelling in a three-day workshop for 20–30 youth. Outputs will include digital maps, photo exhibits, narratives, and a youth-informed policy brief. A six-month online follow-up, including a survey, will assess medium-term impact and sustained engagement. The project establishes a replicable, youth-centred model for embedding lived experiences into climate policy, strengthening inclusive governance, fostering climate justice, and cultivating a new generation of climate leaders across Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Dr Farhana Malik
SRG2526\262228
Co-applicant(s): Dr Natalie De Mello
Project Title: Inclusive Immersion: Cultural Perspectives on Decompression and Wellbeing in Virtual Reality Environments
Swansea University
Value awarded: £9,251.57
Funded by: Wellcome
This project investigates how immersive environments can support general decompression, that can be used in multiple sectors and settings around the world to aid wellbeing and recovery in culturally inclusive ways. Utilising VR headsets and immersive rooms we will design and pilot immersive “decompression” experiences, drawing on arts and humanities research in cultural wellbeing, sensory design, and experience narrative. The project explores how cultural perspectives shape experiences of stress and relaxation. After scoping technological capabilities and collecting primary data from study participants from diverse cultural backgrounds and with an EDIB-informed background, we will develop an Inclusive Immersive Decompression Framework, offering design principles and prototype examples. Tested using physiological (HR, BP) and psychological (Perceived Stress Scale) measures and qualitative feedback. The aim is to advance understanding of cultural inclusivity in digital decompression design to provide a foundation for future interdisciplinary and applied research in decompression health technologies.
Dr Karen Morash
SRG2526\260785
Co-applicant(s): Dr Jessica Rea
Project Title: Sharing Experiences of Homelessness in Young People Through Devised Performance Practice
Rose Bruford College
Value awarded: £9,910.80
Funded by: Wellcome
This project enables young people to explore their experiences of homelessness, and share those experiences with others, using the techniques of devised performance. This involves a five-day pilot workshop with three young adults (18-25) who have experienced homelessness, who are trained to be co-creators of a devised, short performance. Drawing on narratives created from 17 hours of recorded interview material, and seven hours of workshops from a participatory research project run in 2024 (Rea et al., 2024), the workshop uses devising techniques such as improvisation, movement exercises, discussion, reflection and writing. Participants develop skills in translating experience into a short performance, and facilitation skills. The performance allows for feedback from spectators on how effectively the co-creators’ experiences are communicated. This work serves as a testing-ground for a planned larger project to develop a full-length production, and related resources to increase public awareness of the experiences of homeless young people.
Dr Victoria Opara
SRG2526\260260
Project Title: Cognitive and Emotional Costs of Identity Regulation Among Ethnically Diverse Early Career Professionals
Bath Spa University
Value awarded: £9,214.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Professions in the UK often promote values like competence, meritocracy, and individual achievement, reflecting white and Western (WEIRD) norms. These norms can marginalise those who do not align, posing challenges for ethnically diverse professionals in negotiating their professional identity. Research shows that professionals often face cognitive and emotional strain, such as stress and anxiety, when trying to conform to dominant standards; with this being seen most keenly in the early career stages. This project aims to explore differences in reported stress, anxiety, and social dysfunction between: (a) ethnically diverse individuals (Global Majority groups, making up most of the world’s population i.e. Black, Arab, Asian, Indigenous, and others) and (b) white professionals (of European descent, including, and beyond, Anglo, Celtic, and Nordic). Using 120 survey responses categorised by ethnic identity, the study will assess variations in cognitive and emotional well-being, examining how identity regulation affects early career professionals within UK professions.
Dr Joe Parslow
SRG2526\261668
Project Title: Developing Drag: Supporting Drag Performers through Queer Research
Rose Bruford College
Value awarded: £9,375.00
Funded by: Wellcome
This research addresses the lack of career development support for established drag performers. Whilst there are extensive opportunities for those new to drag, this support is not continued for established performers, limiting drag’s sustainability as a career. This project addresses this by supporting established performers to develop full-length/long-form performances, markers of success in drag and cabaret, through workshops and mentoring leading to a pitch event with producers and directors at The Soho Theatre in London. Through this, this project contributes to drag studies as a growing academic field, addressing a current lack of attention about how to sustain this historically working class and popular performance form through understanding more about how skills in drag are taught and learnt, and advocating for greater institutional support for drag at times of social and economic precarity. Through disseminating findings in academic and non-academic spaces, this project addresses an underserved yet vibrant drag community.
