Grant winners

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research Seminar Awards

Psychology

• Award winner: Theodore Stickley

• Institution: University of Nottingham

• Value: £14,957

Researching arts, health and well-being

• Award winner: Michael Banissy

• Institution: Goldsmiths, University of London

• Value: £14,760

Social perception across the lifespan

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

Public Health Research programme

• Award winner: Paul Connolly

• Institution: Queen's University Belfast

• Value: £716,249

A cluster randomised, controlled trial evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis of the Roots of Empathy schools-based programme for improving social and emotional well-being outcomes among eight- to nine-year-olds in Northern Ireland

THE WELLCOME TRUST

Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards

The awards will range from £1 million over five years to £3 million over seven years.

• Award winner: Simon Myers

• Institution: University of Oxford

Development of statistical and experimental approaches to understand the roles of recombination and migration in human biology and disease risk

• Award winner: Mark McCarthy

• Institution: University of Oxford

Characterising causal alleles for common disease

• Award winner: Annette Dolphin

• Institution: University College London

Physiological and pathological regulation of calcium-channel and other ion-channel functions by alpha2delta subunits and their interacting proteins

• Award winners: Elizabeth Fisher and Victor Tybulewicz

• Institutions: University College London and MRC National Institute for Medical Research

Understanding Down's syndrome phenotypes through innovative mouse genetics

LEVERHULME TRUST

Research Project Grants

Sciences

• Award winner: Alexander Ruban

• Institution: Queen Mary, University of London

• Value: £176,412

Photosynthetic light harvesting in natural and artificial membranes

• Award winner: Michael Krom

• Institution: University of Leeds

• Value: £170,558

Understanding the delivery of phosphorus nutrient to the oceans

• Award winner: John Goodby

• Institution: University of York

• Value: £189,710

Microsponges derived from plant spores in novel materials applications

IN DETAIL

• Award winner: Catharine Ward-Thompson

• Institution: Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh

• Value: £948,024

How effective is Forestry Commission Scotland's woodland improvement programme - Woods in and around Towns (WIAT) - at improving psychological well-being in deprived communities?

Poor mental health is an expensive public health problem, costing billions in Scotland alone. This project will investigate whether better physical environments can help with public health. Seeing and visiting natural environments such as woodlands and parklands can boost people's mental health and well-being by, in particular, reducing stress. Forestry Commission Scotland has a scheme to work with local people to improve access to the woods in and around deprived communities, which they often find difficult to enter and use. The study will evaluate this programme's effects on health. It will also explore what has most effect on individuals: the woodland environment itself or social activities such as organised walks in woodlands?