Guest blog by Susannah Deane, Research and Development Bid Writer (Social Sciences) at UWE Bristol
On 30th September 2026, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) held a virtual town hall to discuss changes to their funding schemes. With the closure of the current applicant-led schemes (Responsive Mode, New Investigator, and Secondary Data Analysis) on 4th November 2026, ESRC has recently announced a suite of new grants with two – Connect and React – already launching earlier this year. In the webinar, ESRC Executive Chair Stian Westlake and Executive Director of Research Jen Gold gave more details on the three new schemes opening over the next six months: Grow and Explore (opening 5th November) and Challenge (opening spring 2027).
Headline takeaways
More flexibility in terms of budget and the types of activities that researchers can undertake under the new schemes
Retained commitment to supporting early career researchers (ECRs)
Focus on novelty, pushing boundaries, and responsible risk-taking
Reduced emphasis on short-term impact
Decreased assessment time
ESRC have stressed that UKRI’s new strategic framework continues to have curiosity-driven research at its heart, and they hope that the new schemes will provide more freedom for applicants to propose the kind of approaches that they see fit. ESRC are keen to avoid inadvertently concentrating funding in certain areas, and there is a greater emphasis on supporting work that is at the knowledge frontier, even if the impact is more distant. They are also experimenting with ways of speeding up funding processes and making the process simpler for both applicants and reviewers.
New schemes Grow, Explore, and Challenge will be launched on an always-open basis with rolling assessment.
Grow (18mths-5yrs; £100-500k)
The Grow award will be focused on researcher development, whether at an early or later career stage. It is intended to support a dynamic, flexible, and internationally competitive social science research base that can anticipate and respond to emerging priorities, technologies, and opportunities, by supporting researcher development at key career points.
A core component of this scheme is to support those starting their careers to gain experience in leading and managing a research project. Grow will also support established researchers to develop in new directions, either by applying their expertise in a different social science discipline, or by gaining and using advanced skills to drive innovation in their own field (e.g. training in data analytics techniques; using new AI technologies). With this in mind, Westlake emphasised that applications will be assessed on their own merits, rather than being compared with one another across different career stages.
Explore (up to 5yrs; £300k-2M)
Explore is being launched in recognition of the important role that small teams play in driving growth through research. This scheme focuses on supporting innovative and disruptive ideas, and encourages ambitious ideas that push disciplinary, methodological, and conceptual boundaries. Research evidence – especially from the Metascience Unit – points to the important role that small teams often play in fostering new directions in research across many different disciplines. ESRC have stressed that there is still space to have a diversity of expertise in a small central research team, and there are specific other roles which may also be included in the proposal. Projects can include international co-leads, or collaborations with business, government, or third sector in different ways.
Challenge (up to 5yrs; £2-10M)
The Challenge award will launch in spring 2027, supporting ambitious programmes of research, innovation, or infrastructure that require experienced leadership and vision to deliver tangible impactful outcomes on complex challenges facing the economy, society, and the research system. The scheme will focus on bringing together diverse expertise to build capability, and will welcome applications from large teams. While this fund will take on some of the aspects of the previous research centre grants, it will also be open to fund different types of endeavours including large research programmes, networking schemes, and field-building at scale. With this fund, ESRC are looking to fund large projects that are making an ongoing contribution, and they will be looking for specific standalone, time-bound projects. More details on this scheme will be released in later 2026.
ESRC’s commitment to early career researchers remains pivotal: note that opportunities for ECRs are not limited to the Grow awards; ESRC are keen for ECRs to be part of teams in the Explore and Challenge funds too.
Assessment & grant processing times
While the Connect pilot used distributed peer review in the assessment process, the three new awards will be based on expert peer review and moderating panels, with the opportunity to respond to peer reviews as under the current schemes, and ESRC making final funding decisions. Westlake noted that they will be taking a portfolio-based approach to final funding decisions to ensure a diverse range of funded projects, and to enable a balance of ECR and more experienced researchers to receive funding.
In addition, ESRC are working to deliver on UKRI commitments to reduce grant processing times; with that in mind, decisions for Grow and Explore awards will start to be made in spring 2027. [There is currently no demand management planned for these schemes.]
Intellectual novelty & impact
Recognising the limitations of overly focusing on short-term impact, ESRC will move away from selecting only projects that are both high short-term impact and score highly on curiosity-driven research and intellectual novelty. Instead, they aim to provide a space for projects that are primarily about pushing the knowledge frontier, where the contribution to impact may be some way down the road and not achieved within the project itself, in addition to continuing to fund good projects that are highly impact-driven. Remember that it is still extremely important to discuss the impact of your research, even if the timeline for this is longer.
