RSE awards over £680K to support exceptional research projects

We are pleased to announce that 48 exceptional research projects have been selected at the spring 2024 Research Awards open call.

Over £680K will enable research across all academic disciplines, with projects including an investigation into the hidden costs of living with disability in Scotland, forecasting the strongest solar flares with physics-informed deep learning, using art to improve custodial experiences, and developing a non-invasive screening tool to assess oocyte and embryo quality.

In this latest round, lead investigators represent 12 of the 19 Scottish higher education institutions; however, the reach of these awards extends beyond Scotland, with collaborators representing 26 institutions in total, including international institutions in Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, France, and South Africa.

The RSE’s Research Awards Programme runs twice a year in spring and autumn. It aims to support Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research in Scotland, and promoting international collaboration.

The RSE is grateful for the ongoing support from the Scottish Funding Council.

The full list of new RSE Research Awardees is as follows:

RSE Small Research Grants

• Dr Richard Anderson, University of Aberdeen
  The Royal Navy and refuge: Enslaved asylum seekers in the age of abolition
• Dr Ashley Brown, University of Stirling, with collaborators Professor Kate Hunt, University of Stirling and Dr Allison Ford, University of Stirling
  Understanding progress and challenges in supporting people in prison to cut down or quit vaping
• Dr Louise Campbell, University of Dundee
  Investigating supranational influences on Scottish education policy
• Dr Diego Cantoni, University of Glasgow
  Screening and characterisation of host receptor interactions by the filovirus-secreted glycoproteins
• Professor Max Chipulu, Edinburgh Napier University
  Prudence risk culture: Does it drive robust sustainability strategies?
• Dr Oana Dobre, University of Glasgow, with collaborator Professor Delphine Gourdon, University of Glasgow
  Unravelling the link between breast cancer treatment and accelerated ageing
• Professor Suzanne Ewing, University of Edinburgh
  Work experience: ways of remembering (a) working life
• Dr Seemab Farooqi, University of Dundee, with collaborators Dr Xia Shu, University of Dundee and Dr Theresa Dunne, University of Dundee
  The price of inclusion: Exploring the hidden costs of living with disability in Scotland
• Dr Stewart Gault, University of Edinburgh
  The limits to life in ionic low-temperature environments
• Professor Nicki Hitchcott, University of St Andrews, with collaborator Dr Alice Urusaro Uwagaga Karekezi, University of Rwanda
  Stories of the mothers of children stolen from Rwanda
• Mr Rob Kennedy, Edinburgh Napier University, with collaborators Professor Nicola Ring, Edinburgh Napier University and Dr Jennifer Murray, Edinburgh Napier University
  Exploring views of children’s nurses and the public to the routine use of physical restraint in the care of hospitalised children
• Dr Johanna Linsley, University of Dundee
  Listening to Scotland’s performance archives
• Dr Jim MacPherson, University of the Highlands and Islands
  Traces of empire: Sites of coloniality in the Eastern Highlands
• Dr Carlos Martinez-Perez, University of Edinburgh, with collaborator Dr Arran Turnbull, University of Edinburgh
  Investigating the role of large genomic alterations in the development of treatment resistance in breast cancer
• Professor Sean McKee, University of Strathclyde, with collaborators Professor David Wheatley, University of Strathclyde and Professor Iain Stewart, University of Strathclyde
  Optimal design of a polymeric heart valve
• Dr Johanne Miller, University of the West of Scotland
  Creatively killing time in custody: Using art to improve custodial experiences
• Dr Miza Moreau, University of Glasgow
  Women in Yugoslav youth work actions: Cultural and political significance for contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Dr Fabien Naneix, University of Aberdeen, with collaborator Dr Kate Peters, University of Sussex
  Fighting unhealthy eating habits: The protective role of environment on juvenile obesity
• Dr Rebecca Walker, University of Aberdeen
  Design and synthesis of new chiral ferronematic liquid crystals
• Dr Danying Yang, Heriot-Watt University, with collaborators Professor George Stylios, Heriot-Watt University and Dr Akshaya Aliyana, Heriot-Watt University
  Investigating the design and wearability of smart garments in monitoring elderly health and wellbeing (WEARCare)
• Dr Tong Zhu, University of Dundee
  Household travel behaviour and fuel prices: New evidence from the energy crisis

