The British Academy announces seven new international interdisciplinary research projects

The British Academy has announced the latest cohort of successful applicants to the 2020 round of its Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research funding programme.

Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the seven new research projects supported under this programme bring novel, interdisciplinary ideas from the humanities and the social sciences to bear on our understanding of the various challenges inherent in managing hazards and risk and in promoting societal resilience. The funded projects serve to highlight the importance of collaborative engagement between disciplines and between communities of research, practice and policy.  

Professor Simon Goldhill, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the British Academy, welcomed the announcement of this new cohort of award-holders, commenting:

“We are delighted to be funding seven original projects which use interdisciplinary methods and expertise to inform approaches to a range of pressing contemporary problems. Each of the projects offers innovative ways of addressing the programme’s themes, from water insecurity and gender-based violence in Peru, to urban risk in Dar es Salaam, to forecasting climate hazards in India. 

“Whilst varied in their content, the projects all share an aim of strengthening our understanding of contemporary challenges, and offering solutions which unite academic expertise, public understanding and international policy. I look forward to following the projects’ progress over the next 24 months.” 

 The 2020 award-holders are:  

• Dr Stroma Cole, University of the West of England - Water insecurity and gender-based violence: exploring links and steps for prevention. A comparative study of Indonesian and Peruvian women.  

• Dr Amy Penfield, University of Bristol - Energy resilience: exploring the cultures, politics and practices of energy access in Amazonia 

• Dr Anna Walnycki, International Institute for Environment and Development -Grassroots insights into urban risk: creating interdisciplinary pathways to resilience in Dar es Salaam  

• Dr Keith Hyams, University of Warwick - Technological risks in development: food security, super-wicked problems, and the decolonisation of technological governance  

• Dr Ayesha Siddiqi, University of Cambridge - El Niño and flash floods in Peru: bringing knowledge on “furia de los rios” and “western science” to understand lag time  

• Dr Shilpi Srivastava, Institute of Development Studies - Anticipating futures: forecasting and climate preparedness for co-located hazards in India  

• Dr Sarah Hartley, University of Exeter -Inclusive and international risk assessment: building a framework for gene drive organisms through collaboration.

For more information about this programme, visit Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research.