Connect & React pilot awards update
With Connect and React awards having already launched earlier this year, ESRC will be reviewing these pilot schemes through to spring 2027. The expectation is that these schemes will be relaunched in 2027, but we may see some adjustments following the review period.
Keep an eye out for webinar announcements, as ESRC will be giving updates on the schemes in due course.
Every organisation faces challenges that can benefit from specialist knowledge or a fresh perspective. You might be developing a product, looking to improve performance, responding to change or trying to turn an idea into something tangible.
At UWE Bristol, we connect organisations with the expertise, knowledge and facilities that can help them move forward.
We start by understanding your needs. You don’t need to come with us with a fully developed project. Tell us about the challenge you’re facing and we’ll help connect you with the right people, whether that’s academic experts, technical specialists or industry professionals.
Expertise for real-world challenges
UWE Bristol’s expertise spans a wide range of sectors and disciplines, so consultancy can look very different from one organisation to the next.
It could mean developing a new product, service or process, improving operational performance, accessing specialist technical or scientific knowledge, analysing data or bringing an independent perspective to an important decision.
Whether you’re a growing SME (small or medium-sized enterprise), a large organisation, working in the public sector, or a charity, the starting point is the same: what are you trying to achieve, and how can the right expertise help?
What can consultancy look like?
Organisations are already working with UWE Bristol expertise to tackle a variety of challenges.
“Working closely with ACT and receiving fast, bespoke tooling has been a breakthrough for our factory. It’s allowed us to explore new production lines, rethink manufacturing processes, and customise legacy equipment in way we hadn’t thought possible. The level of innovation they bring is truly exciting.”
“Working with the Health Tech Hub, we’re able to run checks and to develop our product without worrying so much about extortionate development fees. The Health Tech Hub also has a strong network and can help to expose your business to new opportunities.”
“It was so lovely to have conversations with UWE and have a sounding board, different ideas and different approaches. It’s reinforced how we would approach images in the future for new exhibitions and how we can make use of our historic collection and photography collections going forward. So, working with UWE unlocked that.”
More than advice
Working with UWE Bristol can give organisations access to more than one area of expertise.
Depending on the project, consultancy can draw on research, specialist facilities, technical expertise and knowledge from across different disciplines.
And sometimes an initial conversation can open the door to other ways of working together, from research partnerships and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) to student projects and innovation funding.
Start the conversation
You don’t need to come to us with a fully developed project.
If you have a challenge you’re trying to solve or an opportunity you’d like to explore, talk to us. We’ll take the time to understand what you need and connect you with the expertise that could help.
Tell us about your challenge and explore consultancy at UWE Bristol.
Dr Neil Philips, Lecturer in Computer Science and Innovation
Dr Owen Cranshaw, Research Fellow in Green Infrastructure
In this blog, we share some of our pilot research into the social and technical viability of installing ground source heat pumps in cemeteries, to generate energy for community buildings. For many, death remains a taboo topic, so this might be a startling proposition, so we will first explain our motivation and interest in the topic.
Unlike other spaces such as parks, which may be upgraded or redeveloped, burial grounds are unlikely to be disturbed over the long term, reducing the risk of damage to buried pipework and supporting the viability of the infrastructure investment. By absorbing solar heat, memorials may warm the surrounding ground, improving heat pump performance compared with grassland. However, cemeteries also currently play many roles in cities, offering spaces for recreation and nature, as well as burial and remembrance.
The research has three main parts. First, the capacity of a local cemetery, Shirehampton, Bristol was measured for hypothetical pipework installation. This involved looking at which paths would be suitable for pipework installation, and identifying any areas of greenspace not used for burial. Any proposals coming from this would not involve disturbing buried remains. Our ‘on the ground’ measurements at Shirehampton, using a measurement wheel, totalled 3,034-metres of straight path lines. Tracing the paths by eye in ArcGIS Pro gave an estimated area for the identified routes of 2,683-m², or around 13% of the cemetery’s total area (20,633-m²). Based on published performance a GSHP system installed along these paths could deliver in the region of 150,000–160,00 kWh of heat per year, roughly equivalent to the annual heating energy for 12 to 18 average UK homes, or a substantial contribution to a nearby community building such as a primary school.
Second, scaling this up nationally, we calculated the overall amount of cemetery land in England and Wales.