Dr Natalia Stanulewicz-Buckley
SRG2526\262412
Project Title: Towards positivity: evaluation of a novel, student-informed, and theory-based wellbeing intervention focusing on modification of cognitive interpretation bias
Aston University
Value awarded: £9,950.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Declining wellbeing among university students is a growing concern, given the limited support resources available. Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I) intervention aims to improve wellbeing by reducing negative interpretation bias. Even though it shows promise among certain groups (e.g., clinical samples, adolescents), students remain a group where the potential of CBM-I is evident but not tested extensively. This stems due to unavailability of CBM-I intervention targeting biases regarding student life specifically, when specificity of CBM-I seems crucial for its effectiveness. This project aims at testing effectiveness and feasibility of a novel, student-informed and theory-based wellbeing intervention (CBM-I), which should provide rich data for evaluation of this intervention. We will examine whether the intervention we developed (using insights gathered via student interviews) is effective (whether it reduces negative affect, enhances positive affect, improves state wellbeing, and decreases negative interpretation bias) among students undergoing it, when compared with a neutral condition.
Dr Charumita Vasudev
SRG2526\261518
Project Title: Temporary Childbirth Migration, Gendered Birth-Rituals and Experiences of Pre and Post Natal Care: A Socio-Culturally Informed Approach to Maternal and Child Health Outcomes
Independent Researcher
Value awarded: £9,790.00
Funded by: Wellcome
In many South Asian societies, including India, pregnant women traditionally migrate to their natal homes during the third trimester and stay for a few months post-partum. While this practice offers emotional support and rest, it often disrupts the continuum of maternal healthcare provision during a critical period for monitoring and intervention. This study investigates the impact of temporary childbirth migration on maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes in two rural districts of Kashmir where maternal mortality remains high and underreported. Using a qualitative longitudinal design, the study follows thirty pregnant Muslim women across three phases-from late pregnancy to six months post-partum, to understand the variations in experiences of care and impact of disruption on MCH outcomes. The study pairs interviews of pregnant women with ASHA workers and other key stakeholders to generate context-specific insights that strengthen healthcare-service continuity for temporary childbirth migrants and improve overall MCH outcomes in the region.
Dr Agnese Venskus
SRG2526\262258
Co-applicant(s): Dr Sandhiran Patchay
Project Title: Cognitive, Neural and Emotional Mechanisms Underlying Auditory Hallucinations.
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: Wellcome
Research on schizophrenia has identified alterations in cognitive, neural, and emotional processes such as sense of agency, temporal sensitivity, alpha oscillations, and emotion regulation. However, it remains unclear whether these differences specifically underlie auditory hallucinations or reflect broader features of schizophrenia. This project addresses this question by comparing individuals with schizophrenia who experience auditory hallucinations to clairaudient psychics, who report similar voice-hearing experiences without clinical symptoms. The study investigates cognitive (agency and temporal sensitivity), neural (alpha oscillations), and emotional (emotion regulation) mechanisms using behavioural tasks, EEG recordings at rest and during auditory experiences, and emotion regulation measures including the Late Positive Potential (LPP) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Statistical analyses will examine group differences and relationships between self-reported and neural indicators. By isolating processes linked specifically to voice hearing, this research will enhance understanding of auditory hallucinations and inform future therapeutic approaches.
Dr Anica Waldendorf
SRG2526\260770
Co-applicant(s): Dr Mirko Wegemann
Project Title: The Consequences of Banning Gender-Inclusive Language
University of Oxford
Value awarded: £9,774.00
Funded by: Wellcome & DSIT
Despite widespread support for gender equality, public opinion on measures addressing existing inequalities has increasingly become polarized. This project investigates how exposure to anti-LGBTIQ policy affects citizens’ acceptance of such policies and attitudes towards gender equality. We argue that anti-LGBTIQ legislation is not just a targeted form of exclusion but may be part of a broader rollback of gender equality. We use gender-inclusive language as a case study, given the recent implementation of bans on gender-inclusive language targeting non-binary people in multiple countries. We test our expectations with a survey experiment in Germany (n=3900). Participants are randomly exposed to a fictitious work environment with or without an anti-GIL policy and varying levels of compliance with the policy in their social environment. We seek to shed light on the consequences of the politicisation of socio-cultural issues, by testing how regulatory policy frameworks can lead to behavioural and attitudinal shifts.
