Grant winners – 25 May 2017

Natural Environment Research Council

• Award winner: Stuart Barr
• Institution: Newcastle University
• Value: £1,523,520

Flood-PREPARED: predicting rainfall events by physical analytics of real-time data

• Award winner: Mathew James Owens
• Institution: University of Reading
• Value: £307,290

Space weather impact on ground-based systems

• Award winner: Daniel Stone
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £428,670

Impacts of Criegee intermediate decomposition and reaction with water determined by direct measurements in ozonolysis reactions

Science and Technology Facilities Council

• Award winner: Richard Bates
• Institution: University of Glasgow
• Value: £88,633

Development on nano-imprint lithography stamps using DRIE PVD tungsten films

• Award winner: Judith Helen Croston
• Institution: Open University
• Value: £100,583

Jet energy injection in galaxy groups and clusters – transfer of CG funding

• Award winner: Benjamin Allanach
• Institution: University of Cambridge
• Value: £1,736,330

Particles, fields and extended objects

Economic and Social Research Council

Research grants

• Award winner: Susannah Hulley
• Institution: University of Cambridge
• Value: £330,466

Conceptions of violence, friendship and legal consciousness among young people in the context of joint enterprise

• Award winner: Irene Hardill
• Institution: Northumbria University
• Value: £467,293

Discourses of voluntary action at two “transformational” moments of the welfare state, the 1940s and 2010s

• Award winner: Rebecca Thompson
• Institution: Nottingham Trent University
• Value: £152,513

Who experiences or witnesses ASB and in what context?

In detail

Award winner: Alison Grant
Institution: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Value: £1,704,750

Infection prevention and control for drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa in the era of decentralised care: a whole systems approach

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a significant threat to global public health, and is estimated to account for one in four worldwide deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance. In South Africa, DR-TB transmission within clinics is well documented. More clarity is needed on the extent to which exposure in clinics, compared with other community settings, drives ongoing transmission of DR-TB, so that resources to address the problem can be organised.

Guidelines for clinics concerning infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to reduce DR-TB transmission are readily accessible, and while there is wide evidence that recommended measures are not put into practice, it is not known why. A comprehensive approach to understanding barriers to implementation is required to design effective IPC interventions for DR-TB. Failure of IPC measures for DR-TB is often attributed to healthcare workers’ non-adherence to guidelines.

The team will examine how a health system supports IPC measures, as a whole. They will explore biological, environmental, infrastructural and social dynamics of DR-TB transmission in clinics in two provinces in South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape), with the aim of providing evidence for effective ways to improve IPC for DR-TB.

John Elmes