Our GIS analysis identified 2,255 cemeteries and burial groups across England and Wales, covering a combined area of 8,347 hectares (roughly equivalent to 12,000 football pitches). We then calculated how much of this land falls within practical distance of the kinds of community buildings that might benefit from locally-generated heat: places of worship, community halls and centres, schools, and libraries.
Community building type
Percentage (%) of cemeteries within 250m
Total number of sites
Site Hectares (multiply by 10,000 for m2)
Place of worship
70%
1,578
6,800
School (primary or secondary)
42%
947
Primary: 3518 Secondary: 1161
Community hall or centre
28%
631
2,717
Library
6%
135
422
The results are striking, particularly for schools. Forty-two percent of England’s cemeteries lie within 250 metres, the maximum practical reach of a ground-loop pipe network. As you would expect, places of worship are even more consistently co-located with cemeteries (70% within 250-metres), reflecting the deep historical relationship between churches and their adjacent burial grounds. Community halls and libraries are less commonly in close proximity however, overall, this suggests wider opportunities to explore cemetery-based geothermal heating.
Third, we explored the social and cultural acceptance of this idea. Regardless of how technically feasible the proposition may be, its social acceptability would be key to progressing this. A core part of this was a short survey, distributed primarily via the local community group, Shirehampton Action with whom we had discussed the project.
The survey received over 100 responses. On asking about the acceptability of installing heat pumps, views were strongly divided. Around 60% of respondents considered GSHP installation in cemeteries to be acceptable to some degree, while 29% felt strongly that it was wholly inappropriate. Installation was viewed as slightly more acceptable in a new cemetery site than an existing one, or if community facilities would benefit from the heat generated.
Qualitative comments reflected this strong difference in views- some stating that the question should not even be asked, but others saying they would much prefer a cemetery with heat pumps installed. Many asked further questions about the practical implications of such proposals- what would it look like during or after installation?
The findings demonstrate that this is a topic worth further, sensitive, research. From an engineering perspective, this pilot study has opened as many questions as it has answered. Cemetery paths are typically just one to two metres wide, irregular in layout, and flanked by memorials and tree roots — meaning that conventional ground source heat pump design methods do not straightforwardly apply.
Socially, these findings provide valuable insights into different views on the contemporary value of cemeteries, and personal attachments to both deceased loved ones and past populations and communities more generally. They raise questions about relative environmental and social values, and where the lines of acceptability are in the trade-offs for the many uses and meanings of different parts of our cities.
From L-R: Dr Jo Buring (GP, Bristol, NIHR Doctoral Fellow, University of Bristol); Ruby Osunsola (Nilaari); Dr Naabil Khan (Foundation doctor, Kent); Dr Tabinda Rashid-Fadel (Accure Health); Dr Reem Kayyali (UWE Bristol); Dr Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu (UWE Bristol); Francesa Arrigoni (Kingston University, London); Dr Praveen Kumar (Founder and Chair of Ethnic Inequality Research Network)
This is a guest blog by Dr Praveen Kumar, Associate Professor in Stroke Rehabilitation at UWE Bristol.
Health inequalities are rarely the result of a single issue. Gender, ethnicity, culture, mental health, trust in services and wider structural inequalities can all shape people’s experiences of healthcare. These interconnected challenges were at the heart of the Ethnic Health Inequalities Conference 2026, held on 8 October 2026 at EP1 Frenchay Campus, UWE Bristol, bringing academic, healthcare, community and lived-experience perspectives created opportunities to discuss inequalities and consider practical and holistic ways of addressing them and creating more equitable healthcare and research.
With World Menopause Day on 18 October, menopause and women’s health provided a particularly timely focus for the conference. The conference focus was also based on the release of the Renewed Women’s Health strategy for England.
Menopause: addressing inequalities in awareness, access and treatment
Dr Jo Buring (GP) practicing in Bristol explored inequalities in menopause awareness, access to care and treatment. Drawing on Patient and Public Involvement Engagement work with Somali, Afro-Caribbean and White communities in Bristol, alongside qualitative research exploring mental health issues during perimenopause phase, her session highlighted how women’s experiences of menopause can be shaped by wider social, cultural and health inequalities. The discussion emphasised the importance of ensuring that menopause research is genuinely inclusive and representative. Understanding the experiences of women from different communities is essential if we are to identify barriers to care and develop services that respond to the needs of women across the UK.
This focus was complemented by an insightful workshop led by Nathalie Sherring, CEO of Bristol Women’s Voice, exploring medical misogyny experienced by post-menopausal women. By placing lived experience at the centre of the discussion, the workshop moved beyond identifying problems towards practical action, with participants contributing to the development of a checklist designed to help women advocate for themselves within healthcare settings.