British Accounting and Finance Association
Dr Miao Cynthia Gong
SRG2526\261354
Co-applicant(s): Professor Huainan Zhao
Project Title: Diffusion of green or greenwashing? Tracing Corporate Accountability Through Business Network Intelligence
Loughborough University
Value awarded: £9,997.50
Funded by: British Accounting and Finance Association
Amid growing concerns about corporate greenwashing, this project investigates how sustainability claims, whether misleading or overstated, emerge and diffuse through UK corporate networks. Despite rising levels of ESG disclosure, a persistent disconnect between firms’ green narratives and actual practices undermines corporate accountability and regulatory oversight. Greenwashing is not always isolated; it may spill over through corporate networks such as supply chains or strategic alliances. Leveraging recent advances in Large Language Models and advanced embedding techniques, this project will construct a novel UK-focused greenwashing dataset combining firms’ green claims (e.g. sustainability reports) with observed firm behaviours and inter-firm relationships that may facilitate the diffusion of greenwashing. It aims to identify patterns of greenwashing and trace their propagation through business networks. The project contributes to policy debates on sustainable disclosure regulation and investment taxonomies, offering timely insights for UK regulators (e.g. FCA), investors, and policymakers seeking to enhance ESG transparency and accountability.
Journal of Moral Education Trust
Professor Clarissa Smith
SRG2526\260998
Co-applicant(s): Dr Silvia Rodeschini
Project Title: The Pornography Problem: Exploring Moral Regulation and Digital Citizenship in the UK and Italy
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £9,979.50
Funded by: Journal of Moral Education Trust
This project examines how governments in the United Kingdom and Italy are seeking to regulate online pornography, and what these efforts reveal about changing ideas of sexuality, morality, and citizenship in Europe today. Although such policies are usually presented as measures to protect children and ensure online safety, they also reflect much older concerns about decency, family, and national identity. In the UK, new online safety laws continue a long history of regulating 'dangerous pictures', while in Italy, media regulation has evolved through European Union guidelines that emphasise child protection and moral responsibility. The project will analyse political debates, policy documents, and public campaigns, and bring together academics and activists in both countries to share insights. By comparing these different approaches, the research will provide a clearer understanding of how ideas of protection and morality shape digital governance, and will support more inclusive and balanced discussions about online media regulation.
Sino-British Fellowship Trust
Dr Yao Wang
SRG2526\261650
Co-applicant(s): Dr Miaomiao Zuo, Professor Kevin W. H. Tai
Project Title: Thriving in Multilingualism: Construction of the Multilingual Motivational Other/Self in Chinese EFL Teachers
Newcastle University
Value awarded: £9,963.00
Funded by: Sino-British Fellowship Trust & DSIT
Situated in Guangdong, Southeast China, a linguistically diverse region yet is dominant by official monolingual policies, this project seeks to explore reciprocal dynamics of teacher-student multilingual motivation in EFL education. Drawing on Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and the Douglas Fir Group (DFG) Framework, this study reconceptualises the Multilingual Motivational System (MMS) based on our prior research to bridge gaps between teacher-as-‘other’ motivators and student self-guided motivation, and translanguaging practices across micro-, meso- and macro-level contexts. Mixed methods will be employed, integrating etic (questionnaires, interviews) and emic (Multimodal Conversation Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) perspectives. This project is timely amid growing interest in multilingualism and translanguaging strategies to foster equitable and engaging language education, where motivational (mis)alignment remains underexplored. It bridges language policy and classroom practice through examining both sides of the learning relationship, advancing multilingual pedagogy, teacher development, and more inclusive EFL learning in China and beyond.
