The British Academy announces seed funding for members of its Early Career Researcher Network

The British Academy is pleased to announce £109,553 in funding for the 30 successful recipients of its Early Career Researcher Network Seed Fund Programme.

Worth up to £5,000, the seed funding is designed to provide Early Career Researchers, particularly those with limited experience in securing funding, an opportunity to enhance their research portfolio and gain leverage for further funding. In total, 72 applications were submitted for this call, 59 of which were eligible.

Funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and the Wolfson Foundation, research projects funded this round include those looking at identifying early signals of diabetes from online social footprints, the anti-plastics movement, and epistemic injustices of silencing the voices on those in the prison system.

The 2024-25 Early Career Researcher Network Seed Fund programme awardees are:

Please note: Awards are arranged by the Early Career Researcher Network's regional clusters. The institution is that given at the time of application.

Scotland

Szu-Hsin Wu

University of Dundee

Co-Applicant: Dr Paul Gault

Value Awarded: £4,942

'Developing young people’s emotional resilience through grief education'

Student academic underperformance is strongly correlated with prolonged grief and lack of emotional resilience. This project aims to investigate young people’s experiences of grief and loss to inform early interventions that build emotional resilience. Partnering with a non-profit organisation - The Firefly Project, we plan to 1) design an innovative grief education workshop, 2) develop inclusive guidelines for student services, youth programs, and social support systems, and 3) engage stakeholders, including universities and youth organisations, to extend support for young people who may experience emotional distress. Funding will support research development, a pilot workshop in Dundee – a community with significant socioeconomic challenges – and dissemination efforts, including publications and a stakeholder seminar, to share findings and foster collaboration. This collaboration will lay the groundwork for an inclusive, proactive grief support programme which is rarely available to young people. The ultimate goal is to support their emotional resilience and prevent long-term negative impacts.

Kristina Saunders

University of Glasgow

Value Awarded: £2,204

'Histories and Imagined Futures of Contraceptive Care for Working-Class Contraceptive Users'

Improving access to contraception is a global priority and has been a key aim of the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan (2021); yet the experiences and needs of working-class contraceptive users are often overlooked in Scottish policy making and research. In an initial study I carried exploring histories and imagined futures of contraceptive care in Scotland with 18 participants, middle-class perspectives dominated, but the experiences of two working-class participants highlighted different or amplified concerns related to contraceptive care, such as stigma and judgement from healthcare practitioners and the impact of poverty on accessing services. In collaboration with community partners, this research will explore how 10-12 working-class contraceptive users from Glasgow and Edinburgh experience contraceptive care and would like this care to be organised. A rich empirical picture will be provided of how contraceptive care is experienced from working-class perspectives, along with recording participants’ recommendations for improving care in the future.

Abigail Pickard

University of Edinburgh

Value Awarded: £3,523

'TAStE - PaCT: Trajectories of Avoidant and SelecTive Eating – Parents and Charities Together'

Selective eating, particularly in neurodivergent children, results in significant challenges for families, impacting nutritional intake, social interactions, and overall well-being. Despite the prevalence of these issues, there is limited support available that combines academic research insights with practical knowledge from families and charities. The requested seed funding will be used to organise a series of food-based workshops adapted for neurodivergent children, run in close collaboration with Edinburgh Community Food, a leading local food charity. Following the workshops, parents will be invited to share their experiences and challenges of selective eating in children through innovative photo-elicitation methods. The collaboration with charities and parents will act as a vital first step towards establishing the formal TAStE–PaCT (Trajectories of Avoidant and SelecTive Eating-Parents and Charities Together). This project will plant the seed towards collaboratively co-creating future research proposals and intervention strategies to address selective eating behaviour trajectories in neurodivergent groups.