Dr Naabil Khan (Foundation doctor in Kent) further broadened the conversation around inequalities in women’s health, including maternity care and menopause, and challenged the limitations of approaches sometimes described as “Bikini Medicine” (refers to the outdated conceptualisation of women’s health as primarily focused on breast and reproductive health rather than whole-person health). The workshop highlighted diverse lived experiences and the importance of culturally responsive care, community engagement and practical action to address inequalities and inform research, service redesign and policy.
Connecting menopause and mental health
An important message from the conference was the need to recognise the connections between physical health, mental health and wider inequalities.
The relationship between perimenopause and mental health featured within the menopause discussions, while Dr Miriam Khan (GP) and Ruby Osunsola from Nilaari explored inequalities in Severe Mental Illness care and access to physical health checks among Global Majority communities in Bristol. Their PPIE work highlighted barriers relating to understanding, communication, trust and access to services. It also reinforced the importance of healthcare services working alongside community organisations and people with lived experience, rather than developing solutions in isolation. Their interactive workshop took this principle further by asking what meaningful community involvement in health research should look like. Drawing on Nilaari’s experience, the session explored trust, intersectionality and community expertise, encouraging a move beyond consultation towards shared ownership, influence and genuinely community-led research.
Anti-racism and institutional commitment
These conversations took place within a wider discussion about racial inequality and organisational responsibility.
As keynote speaker, Professor Sir Steve West, UWE Bristol Vice-Chancellor, shared UWE Bristol’s Anti-Racism Strategy. His contribution provided a meaningful context for the conference, highlighting the importance of creating a more inclusive and equitable university community and reinforcing the need for sustained institutional commitment to addressing racial inequalities, representing diverse voices and embedding anti-racist principles within organisational culture and practice.
This was particularly significant during Black History Month (October), providing an opportunity not only to reflect on inequality but also to consider the role institutions, researchers, healthcare professionals and communities can collectively play in creating meaningful and sustainable change for Global majority Groups.
Moving from consultation to partnership
A consistent message emerged across the conference:
Communities should not simply be consulted about health inequalities. They need to be partners in understanding and addressing them.
Bringing academic, healthcare, community and lived-experience perspectives together created opportunities not only to discuss inequalities but also to consider practical ways of addressing them.
Whether discussing menopause, mental health, women’s health or racial inequality, one message was clear:
Reducing health inequalities requires trust, accessibility, representation and genuine partnerships with communities.
By listening to diverse voices, recognising lived experience as expertise and moving from consultation towards shared ownership, universities, healthcare services and community organisations can work together to create research, services and policies that are more inclusive, equitable and responsive to the communities they serve.
Our sincere thanks to Dr Alice Berry, Dr Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu and Dr Vincent Singh for abstract reviewing; Dr Tabinda Rashid-Fadel and Dr Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu for chairing sessions; and Emma Thomas, Abi Price, Abi Goddard, Emma Dent and Charlie Buckfield for event management. We also thank Professor Marc Griffiths, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and Professor Fiona Cramp, Director of CHCR, for generously supporting the venue and refreshments. A special thanks to Poppy Shields for her excellent behind-the-scenes administrative support throughout. Your collective contributions were greatly appreciated and helped make the conference a success.
Organising committee
Dr Tabinda Rashid-Fadel (Accure Health); Zehra Haq (CEO, Dhek Bhal), who worked for almost 40 years to support the South Asian community in Bristol), Dr Vincent Singh (Senior Lecturer, UWE) and Dr Praveen Kumar (Associate Professor in Stroke Rehabilitation, founder and Chair of the Ethnic Inequality Research Network, UWE Bristol).
For Black History Month this year’s theme, Honouring Communities, recognises those whose contributions create meaningful change. Newly promoted UWE Bristol professors Tinkuma Edafioghor, Mwidimi Ndosi, Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu and Ifeoma Elizabeth Dan-Ogosi share how their work connects academic excellence with community knowledge to improve health outcomes, strengthen organisations and create opportunities for others.
Dr Tinkuma Edafioghor
Strengthening enterprises through people and practice
Dr Tinkuma Edafioghor is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at UWE Bristol, with a particular interest in organisational resilience and how small and medium-sized businesses survive, adapt and grow through challenging times.
Published in leading international journals, including Human Resource Management, her research explores how people and HR practices build organisational resilience.
