VITAE
Seven projects have won funding under Vitae's Innovate scheme, which supports ventures that enhance the development of researchers. The winners were announced at the Vitae researcher development conference 2009, held this week at the University of Warwick.
Award winner: University of East Anglia
Value: £15,725
Essential business skills for the low-carbon economy: a bespoke programme for researchers
Award winner: National Union of Students
Value: £9,900
Researcher-led initiatives: generating frameworks for promoting a postgraduate-researcher stake in researcher development
Award winner: University of Leeds
Value: £9,750
Building impact into social science research
Award winner: History Research Wales
Value: £8,516
The research-impact agenda and early-career development for historians: a pilot study
Award winner: Imperial College London
Value: £7,160
Facilitating research as a creative process
Award winner: University of Sussex
Value: £4,500
Win-win: developing the transferable skills of research staff through mentoring
IN DETAIL
Award winner: The Open University
Value: £20,000
Open research: The application of e-knowledge tools in researcher careers training and development
This project seeks to explore how different technologies can best be used to enhance researchers' development by evaluating the web-based provision of researcher career-development training. It will also help to produce a series of guidance notes for the UK research community and develop a way to use online training materials alongside workshops hosted by partners.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
Up to £1.7 million has been awarded to 16 new fellows across the biosciences. Winners will conduct research lasting between three and five years. Details of the professorial fellowship were published last week.
DIAMOND PROFESSORIAL FELLOWSHIP
Award winner: So Iwata
Institution: Imperial College London
Studying structure and mechanisms of human cell-membrane transporters
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT FELLOWSHIPS
Award winner: Miltos Tsiantis
Institution: University of Oxford
Using computational modelling to study the genetics of leaf geometry
Award winner: Adrian Whitehouse
Institution: University of Leeds
Analysing changes within animal-cell nucleolus during a herpesvirus infection
Award winner: Carmen Molina-Paris
Institution: University of Leeds
Studying the adaptive cellular immune system using systems biology
Award winner: Gillian Stephens
Institution: University of Manchester
Exploring new methods of using different enzymes to break down waste materials for use as biofuels
Award winner: Sotaro Kita
Institution: University of Birmingham
Exploring how young children develop language skills
INDUSTRIAL IMPACT FELLOWSHIP
Award winner: Mark Ian Christie
Institution: King's College London
Working with the Centre for Integrative Biomedicine to maximise the partnership and education opportunities for in vivo science and translational medicine
DAVID PHILLIPS FELLOWSHIPS
Award winner: Christian Rutz
Institution: University of Oxford
Studying tool use, culture and cognition in New Caledonian crows
Award winner: Nicholas Roberts
Institution: University of Bristol
Studying vision in deep-sea animals
Award winner: Martin Stevens
Institution: University of Cambridge
Exploring defensive colouration and predator vision in birds
Award winner: Jeremy Murray
Institution: John Innes Centre
Learning more about the function of a gene found in legumes required for beneficial interactions with bacteria and fungi
Award winner: Gareth Lavery
Institution: University of Birmingham
Exploring the metabolic pathways that mammals use to derive energy from the glucose found in food and utilise it in muscle
Award winner: Alastair Wilson
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Studying the genetics of competition in animals and whether resource limitation constrains evolution
Award winner: Alessio Ciulli
Institution: University of Cambridge
Developing new approaches to advance understanding of protein-protein interfaces and of their modulation using small molecules
INSTITUTE CAREER PATH FELLOWSHIP
Award winner: Christopher Bass
Institution: Rothamsted Research
Exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying insecticide resistance in crop pests