Dr Chao Zhang
SRG2526\261504
Co-applicant(s): Dr Yan Gao
Project Title: Strategic adaptation of emerging market firms to geopolitical forces: Evidence from Vietnam
Northumbria University
Value awarded: £9,819.42
Funded by: Sino-British Fellowship Trust & DSIT
This study examines how emerging market firms (EMFs) navigate the complex geopolitical tensions of the multipolar world. As globalisation fragments into competing political and economic blocs, some EMFs, for example, Vietnamese firms that rely on Chinese inputs while exporting to Western markets face a profound dilemma: maintaining efficiency through Chinese supply chains invites political scrutiny and trade restrictions, yet disengaging from China undermines cost competitiveness and production capacity. This research investigates how such EMFs balance these conflicting pressures through strategic adaptation, supply-chain reconfiguration, and corporate diplomacy. Employing a qualitative, interview-based design focused on firms in Vietnam and their Chinese subsidiaries, the study seeks to uncover how managers interpret geopolitical risks and translate them into organisational strategies. The findings will offer new insights into how firms from emerging economies sustain competitiveness and legitimacy amid escalating geopolitical turbulence.
Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
Dr Samuel Altmann
SRG2526\260003
Project Title: Identification and Estimation of Dynamic Purchasing Behaviour and Consumer Inventories of Storable Goods
Queen Mary University of London
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
Policy makers and regulators evaluate the competitiveness of markets to decide when to intervene on behalf of consumers. Evaluating competitiveness requires estimating how consumers alter their consumption in response to changes in prices. In this project I propose a new econometric approach to estimate this substitution behaviour in markets for storable goods (such as laundry detergent). In these markets, consumers can delay purchases, waiting for temporary price promotions, or stockpile goods when prices are low. Ignoring dynamic behaviour causes mismeasurement of substitution behaviour in response to price changes. Hendel and Nevo (2006b) provided the seminal approach to accounting for demand dynamics. However, they require restrictive assumptions on how households consume these goods. They also require data on all a household’s purchases of substitutable goods. The aim of this project is to investigate how these assumptions can be relaxed while still obtaining precise and accurate estimates of substitution behaviour.
Dr Malay Desai
SRG2526\260632
Co-applicant(s): Dr Aristeidis Dadoukis,
Project Title: Climate Change Exposure Risk and Firm Outcomes: A Managerial Experience Model
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,997.22
Funded by: Society for the Advancement of Management Studies & DSIT
This project develops a novel theoretical framework to explain the extent to which executive experiences shape firm-level responses to climate change exposure. While climate-related risks are increasingly recognised as financially material, existing research pays limited attention to the strategic role of senior leaders in guiding corporate adaptation. Prior studies often rely on narrow efficiency-based metrics and overlook broader experiential traits such as executives’ industry background, international leadership, and education. Drawing on strategic leadership theories and recent advances in measuring climate change exposure through textual analysis, we investigate how executive characteristics influence firm responses to environmental challenges, as reflected in performance outcomes. By integrating biographical data with firm-level climate change exposure metrics, the study offers an executive-centric perspective on climate strategy. It contributes to academic debates on sustainability, strategic leadership, and corporate governance, and provides actionable insights for investors, boards, and policymakers seeking to enhance climate resilience in the business sector.
Dr Jun Li
SRG2526\260211
Project Title: Data, markups, and asset prices
University of Warwick
Value awarded: £9,943.00
Funded by: Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
This research explores how companies use data to make better business decisions and how that, in turn, affects their stock price. Our study shows that firms with more data professionals gain a better forecast of consumer demand. This allows them to more accurately predict demand and set higher prices, which boosts their profits.We tested this idea using a unique dataset that tracks the hiring of data professionals. The results confirmed our theory, showing that companies with more data experts consistently have three key advantages: larger profit margins, more accurate sales forecasts, and higher stock market returns.To understand these results, we also built a theoretical model that shows how companies strategically hire data professionals to forecast demand. This model successfully explains our empirical findings.