Additionally, Tinkuma leads a project funded by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Caucus (EDICa), with UKRI and British Academy support through Heriot-Watt University, examining how hybrid working affects Black women academics’ productivity, visibility and career progression. She also founded the Black Business Leadership & Growth Partnership for the West of England, which gives Black-led small businesses practical, research-informed support in leadership, resilience and growth. For Bristol’s Black Small Business Show, Tinkuma delivered the webinar “Understanding Business Resilience: Why Some Businesses Survive and Others Don’t”, sharing practical insights with local Black business owners. Her guiding principle:
For me, research should not just sit in journals. It should make a real difference to people, organisations and communities.
Mentoring, faith and community support
Through the Network for Black Women Leaders (NBWL) and the alta mentoring platform, Tinkuma supports women’s leadership and career progression. As an alta steering-group member, she helps expand the platform across aviation, aerospace and space. She also co-founded the Safe Space Initiative for Black Women in Higher Education, a national network launched at UWE Bristol in September 2026 where Black women in academia can connect, share experiences and support one another, with plans to reach more people across the sector.
In Bristol, Tinkuma serves the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Glory of God Parish, as Assistant Pastor, Sunday School teacher and Minister in Charge of Evangelism, Community Outreach and house caring fellowships. She mentors young people and emerging church leaders, and coordinates support for vulnerable community members through activities including coffee mornings and food donations. She also helps international students adapt to UK study through informal sessions on the academic system, essay writing, critical thinking and note-taking, recognising their varied educational backgrounds. Across her research, mentoring, church and community work, she creates opportunities and helps others thrive.
I am guided by the African philosophy of Ubuntu, the idea that our humanity is connected and that when we lift others, we all rise together.
Prof Mwidimi Ndosi
Putting patient priorities at the heart of care
As Professor of Rheumatology and Health Outcomes, Mwidimi Ndosi connects clinical research with patients’ priorities. He develops and validates patient-reported outcome measures and supports self-management for people with long-term rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions.
I am interested in ensuring that patients’ perspectives are incorporated into the development and evaluation of healthcare interventions, and that research findings can be translated into meaningful improvements in clinical practice and outcomes that matter to patients.
Mwdimi recently completed a four-year term as Chair of the Health Professionals Committee of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology, contributing to European work on education, standards of care and advocacy. The role reinforced his commitment to multidisciplinary working and to ensuring accessible, evidence-based and person-centred care for people living with rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions.
Opening doors through knowledge and representation
For Mwdimi, honouring community means contributing through service, mentorship and making health knowledge accessible beyond academia. He supports rheumatology education and capacity-building where specialist services and learning opportunities are limited. In Tanzania, he helps educate health professionals, provides information to patient groups and, with local colleagues, highlights the need for stronger professional education, patient support, research and rheumatology services. This work reduces barriers to knowledge and builds sustainable local capacity.
For me, academic citizenship means using my experience and position to help create opportunities for others.
Mwidimi also shares research and health information through mainstream and digital media, including BBC Swahili, helping to make evidence more accessible to diverse audiences. In addition he volunteers with parkrun to encourage physical activity and wellbeing across different ages and abilities. Within higher education and research, he mentors early-career researchers, clinicians and aspiring academics, helping them gain the confidence, skills and opportunities to progress. His own path from nursing to professorship was not straightforward. As a Black academic and nurse, he has seen the value of representation, opportunity and encouragement, strengthening his commitment to those underrepresented in senior roles.
Prof Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu
Expanding participation in active, healthy lives
Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu is a medical doctor and Professor of Physical Activity, Ageing and Community Health at UWE Bristol, as well as a Distinguished Professor of Public Health at MIVA University, Nigeria.
Her research develops physical activity interventions with underserved groups, including older adults, global majority Black and Asian communities, Muslim women and people with long-term conditions such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), in an effort to tackle health inequalities.
My work is participatory and co-designed, and it advocates for greater inclusion in health research and clinical trials.
Faatihah has secured about £3 million in Research and Knowledge Exchange funding from the Medical Research Council, Medical Research Foundation and Innovate UK. Her projects include Fitbees, a digital service helping South Asian older adults and adults with learning difficulties stay active and connected, and Family Backyard Cricket, which promotes intergenerational activity and social cohesion in South Asian and Black families. She is currently working on C2REST, a longitudinal study of the effects of climate change and air pollution on respiratory health in urban and rural Nigeria. Faatihah is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health and Secretary of the low- and middle-income country International Society of Physical Activity and Health Research Counciln (LMICISPAH).
From evidence to everyday impact
Faatihah founded Ageing Lifestyle in Blacks and Asians (ALIBSA), a global knowledge-exchange and research-engagement programme that improves health literacy and confidence in accessing services among ageing Black and Asian communities. Since 2023, it has offered free monthly webinars on ageing and healthy living across several continents.
