ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
Funding of nearly £3 million has been provided to eight projects as part of the AHRC's Religion and Society research programme. Four applicants have also been awarded additional funding to support research by postdoctoral students.
Award winner: R.G. Brand
Institution: University of Manchester
Value: £371,348
Studentship: £49,106
Multi-faith spaces - symptoms and agents of religious and social change
Award winner: J.R. Carrette
Institution: University of Kent
Value: £4,736
Religious non-governmental organisations and the United Nations in New York and Geneva
Award winner: D. Fergusson
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Value: £251,216
Understanding the encounter between Christianity, psychotherapy and spirituality in Scotland (1945-2000) in theory and practice
Award winner: J.M. Harper
Institution: Bangor University
Value: £349,606
Studentship: £49,106
The experience of worship in late medieval cathedral and parish church: investigation, realisation and interpretation
Award winner: D.N. Gellner
Institution: University of Oxford
Value: £418,034
Studentship: £55,334
Vernacular religion: varieties of religiosity in the Nepali diaspora
Award winner: E. Hsu
Institution: University of Oxford
Value: £348,155
Icons and innovation in south-west China's religious texts
Award winner: T. O'Toole
Institution: University of Bristol
Value: £328,947
Muslim participation in contemporary governance
Award winner: P. Weller
Institution: University of Derby
Value: £358,7
Studentship: £49,106
Religion and belief, discrimination and equality in England and Wales: theory, policy and practice (2000-10)
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Two research projects that aim to bring stem-cell treatments to clinical trial have been awarded up to £5 million in funding. The projects, which feature collaborations between UK and US research teams, are part of a jointly funded initiative between the MRC and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Award winners: Peter Coffey (University College London) and Mark Humayun (University of Southern California)
Value: £2.4 million
Stem cell-based treatment strategy for age-related macular degeneration
Award winners: Paresh Vyas (University of Oxford) and Irving Weissman (Stanford University)
Value: £2.3 million
Development of therapeutic antibodies targeting human acute myeloid leukaemia stem cells
Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council
Nearly £17 million of funding has been awarded to three multidisciplinary collaborations that will focus on neurodegenerative diseases. The projects will investigate the causes of these diseases to try to improve early diagnosis and develop effective therapies.
Award winner: Peter St George-Hyslop
Institution: University of Cambridge
Value: £6,155,689
Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders
Award winner: Christopher Shaw
Institution: King's College London
Value: £4,879,012
Motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia
Award winners: Nicholas Wood, John Hardy and Anthony Schapira
Institution: University College London
Value: £5,952,000
Parkinson's disease
IN DETAIL
European Union
Award winner: Zahir Irani
Institution: Brunel University
Value: EUR201,115 (£181,400)
CEES (Citizen-oriented Evaluation of eGovernment Services: a reference process model)
Working with colleagues from the American University of Beirut and Turkish private-sector partner Turksat, Professor Irani aims to develop a scientific evaluation framework to measure how satisfied citizens are with governments' use of information and communication services. It is hoped that the results from this study will be used to improve future e-government services and enhance its interactions with the public.