Grant winners

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

The NIHR's Health Technology Assessment programme produces independent research information on the effectiveness, costs and impact of healthcare treatments and tests for those who plan, provide or receive NHS care. Listed here are the January-February 2010 grant awards.

- Award winner: Peter Brocklehurst

- Institution: University of Oxford

- Value: £2,622,157

Upright maternal position in second-stage labour in women with epidural analgesia: a randomised controlled trial

- Award winner: Laura Cunha Rodrigues

- Institution: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

- Value: £1,356,589

Case-control study to estimate the changes in the efficacy of BCG with time since vaccination

- Award winner: Catriona McDaid

- Institution: University of York

- Value: £195,909

Management of frozen shoulder: a systematic review and decision-analytic model

- Award winner: Kathy Rowan

- Institution: Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre

- Value: £2,683,188

Protocolised management in sepsis (Promise): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of early protocolised resuscitation for emerging septic shock

- Award winner: Nigel Scawn

- Institution: Cardiothoracic Centre Liverpool NHS Trust

- Value: £154,489

A pilot randomised control trial comparing seven days versus two days of empirical antibiotics to treat hospital-acquired infection of unknown origin in intensive-care patients

Natural Environment Research Council

- Award winner: S.A.A. Walsh

- Institution: National Museums of Scotland, Natural Sciences

- Value: £19,803

Neurological adaptations for flight - correlating form and function in the avian cerebellar flocculus

- Award winner: S.A. Josey

- Institution: Nerc National Oceanography Centre

- Value: £64,385

A novel temperature and salinity dataset for northern high-latitude seas (Atlas)

- Award winner: B. Kulessa

- Institution: Swansea University

- Value: £41,703

Seismic characterisation of subglacial conditions beneath the margin of the West Greenland Ice Sheet

IN DETAIL

Award winner: Ed Hawkins

Institution: University of Reading

Value: £58,603

Developing statistical climate forecasts for the coming decade

Dr Hawkins and his team propose to examine statistical ways to predict the climate during the next 10 years. Offering methods to test the accuracy of current complex climate models, the project will also seek to determine whether the resources invested add value to the predictions. The investigation will focus on predicting sea-surface temperatures: however, it is expected that future work could also examine air temperature and rainfall predictions to assist in future decision-making processes.