She also established FaithFit, which equips multifaith leaders to promote physical activity, and the Renal Health Initiative, which supports CKD awareness, prevention and treatment through faith-led outreach in Nigeria, where one in ten adults is affected. In 2025, the initiative screened more than 200 people and referred 30 for further investigation. She later led the CoolKidney workshop with stakeholders and outdoor workers on heat stress and kidney health, alongside a related UK study funded through BNSSG ICB research capability funding with UWE Bristol colleagues in Architecture and Built Environment and Engineering.
I believe research has its greatest value when it improves lives, so much of my work extends beyond the university into communities locally and globally.
Mentoring is central to Faatihah’s work through the Royal Society Career Development Fellowship, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and UWE Bristol Women Researchers’ Mentoring Scheme. She hosted a grant-writing workshop for Breaking Barriers for Black Academia and runs “Dragons’ Den: Nurturing Research”, where early-career researchers in the Global South pitch ideas and receive feedback and mentorship through her ISPAH role.
At UWE Bristol, she co-leads the Black Professoriate Group, coordinates the Africa Staff Network and serves as EDI co-lead for the School of Applied Sciences. Her work has received the UWE Bristol Community Impact Staff Award and Black Hall of Fame Award.
Dr Ifeoma Elizabeth Dan-Ogosi
Creating inclusive classrooms where students thrive
Ifeoma Elizabeth Dan-Ogosi is an Associate Professor in Public Health and Social Justice in UWE Bristol’s School of Health and Social Wellbeing, where she leads the MSc Leadership for Public Health and the Public Health Leadership and Management apprenticeship module.
After training in microbiology and working in sales in Nigeria, Ifeoma rebuilt her career in the UK through health research and higher education, completing her PhD in 2023 while working full-time. This journey informs her commitment to creating classrooms where every student can belong and succeed.
In May 2026 I gave the closing keynote at the Global Empowerment and Inclusion Summit at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. In September I gave a TEDx talk in Abuja. The title was: The Girl They Silenced, Built the Room Anyway. Neither of those stages was on anyone’s plan for me – including mine. This is the story of what I built when the system said no.
Across sixteen years of teaching and research at four UK universities, Ifeoma developed the Transformative Multicultural Classroom (TMC) model, drawing on Freire, bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins to embed cultural and psychological safety in everyday practice. Modules taught through TMC achieve first-sit pass rates of 98.8–100%, with students from Global Majority backgrounds making up 60% of high performers. These results are proof that when belonging is embedded into the structure of education, outcomes improve for everyone. The University of Southampton has adopted the model within its Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, and it is also being implemented at the University of Gloucestershire, University Centre Weston and UWE Bristol. Ifeoma is now writing a book on TMC and co-editing Public Health Leadership: Learning from Experience in the UK for Policy Press.
Building networks and widening opportunity
Ifeoma co-chairs the Steering Board of 100 Black Women Professors Now, run by WHEN Equality, and brought the programme to UWE Bristol, where it has secured funding for a further three years. Four UWE Bristol participants have since been promoted: three to Associate Professor and one to Professor. Alongside Tinkuma, Ifeoma co-founded the Safe Space Initiative for Black Women in Academia, with the motto “Connected, supported, thriving”. She also leads InspireHerNow, a women’s empowerment initiative, and a Black and Menopausal group supporting Black women experiencing menopause.
I describe myself as a Positive Disruptor and a Relentless People Connector. I challenge what holds people back, and I never stop bringing people together, because I believe progress happens when people are connected, championed and lifted up.
Since 2018, Ifeoma has mentored more than 50 early-career academics and PhD students across six universities and serves on the steering board of PhD Beyond 50s, where she also contributes her qualitative research expertise to its seminars.
At UWE Bristol, Ifeoma contributed to the anti-racism strategy and champions student success, disability access and widening participation. She also initiated and co-led the African Cultural Showcase, (with Dr Chizoba Esio-Bassey, Diana Peprah and Chinedum Ekene Samuel, supported by Dr Eugie Ntekor, Isaac Anaquador, Bea Payne, Mo Ebengo and Olabimpe Adegbuyi) which brought together more than 170 staff, students and members of the wider community. She received five awards in 2025 – three for equality, diversity and inclusion, and two recognising her community service, teaching and learning, and research. Subsequently she has been named a Role Model Future Leader in the INvolve People Awards.