Shannon Harris

Heriot-Watt University

Value awarded: £1,682

'Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems'

This project investigates the historical development of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems (IEEs) in the Scottish Highlands and Islands between 1960 and 1999. While existing research on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) often emphasises high-growth, technology-focused businesses, this study addresses the critical gaps related to equality, diversity, and inclusion. Through archival data collection at the Highland Archive Centre and oral history interviews with community members involved in enterprise support initiatives, the research seeks to highlight how institutional regulations and policies have shaped inclusive practices within EEs. During this period, the Highlands and Islands underwent significant economic transformation and saw the UK's first regional development agency. This work will explore their role in fostering social cohesion and inclusive enterprise. The findings will provide valuable insights for policy makers and practitioners seeking to promote inclusivity in contemporary entrepreneurial ecosystems, while also establishing a foundation for future research and collaboration.

London

Stewart McCain

St Mary's University, Twickenham

Value awarded: £4,228

'Curating Senses and Feelings: Public Engagement with Embodied Histories in Cultural Heritage Institutions'

Working in collaboration with a local Heritage organisation (Hogarth’s House), this project explores the way that audiences and visitors to cultural heritage organisations might engage with these questions. The project is intended to enhance ongoing collaborative research and practice between Heritage professionals and academics across three areas: the evaluation of visitor experience, the engagement of new audiences, and the building of communities of practice across similar organisations in the region. In doing so it will offer new insight into the relationship between interpretative practices in heritage contexts and audience engagement, while building academic and professional capacity to deliver effective and engaging interpretations of past lives and societies.

Atlas Torbati

Goldsmiths, University of London

Co-applicant: Dr. Ope Atanda London South Bank University

Value awarded: £1,712

'Social Therapeutic and Community Studies (STaCS) at Goldsmiths University of London'

This interdisciplinary pilot study explores migration-related challenges affecting the mental health of Afghan men in the UK, using photo-elicitation diaries (PED) to explore their experience and coping strategies. The study bridges perspectives on masculinities, mental health, and visual methods, with the following objectives.

1) establish a collaborative partnership between two London-based universities and a migrant support organisation, with the goal of developing and submitting a larger grant application on a similar topic.

2) Explore the use of PED as a tool to understand the mental health challenges experienced by Afghan men, with the intention of expanding this method in future research.

This study will lay the groundwork for a larger study by: a) developing a collaborative and interdisciplinary research design, and b) establishing relationships with stakeholders, practitioners, and policymakers for future research. The Seed Fund will be instrumental in facilitating this initial phase, paving the way for comprehensive research efforts.

Opeyemi Atanda

London South Bank University

Value awarded: £4,992

'Co-designing a faith-based intervention aimed at promoting help-seeking behaviours for mental health concerns in a Black-majority faith-based community'

Mental health issues affect many people across different ethnic and racial groups, particularly in black communities. Often, individuals from these communities turn to their cultural and religious networks for support instead of traditional mental health services. However, the impact of religious communities in encouraging people to seek help for mental health issues in the black faith community hasn’t been extensively researched. To address this gap, a current study is focusing on creating an intervention in collaboration with community members. This includes working with patient and public involvement specialists, religious leaders, and mental health professionals. The project will consist of four workshops over two months aimed at developing and evaluating training materials that make mental health support more accessible. The goal is to empower these communities to better connect with mental health resources while creating a welcoming environment that reduces the stigma associated with seeking help.

Kira Brenner

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £4,450

Co-applicant name: Dr Shona Macleod

'Discontent and change in UK-based international development NGOs'

Workers in the international development sector in the UK have reported high levels of dissatisfaction in work for many years. The sector has also faced a number of intersecting challenges in recent years, including cuts to government funding, shifting ideas of power, and changes in working patterns following the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to an already challenging working environment. This collaborative project seeks to explore areas of discontent experienced in the working lives of UK-based international development NGO workers, and to identify strategies that have been successful in bringing about change within their organisations and the wider sector. We will interview 40 people including current and former development NGO staff, representatives of umbrella bodies and trade unions. The research will result in initial findings as well as informing future grant applications.