Dr Jun Wang
SRG2526\262347
Project Title: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Metrics in Executive Compensation
University of Greenwich
Value awarded: £9,120.00
Funded by: Society for the Advancement of Management Studies
This project investigates the integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics into executive compensation in the United Kingdom. Using a mixed-methods design, it first provides a comprehensive overview of DEI-linked executive pay through archival and content analysis of corporate remuneration disclosures. It then explores how remuneration committee members and consultants justify and integrate DEI metrics within executive compensation plans, through semi-structured interviews. Finally, behavioural experiments will examine how stakeholders respond to DEI-linked executive compensation and how its design and communication influence stakeholder judgements and decisions. By connecting organisational practice, professional reasoning, and stakeholder behaviour, the study advances understanding of how DEI-linked executive compensation shapes governance processes, accountability, and stakeholder perceptions. The findings will offer evidence-based guidance for boards, regulators, and policymakers on designing transparent and credible DEI-linked executive incentives aligned with sustainable value creation and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Endowed funds
Dr Anton Caruana Galizia
SRG2526\260537
Project Title: Honour and Fortune: The de Piro in eighteenth-century Malta and Italy
Newcastle University
Value awarded: £9,632.00
Funded by: Elisabeth Barker Fund
The primary research activity for which I am seeking funding is for a case-study on social mobility into the aristocracy during the eighteenth century. This research is part of a broader and longer-term project that connects scholarship with heritage sites on the Mediterranean island of Malta and digitization initiatives on endangered archives based in the United States. With the support of this grant, I will complete essential archival research for a book-length monograph on the de Piro family in eighteenth-century Malta. The de Piro acquired their first noble title in Malta in 1716 and a second from Spain in 1742. My book will provide an account of how the de Piro achieved their social ascent, how they maintained their social position across subsequent generations, under pressure from successive regime changes, and the impact this had on the lives of family members.
Jihyun Choi
SRG2526\260010
Project Title: Visible Foods, Invisible Lives: A Pilot Study of Racialised Foodscapes and Hwagyo Identity in Incheon Chinatown, South Korea
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £3,750.00
Funded by: Research Fund
This pilot study explores how racialised migrant foodscapes illuminate dynamics of (in-)visibility, belonging, and identity in Asian cities, focusing on the Hwagyo (Chinese diaspora) community in Incheon, South Korea. Drawing on racial capitalism, power geometry, and racialisation beyond colour, it examines how Incheon Chinatown – a historic port area settled by Hwagyo migrants since 19th century – embodies the paradox of cultural celebration and systemic exclusion, and how food culture functions as both survival strategy and a site of identity negotiation amid marginalisation. Through ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and archival research, the project maps the intersection of food, space, and identity within a co-racial context of racialisation. Preliminary findings will inform a larger comparative project on Asian (port) cities, exploring how minority cultural productions are simultaneously celebrated and commodified in urban (re-)development while their creators remain socially, politically, and economically excluded.
Dr James Clark
SRG2526\262075
Project Title: The Old Park Palaeolithic Project: Investigating the Earliest Acheulean in Britain
University of Cambridge
Value awarded: £10,000.00
Funded by: Albert Reckitt Fund
At the site of Fordwich Pit, the Old Park and Chequer's Wood Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (hereafter Old Park)—just outside Canterbury—likely contains the oldest directly-dated evidence in Britain of an industry known as the Acheulean, and is the oldest site that can still be excavated anywhere in Britain. At Fordwich, these sediments have been directly dated to 700,000 years ago, with the artefacts thought to be associated with the earliest members of the Neanderthal lineage in Europe, making the site a crucial source of evidence of early human adaptation to high latitudes. The proposed project would fund two years of continued excavation at Old Park, to help strengthen the association between the artefacts—held in museum collections and derived from 1900s gravel quarrying—and the recent dating of the site. The project has low risk, yet high potential for findings that are critical to understanding the chronology of British prehistory.
Dr Nyree Finlay
SRG2526\261760
Project Title: Women Digging From Home: a comparative historiography of female archaeologists working in Western Scotland 1945-2010
University of Glasgow
Value awarded: £9,110.00
Funded by: Albert Reckitt Fund
Women Digging From Home examines the archaeological research practices of several female archaeologists working in rural and island contexts in
western Scotland in the latter part of the 20th century. These women made significant contributions to local and national heritage knowledge through
field-walking, survey, excavation and finds work embedded within their communities. Producing diverse outputs including guide-books, their inclusive methods and collaborative heritage care practices are under-researched and their achievements little known or celebrated. Through archival and documentary material research, interviews and unpublished legacy excavation resources, this project offers a new analysis and overview of their personal archaeological practices mostly undertaken at home. The aim is to explore the gendered and relational contours of rural heritage knowledge creation. It will offer new untold stories of archaeological practitioners, address unpublished legacy excavations, and contribute case studies relevant for contemporary debates around place-making and decentralized heritage futures.