What connects all of this is a single conviction: the system changes when the people it excluded come back and build the room anyway. That is what I am doing. And I am just getting started.
Together Professors Edafioghor, Ndosi, Niyi-Odumosu and Dan-Ogosi exhibit how research, leadership and service can create lasting change when communities are placed at the heart of these endeavors. By sharing knowledge, widening opportunities and supporting others to thrive, they embody the essence of Honouring Communities and are helping to build a more inclusive future.
This is a guest blog written by Dr Laura Hobbs, Senior Research Fellow in Science Communication and lead for Science Hunters.
In August, UWE Bristol’s Science Hunters team travelled to Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s Summer Stargazing event, where families gathered to witness a near-total solar eclipse. Alongside the excitement of the astronomical event, children had the chance to discover the science and engineering behind the UK’s national space laboratory.
Based in the Science Communication Unit (SCU), the Science Hunters team develop practice and research in engaging children and young people with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects through interactive topic exploration and constructive play in Minecraft. Supported by a Spark Award from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Science Hunters: Space Missions in Minecraft project brings together specialists from UWE Bristol and RAL Space to create, deliver and evaluate activities introducing real-world space science, testing facilities and Earth observation.
The Summer Stargazing event at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus offered visitors a packed programme of talks, tours, demonstrations and practical activities meeting the needs of the broad age ranges attending. Alongside opportunities such as creating and coding light sensors, recreating the solar system using fluffy planets and trying ice cream made using liquid nitrogen, visitors could join the Space Missions in Minecraft team to explore the most complex telescope ever flown: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The session introduced children to the telescope and how it helps explore the history of the universe. Using RAL’s JWST Lego model and an infrared camera display, participants learned why the telescope needs to remain extremely cold to detect infrared light from space to allow study of distant galaxies, the first stars, forming planets and more.
They then put this knowledge into practice by designing their own space telescopes in Minecraft. Like real engineers, they had to think about where their telescope would be located, how it would be shielded from heat, and how it would be powered to communicate with Earth.
As the eclipse began, activities paused and visitors headed outside. Equipped with eclipse glasses and gathered around solar telescopes, families and event staff fell silent as the Moon moved between the Earth and the Sun. Afterwards, visitors returned to the activities full of questions and enthusiasm. The Space Missions in Minecraft team spoke with families about the JWST, space science and how Minecraft can be used to explore complex scientific ideas and admired some excellent telescope designs created by participants.
The Summer Stargazing event was highly rated for inspiration and relevance to their lives by participants, demonstrating the power of combining cutting-edge research with creative public engagement. Through the partnership between UWE Bristol and RAL Space, young people were able to connect with real-world science, develop their problem-solving skills and perhaps even imagine themselves as the scientists and engineers of the future.
“We had the most amazing experience. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening from the lecture to all the stands in the visitor centre and were very impressed how well everything was pitched to engage all levels of scientific background.”
Event participant feedback, courtesy of STFC.
The Science Hunters team are continuing their collaboration with RAL Space at recent and future events at the campus, including Space Explorers Day and Jamboree on the Internet, and the ESA-ECSAT Open Day with support from the European Space Agency.
The case of Bronwen James in the south-west of England raises the question of how we understand females who sexually abuse children and young people, and how we safeguard them within our schools and educational establishments. James was found guilty by a jury in Winchester of sexual offences related to a male student in her care when she was a teacher, and at the conclusion of the trial, further information came to light of her sexually abusing two female pupils. This case is important as it raises questions about the nature of child sexual abuse, safeguarding in schools, risk management, and how best to respond as well as prevent sexual abuse by people in positions of trust.
The research and evidence base around women who commit sexual abuse of children is quite sparse, and the topic is under-researched and underdeveloped. There are several reasons for this, including that there are fewer cases of females who sexually abuse children reported to the police, prosecuted, and therefore in the criminal justice system. Traditionally, child sexual abuse is seen as a male crime, and the criminal justice research and evidence support this. However, this does not mean that women cannot and do not commit child sexual abuse. It is important to understand that women who commit crimes are often processed, sentenced and managed differently throughout the criminal justice system, especially compared to males, with more points of intervention and divergence. Therefore, there are scale, logistical and management reasons they are a smaller cohort. Another important reason is that boys are less likely to come forward and report sexual abuse in general, but specifically by women, as it sits at odds with cultural ideas linked to masculinity, sex, and power. This is reinforced in society by the media and social commentary that boys have sexual relations as a rite of passage and not necessarily abuse, in contradiction to how it is framed when it’s a male teacher and female student. Socially and culturally, we must talk about the motivations and impact of child sexual abuse the same regardless of the gender, race or cultural background of the person committing the harm and the child harmed; but we do not, and this undermines victims’ experiences and damages effective risk management. In the James case, it is important to acknowledge that her victims were both boys and girls, which is a relative risk factor in child sexual abuse cases. For schools and educational establishments, it means that they need to be aware of the individualised nature of risk and the fluidity of offending behaviour.
