Call to apply for White Rose Collaboration Fund
Researchers are invited to apply to the latest round of a highly successful funding scheme.
Amazonia 2020 (top) and 2500 (bottom) under moderate-high climate warming scenarios
Operated by the White Rose University Consortium (WRUC), the Collaboration Fund aims to support and encourage emerging partnerships across the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York – in particular, to support projects that have the potential to lead to larger, more strategic initiatives.
Applications for up to £15,000 per project are encouraged in areas where there are no existing collaborations between the universities. However, this does not exclude existing areas of collaboration where support might lead to enhanced activity and significant funding opportunities.
Many Leeds colleagues have won grants to lead projects with partners from York and Sheffield. Recent examples include:
- Refugia of Futures Past – research into the baseline conditions and distribution of future Earth human refugia, which the detailed palaeoclimate evidence can inform, led by Dr Christopher Lyon (School of Earth and Environment)
- Oral Health White Rose Consortium (OH-WRC) – a collaboration to provide exposure to oral health research in the Batley community – a region of high social deprivation, oral and health inequality and ethnic diversity – co-led by academics from the School of Dentistry Dr Julia Csikar and Dr Karen Vinall-Collier
- CLCI: Climate-Leaf Chemistry Interactions – investigating how climate impacts plant chemistry, as a key component in addressing the challenge of ensuring global access to secure and resilient food systems, led by Dr Fiona Gill (School of Earth and Environment) and Dr Karen Bacon (School of Geography); and
- Socially Responsible AI for Distributed Autonomous Systems – initiate a long-term collaboration and shape a solid ground for a new ambitious research area on socially-responsible robotic and autonomous systems, led by Dr Evangelos Pournaras (School of Computing).
Speaking about the importance of the Collaboration Fund grant, Dr Lyon said: “For Refugia of Futures Past project, the Collaboration Fund allowed us to undertake new long-term climate modelling, to literally paint pictures of the Earth, under different climate scenarios, and explore their implications for humanity.
“What’s amazing is how the Collaboration Fund has enabled a small group of diverse, creative and motivated experts from the natural and social sciences to co-create highly novel research into what must be the most pressing challenge humanity has ever faced.”
Dr Csikar and Dr Vinall-Collier said about their project: “The OH-WRC network consists of researchers, teachers, policymakers, local authority health personnel, children and students (to name but a few) to ensure the research grant application we are working towards is developed by those it is intended to affect.”
Leeds academics from the School of Dentistry - Dr Julia Csikar and Dr Karen Vinall-Collier – are leading a programme that involves University staff and students training sixth-formers to become oral health educators
Dr Csikar added: “Our first stakeholder event was co-produced by all stakeholders and led by the White Rose University Early Career Researchers. The artwork from a local artist captured some of the key ideas created from this event.”
Visit the WRUC website for details of how to apply to the Fund. The deadline for applications in this latest round is 12pm on Thursday 28 January 2021.
WRUC has also produced a report about the outcomes from the Fund, outlining many other success stories. You can contact Karen Tsui if you would like assistance with the development of emerging projects and draft applications.
Posted in: Research and innovation