Esther Mensah

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £1,635

'Navigating the Storm: Resilience Strategies of Women Entrepreneurs in Vulnerable Sectors During the COVID-19 Crisis'

This research investigates how women entrepreneurs in the UK, particularly those in vulnerable sectors, navigated the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Women entrepreneurs face increased vulnerabilities due to their concentration in specific sectors such as retail and personal services, caregiving duties, and intersectional factors like race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The pandemic magnified these pre-existing challenges, forcing many women entrepreneurs to adapt by adopting diverse resilience strategies. As crises are an inevitable part of the global systems, the lessons learned from COVID-19 offer an opportunity to enhance preparedness for future disruptions. By employing a mixed-methods approach, this study documents the lived experiences and strategies of women entrepreneurs to identify best practices, expose structural barriers, and provide actionable policy recommendations. By focusing on the intersection of gender and broader identities, this research aims to inform the development of inclusive, targeted interventions that reduce disparities, and strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems against future crises.

Qian Liu

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £3,140

Co-Applicant: Dr Meghna Nag Chowdhuri

'Building an interdisciplinary and cross-sector network to co-develop a generative AI literacy framework for teachers in schools'

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) brings both opportunities and risks in education. With its rapid evolvement and increasing adoption in UK schools, there is an urgent need for a GenAI literacy framework to help teachers use the tools effectively, ethically, and equitably. This research project aims to co-develop such a framework for UK primary and secondary school teachers through an interdisciplinary and cross-sector network of eight participants, including experts in education, computer science, ethics, and sociology, alongside representatives from schools and teacher education providers. Using co-design workshops and interviews, the framework will be iteratively developed to address teachers’ practical needs, responsibilities, and challenges, incorporating diverse perspectives from the participants. The interdisciplinary and cross-sector network will support ongoing research and collaboration in AI and education. The framework developed collaboratively will guide pedagogical decisions, support professional development, and inform statutory guidance and assessment tools, benefiting teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, and researchers.

Francesca McCarthy

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £4,950

'Talking about ChatGPT: exploring secondary school pupils’ perspectives of LLMs'

This project examines how secondary school pupils experience and perceive Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. It explores how pupils’ uses and perceptions of LLMs relate to established barriers to educational equity. Pupils from a secondary school in London will work collaboratively with a visual artist, producing images and animations that reflect their uses and perceptions of LLMs. The results from the project will centralise pupils’ contributions, providing valuable insights on the intersection between educational equity, AI technology, and social justice in education.

Pardis Asadi Zeidabadi

ECRNSF24\240298

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £2,757

Co-Applicant: Dr Kulsoom Yusuf Pridmore

'Navigating gender equality and safety: the personal journeys of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) diasporic women'

Diasporic women from MENA region often navigate complex cultural and legal landscapes both within their migrant communities and in broader society as they strive for gender equality and personal safety. Understanding their challenges is crucial for promoting gender equality, facilitating their integration into the UK, and enhancing their contributions to both communities and the economy. This project will be developed collaboratively with BFWOs serving women from MENA region. Through face-to-face interviews with staff and service users, the project seeks to uncover the challenges faced by diasporic women concerning gender equality and safety and the strategies employed by BFWO to address them. Ultimately, the project aims to generate evidence-based policy recommendations to advance gender equality and enhance safety and support for the integration of migrant women within the UK.

North West and North Wales

Zubaira Andlib

ECRNSF24\240164

Lancaster University

Value awarded: £2,120

'Chronic diseases, disability and labour market transitions among older population in the UK'

In the existing literature, relatively little attention has been paid to understanding and addressing the health-related barriers older workers face to stay at work. The study will examine the labour market transitions for the most marginalised group, ie 50 years and older in the UK using data from the longitudinal Labour Force Surveys (2012-2024). The projects will investigate the impact of chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, breathing problems, mental illness and disability on labour market transitions. These transitions are further categorised into four categories, namely; employed, unemployed, inactive (with some desire to work), and inactive (with no desire to work). To validate our empirical finding we will check the heterogeneity and robustness as well. The research will provide insights to policy practitioners to develop suitable health intervention policies to promote decent employment and back-to-work support for people in their 50s and older age groups.

