Grant winners – 5 May 2016

National Institute for Health Research

Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme

• Award winner: Antonio Belli
• Institution: University of Birmingham
• Value: £360,101

Mechanism of action of tranexamic acid in isolated traumatic brain injury

Health Technology Assessment Programme

• Award winner: Bryony Beresford
• Institution: University of York
• Value: £172,924

Pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for non-respiratory sleep disturbances in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: a systematic review

• Award winner: Peter Hajek
• Institution: Queen Mary University of London
• Value: £1,280,552

Helping people cope with temptations to smoke to reduce relapse: a factorial randomised controlled trial

Leverhulme Trust

Research Project Grants
Sciences

• Award winner: Klaus Muller-Dethlefs
• Institution: University of Manchester
• Value: £153,531

Non-covalent interactions: an experimental and theoretical pathway towards exact binding energies

• Award winner: David Summers
• Institution: University of Cambridge
• Value: £162,118

Indole signalling and the electrical properties of the bacterial cell membrane

• Award winner: Allan Watson
• Institution: University of Strathclyde
• Value: £101,689

Can amine catalysis generate synthetically useful carbenes?

• Award winner: Baojun Wang
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
• Value: £160,211

Programmable single-cell biocomputers with scalable signal processing capacity

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Research grants

• Award winner: Jon Anderson
• Institution: Cardiff University
• Value: £495,582

A new literary geography: establishing a digital literary atlas of Wales and its borderlands

• Award winner: Nicola Pratt
• Institution: University of Warwick
• Value: £345,075

Politics and popular culture in Egypt: contested narratives of the 25 January revolution and its aftermath

In detail

Award winner: Karen Wise
Institution: Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Value: £192,024

Finding a voice: The art and science of unlocking the potential of adult non-singers

Despite singing’s popularity in popular culture, many adults exclude themselves from the pastime. Many associate themselves with “tone deafness” or a “non-singer”. Against an argument that “anyone can sing”, many non-singers believe: “you can either sing or you can’t – and I can’t.” This project will focus on those disenfranchised from singing, involving them in specially designed intervention programmes. The study will combine psychological, educational and artistic research to provide understanding of the journeys adult non-singers take in learning to sing, and the ways in which they can be supported. Although plenty of evidence exists that singing is a skill that can be improved on, there is little literature on how this occurs. The craft knowledge of professional singing coaches, who regularly report success in teaching those with singing difficulties, is largely undocumented. The project will integrate separate areas of research and practice, moving beyond pitch accuracy as the primary measure of “good” singing to reflect the multifaceted nature of singing as a means of expression and communication.