Dr Georgios Giannakopoulos
SRG2526\260140
Project Title: The World that Consuls Made: British Diplomacy in 19th-Century Greece
City St George's, University of London
Value awarded: £8,400.00
Funded by: Elisabeth Barker Fund
In the nineteenth century, consuls were far more than minor officials. They acted as diplomats, merchants, and legal authorities, bringing international politics into the everyday life of Mediterranean societies. This project investigates the “world consuls made” through the case of British consuls in Greece between 1832 and 1914—a period when Greek territorial expansion constantly redrew the map of diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean. Consuls who once operated under Ottoman or British authority found themselves embedded in a sovereign Greek state, negotiating shifting sovereignties, forging local ties, and competing with colleagues from other European states. Drawing on British, Greek archives and a prosopographical study of consular careers, the project reconstructs consular practices and networks as a lived, local form of diplomacy, producing the first open, searchable dataset on British consuls in Greece and five case studies—Syros, Corfu, Patra, Salonica, and Herakleion—that reveal the geographies of imperial diplomacy in action.
Dr Carlos Gigoux
SRG2526\262133
Project Title: ‘Welcoming Refugees:’ A case study of refugee resettlement in the East of England
University of Essex
Value awarded: £2,762.00
Funded by: Research Fund
In 2014 the British Government established the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme (VPRS) that granted Humanitarian Protection and five years’ limited leave to remain to Syrians claiming asylum in the UK. The VPRP ended in 2021 and by then 20,139 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the UK. The scheme was largely a response to a strong mobilisation and pressure from civil society organisations such as community groups, schools, universities, charities which then played a significant role in its implementation. Drawing from framing theory I will analyse the complex and multifaceted interactions and strategies that took place between these civil society actors and statutory bodies as they responded to the humanitarian crisis. Using a participatory methodology I will involve stakeholders in assessing their motivations and experiences in the process of refugee reception and integration.
Dr Neal Harris
SRG2526\260298
Co-applicant(s): Dr Robin Jervis
Project Title: From Theory to Practice: How do Workers' Co-Operative Members view Social Transformation?
Oxford Brookes University
Value awarded: £4,034.98
Funded by: Marc Fitch Fund
Historically, committed anti-capitalist activists joined socialist political parties or catalysed revolutionary uprisings. Today, both strategies appear unrealistic means for achieving socio-structural change. Instead, left-activists increasingly engage in the social and solidarity economy (SSE) to nurture structural changes, joining smaller-scale democratic units, like co-operatives. Academics who advocate for such approaches to transforming society argue that working within such institutions nurtures non-capitalist ways of being and thinking which makes sustainable changes more feasible. This connects with a literature on ‘prefigurative’ and ‘interstitial’ theories of social transformation. Such theories, however, remain largely disconnected from empirical studies. This leaves the question: how do members of SSE groups themselves envisage social change to occur? This project makes a qualitative empirical intervention into the literature by interviewing co-operative members about how they believe structural socio-economic change will happen. Its primary contribution will be to connect contemporary theories of socio-structural change with new empirical research.
Professor Jason König
SRG2526\260868
Co-applicant(s): Professor Jonathan Pitches, Dr Jonathan Westaway
Project Title: Mountain stories, mountain futures: exploring new directions for the Mountain Humanities
University of St Andrews
Value awarded: £9,840.00
Funded by: Research Fund
This project maps out some new pathways for arts and humanities research on the past, present and future of mountain landscapes around the world. Academic research in the field of mountain studies is still dominated by the sciences and social sciences. There has been an expansion of arts and humanities approaches in recent years, especially in the history of mountaineering, but this work is still very disparate, and lacks a strong sense of shared questions and priorities. This is the right time to be exploring new possibilities for the discipline. This project convenes a series of collaborative, interdisciplinary gatherings, leading to an agenda-setting edited volume and a series of podcast recordings. At the heart of the project is the aspiration to move beyond the anthropocentric approaches that have dominated mountain research in recent decades, and to explore new opportunities for bringing academic and creative responses into dialogue with each other.
Dr Yizhen Lu
SRG2526\260359
Project Title: Idiosyncratic Deals: The inequivalence of power dynamics on psychological contracts at work
University of Southampton
Value awarded: £8,950.59
Funded by: Marc Fitch Fund
In today's workplace, many employees negotiate special work arrangements with their employers for terms like flexible hours, working from home, or unique job responsibilities to form idiosyncratic deals. Current research assumes these arrangements benefit everyone equally and that employees have the autonomy to negotiate these terms. Yet, this is not always true. Sometimes, different power dynamics between two parties create unfair situations where employees feel pressured to accept deals that mainly benefit the company. Existing studies have yet to investigate how these arrangements might be harmful or create workplace inequality. This research creates a new way to understand both employee-driven and boss-driven deals, revealing the real power dynamics at play. By understanding how these arrangements can sometimes exploit workers or create unfairness, organizations can develop better policies that truly benefit everyone. This helps create more equitable workplaces where personalized arrangements don't come at the expense of fairness.