Anna Sroginis

Lancaster University

Co-Applicant: Dr Kandrika Pritularga

Value awarded: £2,000

'Exploring the concept of trustworthy in business forecasting'

This project explores human decision-making behaviour under uncertainty, focusing on the role of trust in the interaction between decision-makers and decision-support systems (DSS). Although DSS forecasts are often accurate and valuable, decision-makers frequently rely on their own judgments, which are subject to cognitive biases and inconsistencies. This reluctance to trust system-generated forecasts can lead to suboptimal decisions. Drawing on the literature from psychology, behavioural economics, and human-computer interaction, this project will explore factors for effective collaboration between decision-makers and DSS. Using a small online experiment in a business forecasting context, we will test some of these key factors influencing trust and usability of the systems. The project also seeks to incorporate feedback from experienced colleagues across disciplines, fostering stronger collaboration for future research. Ultimately, it aims to deepen our understanding of trust dynamics and provide actionable strategies for improving human-DSS interactions in complex decision-making scenarios.

Yuhua Wang

Manchester Metropolitan University

Value awarded: £3,380

'Visualising Digital Lives: Informing Age-Friendly City Development through Understanding Older Adults' Technology Practices'

The UK’s future age-friendly cities (AFCs) will inevitably be digital. While existing AFC approaches focus primarily on physical urban infrastructure and support systems, they have yet to address the growing digital practices of an ageing population. There is an urgent need to understand how communities and cities can better support older adults' expanding digital engagement in their daily lives. This project examines how adults (60+) integrate digital technologies into their everyday routines to inform AFC development. Using social practice theory, we will analyse older adults' digital activities and their infrastructure requirements. Through visual mapping of these engagement patterns, we will identify gaps and opportunities in urban services and support provision. An interdisciplinary team will develop a conceptual framework and conduct expert consultations and workshops, providing practical guidance for local communities, policymakers, and technology developers in creating age-friendly cities that are both digitally inclusive and responsive to older adults' needs.

Ilze Mertena

Manchester Metropolitan University

Value awarded: £3,120

'Exploring in-store experience design in the UK high street micro and small enterprises'

Experience design is increasingly vital in today’s marketplace, driven by consumers’ demand for personalised and engaging experiences. While larger firms have the resources to adapt, micro and small enterprises often face barriers like limited time, funding and skills. In the UK, few free consultancy tools address their specific needs, and costly consultancy services often fail to understand their unique challenges. This collaborative scoping study will engage micro and small high street businesses in Stockport, Greater Manchester, through workshops, discussions, and site visits to explore their needs, barriers and enablers for in-store customer-centric experiences. The study aims to identify the required support and establish a strong collaborative network of small businesses, academics and industry experts. Insights from this study will inform a larger funding proposal to address the challenges identified, designing solutions for sustainable value creation for customers and independent micro and small enterprises in an increasingly complex business landscape.

Andy Harrod

Lancaster University

Value awarded: £4,941

'Grow Your Own: Evaluating the impacts on individual and community wellbeing'

Grow Your Own is a therapeutic garden based at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust’s secure mental health inpatient hospital. Grow Your Own began in 2013 with the aim to provide opportunities for service users to develop horticultural sills, have meaningful social interactions, and increase their physical activity. Anecdotal evidence suggests participants have experienced transformational benefits that have assisted their recovery process, supporting their transition to independent living and employment. There are limited studies into the long-term effects of therapeutic gardening and how beneficial experiences impact participant’s quality of life post-participation. As such, this evaluation will explore firstly, the long-term impacts on former service users’ quality of life; secondly, the factors at Grow Your Own which contribute to a therapeutic environment; thirdly, how service users’ mental health is influenced. The findings will inform the development of good practice principles to support scaling up Grow Your Own across NHS trusts.

