Grant winners – 15 December 2016

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Research Grants

• Award winner: Nicola Stanley-Wall
• Institution: University of Dundee
• Value: £2,671,630

Architecture of a biofilm

• Award winner: Robin Lovell-Badge
• Institution: Francis Crick Institute
• Value: £314,751

Sex-determining mechanisms in the chick

• Award winner: Martin Llewellyn
• Institution: University of Glasgow
• Value: £587,860

A microbial basis for Atlantic salmon energetics

• Award winner: Richard Harrison
• Institution: National Institute of Agricultural Botany
• Value: £530,395

The nature of resistance to Neonectria ditissima in apple species

National Institutes of Health Research

Health Technology Assessment

• Award winner: Bronagh Blackwood
• Institution: Queen’s University Belfast
• Value: £1,877,660

Sedation and weaning in children: the SANDWICH trial

Public Health Research

• Award winner: Christopher Bonell
• Institution: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Value: £483,065

Pilot RCT of Project Respect: a school-based intervention to prevent dating and relationship violence and address health inequalities among young people

• Award winner: James Lewsey
• Institution: University of Glasgow
• Value: £90,765

Evaluation of legislation to reduce the drink-drive limit in Scotland: a natural experiment

Economic and Social Research Council

Research Grants

• Award winner: Thomas Goodfellow
• Institution: University of Sheffield
• Value: £149,879

Urban development amid the ‘new scramble’ for Africa

• Award winner: Nicky Hudson
• Institution: De Montfort University
• Value: £429,324

Egg donation in the UK, Belgium and Spain: an interdisciplinary study

• Award winner: Adam Baird
• Institution: Coventry University
• Value: £80,571

Breaking Bad: how transnational drug trafficking creates violent masculinities in local Caribbean communities in Port of Spain

• Award winner: Christiana Gregouriou
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £81,491

Representation of transnational human trafficking in present-day news media, true crime, and fiction

In detail

Award winner: Sylvie Dubuc
Institution: University of Oxford
Value: £661,741

Son preference and sex selection against females in the UK: evidence, causes, trends and implications

It has been estimated that the population of Asia is missing 100 million girls because of an embedded preference for sons and the availability of prenatal sex-selection measures. Prenatal sex selection (PSS) against girls for non-medical reasons has also been found to exist among Asian communities in the UK, the US and Canada. This project will investigate PSS among Asian communities in the UK to understand gender preferences through the lens of these reproductive choices. Sylvie Dubuc and her colleagues will monitor sex ratio at birth and shifting trends between generations to reveal the context and extent of PSS in the UK, and conduct qualitative and ethical analyses of the phenomenon. Conclusions drawn from the project may be used to guide ethical policies and interventions to promote gender justice.