Dr Henry Parkes
SRG2526\260215
Project Title: Musical Labour in a Late-Medieval Cathedral: An Annotated Digital Edition of Exeter’s 1518 Tabula
University of Nottingham
Value awarded: £9,973.48
Funded by: Marc Fitch Fund
In the largest churches of medieval Europe, religious worship could involve dozens or even hundreds of active participants. Staffing needs were managed using complex weekly rotas that assigned daily chant solos, readings and leadership roles. But how did this division of labour play out in practice? What rules governed the rostering, and what were the consequences both musical and social? This project offers new answers by creating an annotated digital edition of the remarkable four-month-long 'tabula', or rota, that survives from sixteenth-century Exeter. With almost a thousand named entries across fifty Sundays and feasts, this long-ignored document provides vital information about who sang what in medieval European cathedrals, in what numbers, and on what occasions. Encoded using XML, the edition will combine diplomatic transcription with searchable 'mark-up' that unlocks its rich seams of musical and biographical insight. An intuitive web interface will ensure accessibility for scholarly and public audiences alike.
Dr Daniel Stewart
SRG2526\262195
Project Title: Methodological Innovation on Site (MInOS): Rethinking Approaches to Key Sites in Greece
University of Leicester
Value awarded: £9,971.00
Funded by: Sir William Hepburn Buckler Fund & DSIT
The multiperiod city of Knossos, Crete, has been the subject of almost continuous excavation since 1900. Much of this has been focused on the extensive Minoan remains, leaving other periods largely unknown. During the Roman period in particular, it was one of the most notable cities in the east. Tantalizing glimpses of this are visible; architecture such as the Villa Dionysus, sections of the theatre, and 25 unpublished rescue excavations including burial, domestic, industrial and religious contexts. The so-called Roman Field, in which the Villa Dionysus sits, has surface remains indicative of a crowded residential space unknown elsewhere in Crete. This project will use legacy data from previous unpublished excavations in the Roman Field in conjunction with results from geophysical prospection carried out in 2025 to illuminate the complexity of multi-period use, and fully integrate legacy data into a new state-of-the-art excavation at Knossos.
Dr Angela Tooley
SRG2526\261657
Project Title: Ancient Egyptian Jewellery Untangled
Independent Scholar
Value awarded: £5,000.00
Funded by: Albert Reckitt Fund
The intact tomb of the Priestess of Hathor, Amunet was discovered and excavated by Eugène Grébaut at Deir el-Bahari in 1891. To date this important tomb group remains largely unpublished. Amunet's mummified remains, when unwrapped were found to be tattooed and it is this aspect of the tomb group which has received most academic attention in the past and more recently. However, the focus of this application centres on the layers of fragile jewellery left on Amunet's remains, many items of which are rare survivors of items worn in life. In order to disentangle the many layers of jewellery the project will use CT data from 2009. Using specialist software the CT scans will be segmented and the deep learning algorithms will isolate individual items of jewellery hidden beneath the top layer of necklaces and collars in an innovative, non-destructive way. 3D models of these items have potential educational value.
Dr Sara Wolfson
SRG2526\261896
Project Title: Royalist exiles at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria, 1644-60
The Open University
Value awarded: £9,995.33
Funded by: Browning Fund
During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1653) and the English Interregnum (1649-1660), Queen Henrietta Maria, consort to King Charles I and mother of King Charles II was forced to set up court in Paris. This project will study royalist exiles at her court and will reconstruct, for the first time, the Queen’s full household service in exile. Stuart historiography has traditionally ignored the court of Henrietta Maria in exile as irrelevant to Stuart politics, focusing instead on royalism in Britain or within the court of Charles II in exile. The proposed study will show how Henrietta Maria and her court formed part of a wider understanding of the transnational nature of Royalism, while also exploring the framework of values according to which ‘exile’ as a construct was understood. The project will also rethink the queen’s role during this period as pivotal to raising support for the Stuarts in Europe.