South West and South Wales

Deborah Taylor

Bournemouth University

Value awarded: £4,760

'NHS Leadership: Co-Creating a Leadership Comic Resource (Pilot Study)'

This research will pilot the development of a co-created 'leadership scenarios comic' with Dorset based, NHS stakeholders who undertook a Senior Leader apprenticeship (SLA). Leadership scenarios will be developed during focus groups with participants choosing avatars to represent themselves so that the gender, age and race of individuals is not observable. All characters will be avatars to limit bias and recognisability. An online comic and workshop case study material will be the main co-created outputs. This pilot forms stage two of a NHS leadership longitudinal study. The aims of this pilot study are as follows; to make leadership accessible to wider groups of individuals who work within or use the NHS; to help future leaders understand and feel better equipped in managing often ambiguous and complex leadership challenges via an innovative form of knowledge exchange to develop teaching materials which have fewer implicit biases.

Katy Karampour

University of the West of England, Bristol

Value awarded: £2,890

'Co-designing Net Zero Strategy in historic settings: Pilot Study of Sea Mills Conservation Area in Bristol'

This project aims to co-design Net Zero (NZ) strategies with local communities through organising two engagement workshops in collaboration with Bristol City Council in a selected pilot case study in Bristol, Sea Mills Conservation Area. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the crucial role of local communities in NZ transition, the approach in Conservation Areas (CAs) is predominantly expert driven and top down with limited engagement with local communities. In England, there are more than 10,000 CAs covering 2.2 per cent of the land in which there are stricter planning controls to protect the special historic character of the area. This is perceived to have a negative impact on the uptake of climate change adaptation measurements for houses located in CAs, which are around 2.8 million houses (Historic England, 2021). This project aims to find innovative solutions to this challenge by piloting new practices of co-design with local communities.

Peter Lindfield

Cardiff University

Value awarded: £4,928

'Faking and Remaking the Tudors in Victorian Britain'

George Shaw (1810–76) was a significant architect operating in Northern England. His reputation and his projects have nevertheless faded into obscurity. Despite local enthusiasts’ efforts, no modern work accounting for his profound output exists; several case studies examining individual projects have appeared, however they don’t address the ‘bigger picture’ nor rationalise Shaw's grand country homes against his muscular Gothic churches, nor his faking of ancestral Tudor furniture. Shaw’s forgotten and destroyed works, traces of which have begun to appear through my research, are this project’s focus. Mobilising six years of research into Shaw, this project is a test case unearthing his nascent significance. Following remerging works’ signposting to clients and their uncatalogued archival collections, this pathfinding project works with archives and historic properties to recover knowledge and accounts of Shaw’s extensive yet forgotten output and is the next step to a larger, career-advancing multi-person AHRC Catalyst project on Shaw.

Pankhuri Agarwal

University of Bath

Co-Applicant: Dr Sharmila Parmanand

London School of Economics and Political Science

Value awarded: £4,050

'Digital Dilemmas: The Promise and Pitfalls of Tackling Modern Slavery Through Tech'

This project examines the paradox of increasing modern slavery despite the rise of digital tools designed to combat it. While technology is often seen as a solution, its real-world impact is unclear. Focusing on migrant workers in the UK’s global value chains (GVCs), the project explores: 1) how different stakeholders interpret and use these technologies, and whether they address the root causes of exploitation or reinforce existing inequalities; 2) the most effective ways to examine the paradox of rising modern slavery alongside growing tech-driven interventions. By collaborating with service providers and exploring stakeholder roles across sectors, we aim to use the findings to create a larger funding proposal for a worker-centered approach to improving digital interventions within GVCs.