RSE Research Collaboration Grants

• Dr Mahalaxmi Adhikari Parajuli, Abertay University, with collaborators Dr Mehul Chhatbar, Coventry University and Dr Seyefar Clement, University of Bedfordshire
  Application of sustainable development goals (SDGs) themes in the accounting curriculum of UK higher education institutions (HEIs)
• Professor Gobinda Chowdhury, University of Strathclyde, with collaborators Dr Joseph Marshall, National Library of Scotland, and Dr Christopher Schmidt-Supprian, Trinity College Dublin
  SustLDL-UK: Sustainable legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom
• Dr Sinead Currie, University of Stirling
  Establishing a multidisciplinary research network and developing research priorities for preconception health in Scotland
• Dr John Danial, University of St Andrews, with collaborators Dr Juan Varela, University of St Andrews and Dr Claire Durrant, University of Edinburgh
  Angstrom imaging of protein aggregates from living mice and human brains
• Dr Martina Fiori, Edinburgh Napier University, with collaborators Dr Marta Romeo, Heriot-Watt University and Dr Catherine Mahoney, Edinburgh Napier University
  Are nurses ready for robots? Understanding the technological literacy needs of nursing students
• Dr Giorgos Georgiou, University of Glasgow, with collaborator Dr Christopher Bauerle, Institute NEEL, CNRS and University of Grenoble Alpes
  TFLYQ (Terahertz Flying Qubits)
• Dr Lorna Elizabeth Gillies, University of Dundee, with collaborator Dr Michiel Poesen, University of Aberdeen
  Artificial intelligence and Scots law: Transforming the future
• Dr Paul Harkins, Edinburgh Napier University, with collaborator Professor Nick Prior, University of Edinburgh
  Musical collaboration in digital and domestic spaces (MUSCIDDS)
• Professor Lesley McAra, University of Edinburgh
  Gender equality: transforming global leadership
• Dr Megan McNamee, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Dr Jamie Forde, University of Edinburgh and Dr Halle O’Neal, University of Edinburgh
  The concertina-fold book across time, space, and cultures
• Dr Oisín Plumb, University of the Highlands and Islands, with collaborator Dr Andrew Lind, University of the Highlands and Islands
  Mapping identities: Visual depictions of Scotland
• Dr Isabelle Uny, University of Stirling, with collaborators Dr Neo Morojele, University of Johannesburg and Dr Andrea Mohan, University of Dundee
  Fostering Global South-Global North collaborations in alcohol research through enhancing the ICARA network
• Professor Emma Wild-Wood, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Dr Cogitator Mapala, Mzuzu University and Dr Alexander Isiko, Kyambogo University
  ‘Good health and wellbeing’: Convening experts at the intersection of faiths and healing practices in East-Central Africa
• Dr Jakub Zbrzezny, University of Aberdeen, with collaborators Dr Wei Zhao, University of Aberdeen and Professor Ehud Reiter, University of Aberdeen
  Al-ʿĀmīyah (Colloquial Arabic) and generative AI – a snapshot of its emerging text-to-text abilities

RSE Personal Research Fellowships

• Dr Ukachukwu Abaraogu, University of the West of Scotland
  Rehabilitation and exercise recommendations in dementia guidelines
• Dr Kate Cowcher, University of St Andrews
  From Dar to Dunoon: Rural Scotland and the global reach of African modernist art
• Dr Peter Mackay, University of St Andrews
  Collected poems of Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair
• Dr David MacTaggart, University of Glasgow
  Forecasting the strongest solar flares with physics-informed deep learning
• Professor Gearoid Millar, University of Aberdeen
  21st century peace work: Facing complex challenges
• Dr Nikki Moran, University of Edinburgh
  Reimagining musical accompaniment: Relating in life and art
• Dr Bernhard Schmidt, University of Glasgow
  New approaches to water-soluble degradable polymers
• Dr Valerie Wallace, University of St Andrews
  Scots law and British settler colonialism: Aotearoa New Zealand in the nineteenth century
• Dr Estelle Zinsstag, Edinburgh Napier University
  The development of restorative justice services in sensitive and complex cases: Survivor agency, policy decisions, and practice 

RSE International Joint Projects

• Dr Kaveh Delfanazari, University of Glasgow, will collaborate with Dr Takanari Kashiwagi, University of Tsukuba
  Chip-integrated, electrically-tunable source-sensor ultrafast superconducting coherent terahertz devices
• Dr Erika Kague, University of Edinburgh, will collaborate with Dr Paul Eckhard, Witten Gent University
  Deep dive into bone cells osteocytes in zebrafish
• Dr Chih-Jen Lin, University of Edinburgh, will collaborate with Professor Grażyna Ewa Ptak Jagiellonian, University in Krakow
  Oocytes/embryos fat (lipid fingerprint) analyser: Developing a non-invasive screening tool to assess oocyte and embryo quality
• Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, University of Aberdeen, will collaborate with Professor Bhaskar Chilukuri, Illinois State University
  Innovative bent-core liquid crystals as candidates in energy applications: Charge, light, and surface properties