Midlands and Mid Wales

Lenore Thompson

University of Derby

Value awarded: £4,600

'Contaminated Heritage: Characterising pollution and its impacts on heritage and history'

Environmental pollution significantly impacts the material culture comprising the fabric of our shared heritage, fundamentally changing visible characteristics of artefacts used to narrate history and its meanings. This research will characterise these pollutants and their impacts, confront visual misconceptions of objects that influence current social and political beliefs about past cultures and peoples, and offer new narratives to better understand how human actions such as industrialisation influenced today’s world. Ancient artefacts, coated in atmospheric grime since the Industrial Revolution, will be analysed using mass spectrometry to identify pollutants and their effects on materials. Project outputs will communicate stories of climate change and the Anthropocene within museum exhibitions, formulate bespoke conservation strategies, and support decarbonisation policy arguments. Understanding the impacts of pollution on society, its’ effects on the fabric of our world, and misleading influence it may have on historical interpretation and education, is a pathway to a more equitable future.

Amy Sanders

Aberystwyth University

Value awarded: £4,995

'Common Room Collaborations'

The well-documented rise in populism and far-right ideology internationally is mirrored by divisions in the UK, as evidenced by the 2024 riots. This collaborative research project engages community members and practitioners in understanding how to resist polarisation. It will ask how have local communities mobilised collectively in order to counter national patterns of polarisation and to what extent can communities collaborating inform our understanding of networks from local to national levels to achieve this. The case study is the Cardiff More in Common Partnership. This study will engage participants through participative focus groups from six hyper-local communities in developing a toolkit about civil society local action to prevent polarisation and counter divisive incidents. Participants will receive training to co-deliver knowledge exchange events, which will be rolled out through the Welsh Community Cohesion teams, the UK More in Common network with the charity, Jo Cox Foundation and British Academy’s Early Career Researcher network.

James Lovelock

Independent Scholar

Value awarded: £4,267

'Queer gain through queer-infused musical theatre practice - a grounded theory study'

Musical theatre has often been described as 'a somehow gay genre' (Miller, 1998: 5), but it is only recently that LGBTQ+ narratives have been represented authentically on stage. This project will use the concept of queer gain (Lovelock, forthcoming) to investigate what is gained when LGBTQ+ narratives are supported by the provision of production processes that centre queer lived experience and value the contributions of LGBTQ+ creatives and performers. The project will use semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved in three recent case studies to build grounded theory that explores the conditions that create an effective queer space, the benefits that ensue from queer production practices, and the accessibility of queer productions to wider audiences. The project will pioneer an open-research approach that makes the interview data publicly available through podcasting, and that offers Early Career Researchers an introduction to data gathering, coding with NVivo and presenting outcomes through an online workshop series.

Symeon Dionysis

Nottingham Trent University

Value awarded: £4,123

'The Future Money: Exploring Consumer Attitudes Towards Money, Payments and the Prospect of a Digital Pound'

Amid growing interest in digital currencies, this project will explore public attitudes towards a potential UK Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the Digital Pound. As the Bank of England and HM Treasury are currently in the exploration stage of introducing such a digital currency, understanding consumer perspectives on trust, usability, privacy, financial and digital literacy will be crucial for its potential design and implementation. Given the lack of insights focusing on UK consumers, the main research question this project will address is what are the key factors influencing consumer attitudes, perceptions and willingness to adopt the Digital Pound? The research employs a qualitative-first approach, beginning with focus groups to uncover diverse viewpoints and key drivers of adoption, followed by a questionnaire to quantify these insights. This work will be conducted in collaboration with the Digital Pound Foundation and the University of Manchester to enhance its applicability and academic rigour.

Connie Mak

University of Lincoln

Co-Applicant: Dr Abigail Ehidiamen

Value Awarded: £3,971

'Applying the walking-with method to social adaptation research: the case of cultural coping of international students in the UK'

The foreseeable plunging number of international students is worsening the financial crisis of the higher education sector in the UK. There is a need to explore new ways to find out how overseas students can be attracted and retained. While most student adaptation research is dominated by quantitative psychological studies, little has been known about how cultural coping and mundane practices contribute to overseas study experience. By collaborating with UK’s national and local governments, and student support bodies in universities, this study uses the rather novel walking-with method to leverage en-route physical prompts to explore the role of cultural consumption in students’ coping strategies. Apart from theoretical and practical contributions to pedagogical understanding, the study attempts to reveal the applicability of the unconventional walking-with method in social adaptation research, and to provide innovative methodological insights to wider social sciences studies.

Justine Anthony

University of Leicester

Value Awarded: £4,200

'A psychosocial approach to understanding attitudes towards (physical) health help-seeking in mental health service users'

Individuals with mental health conditions have a life expectancy up to 15-years shorter than the general population, largely due to preventable conditions such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. Despite their high risk for these physical health issues, mental health service users face unique barriers when accessing support, which can lead to reduced help-seeking for physical health concerns. While help-seeking behaviour is influenced by personal attitudes, there is limited understanding of how these attitudes specifically affect physical health help-seeking among people with mental illnesses. Furthermore, psychological and social factors, often linked to broader healthcare inequalities, may shape these attitudes and contribute to disparities in health outcomes. This pilot study will investigate differences in help-seeking attitudes between individuals with and without mental health conditions, assessing how psychological and social factors impact these attitudes. Findings will be disseminated to mental health service users and contribute to the development of future funding.

Katie Parson

Loughborough University

Value Awarded: £3,970

'Guardians of the Falls: Exploring Menopausal Women-led Climate Action through Participatory Action Research with Cold Water Dippers'

This project explores climate action and wellbeing practices of female cold-water dippers in the Yorkshire Dales who use blue and green spaces for mental and physical health. The popularity of cold-water dipping has surged, particularly post-COVID-19, with many peri-menopausal women joining for stress relief, mood benefits, and community. Increased site usage, however, have raised environmental concerns of fragile waterfall sites across the country, including water quality decline. Collaborating with Dip & Dales Co., this project will adopt a Participatory Action Research approach to support participants as environmental stewards, or 'Guardians of the Falls', addressing sustainability, conservation and climate action needs. Participants will explore the environmental impacts of their practices and share insights with the wider community via social media, outreach resources, and an educational documentary. Project findings will inform future grant and fellowship applications to expand this participant-led research.

Alanna Higgins

University of Nottingham

Value awarded: £3,478

Co-applicant: Jennifer Remnant

'Navigating the Food System: Pump Priming to Explore (Dis)Ability and Food Access in Glasgow and Nottingham'

This project addresses the intersection of disability and food insecurity in the UK, focusing on Nottingham and Glasgow. Disabled individuals face disproportionately high rates of food insecurity due to physical, social, and systemic barriers, such as inadequate benefits, transportation challenges, and dietary needs. We propose a two-part approach: a scoping exercise to map existing literature and research on disability and food access, and two; competency group workshops in Nottingham and Glasgow. These workshops will gather stakeholders, including disabled individuals, community organisations, and policymakers, to explore lived experiences and identify systemic barriers. The project will yield insights into the unique challenges disabled populations face, fostering academic knowledge and public awareness. Findings will inform a larger research agenda to address food inaccessibility and ableism, with long-term potential for national application and policy impact.

Joanne Mills

Independent Researcher

Value awarded: £3,541

'Digital doll houses and pixelated assemblages: Video Games as Digitally Augmented Artistic Practice'

This interdisciplinary investigation explores the commonalities between video games and artistic practice to consider how user creation and curation can contribute to ownership and engagement. It is placed at the intersection of art, game studies, and technology, and builds on both the applicant’s expertise in digital art, engagement, and game studies and existing dialogues within academia and curatorial practice regarding placing video games within the lineage of artistic practice, which have “allow[ed] the medium to break beyond its perceived boundaries and aspire to new horizons”, in order to consider games as presenting digitally-augmented parallels to established forms of artistic practice (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2018/2019). As such it is both timely and relevant, further complementing the 2023 Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Video Games Research Framework, the UKRI funded XR Network + Virtual Production in the Digital Economy and the ESRC Digital Good Network.