One of the main talking points about this case was that to be a teacher, or to work with children and young people in a position of trust in England and Wales, you need a background check. Background checks rely on past convictions and information known and recorded in the system about a person. This highlights the challenge of using background checks to mitigate risk; they only work with known individuals. Therefore, schools and youth-serving organisations need to be working preventatively with staff, partners and students to highlight the warning signs of sexual abuse, how to report it and then how to manage it. The James case highlights that prevention strategies need to be better developed in schools, educational establishments, and youth-serving organisations, and in doing so they need to be consistent about anyone’s capacity to commit or be a victim of child sexual abuse.
£14.5bn for curiosity-driven foundational research
£8.3bn for targeted R&D addressing government and societal priorities
£7.4bn to support innovative companies to start, scale and stay in the UK
£8.4bn for skills, talent, infrastructure and national facilities underpinning all three areas
That blog focused on the broad “buckets” of UKRI funding. UKRI has now published its new five-year strategy (2026–2031) alongside its Delivery Plan for 2026–27. Since the budget itself was already known, there are few new spending commitments, but there’s now much more clarity on what UKRI’s priorities are, how it intends to invest, and who it expects to work with.
To summarise the changes in a sentence: UKRI intends to be more selective, less duplicative, and more challenge-led in what it prioritises, and be faster, more flexible, and more responsive in how it funds.
What funding areas does the strategy prioritise?
Curiosity-driven research
UKRI has explicitly protected a large “investigator-led” budget (£3.3bn) to support discovery research, underpinned by dual support and quality-related (QR) funding. UKRI says it is “committed to supporting and sustaining [this] investment, growing as the economy allows”. In practice this means open responsive calls will continue, though their format may evolve; the Delivery Plan mentions new open applicant-led schemes for BBSRC, and five new ESRC schemes (React, Connect, Grow, Explore, Challenge).
QR funding is still championed, but its allocation method is under review. Research England’s Strategic Institutional Research Funding (SIRF) review, running to 2030, is examining whether the formula-based funding given to English universities should better reward specialisation and collaboration. This echoes last autumn’s Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, which wants to see “fewer broad generalist providers and more specialists” over time, with institutions collaborating rather than duplicating effort.
Strategic government and societal priorities
A revised emphasis is on targeted R&D to address government-defined challenges. This will mainly be delivered through integrated “Priority Programmes” which broadly align to the eight Industrial Strategy-identified sectors (IS-8), as well as leaving some space “wider priorities” categories that do not fit neatly within the IS8. The overarching message is that “UKRI will be selective about interventions to maximise the return for the UK”, emphasising the general approach of doing fewer things, better. These programmes don’t replace the old Research Councils, but are intended to break down the siloing that occurs across them, with Priority Programmes overseen by UKRI’s own programme board(s). Other UKRI organisational reforms also support this: rather than each Council guarding its own budget, resources will be dynamically managed across UKRI as a single portfolio, allowing funding to be reprofiled mid-year to capture emerging opportunities.
Industry and commercialisation
UKRI has substantially boosted support for business-led innovation (£7.4bn). Innovate UK is being refocused, via new service offers and IP support, to help spin-outs, scale-ups and R&D-intensive companies grow, including through its account-managed Velocity service for fast-tracking commercialisation. Mechanisms for research translation are also being simplified (see below).
How will funding change?
Faster and more responsive funding
UKRI wants faster, more agile decision-making: grant processing times will be cut through new assessment mechanisms and simplified applications. The target is to bring application-to-decision times down to 90 days for applicant-led calls and 60 days for targeted calls by 2031.
Some of this ‘speeding-up’ is expected to come from more experimental review methods which have been piloted with by the Metascience Unit (established under the former DSIT in 2024, now sitting within the merged business department). Distributed Peer Review, already trialled in 2025, asks applicants to assess each other’s proposals rather than relying solely on external reviewers. UKRI is now building this into a wider AI-assisted evidence platform intended to speed decisions further, alongside faster desk rejection of applications that clearly don’t meet the criteria.
As well as changes on the UKRI-side, there continues to be a trend towards more University-side ‘demand management’ (limiting how many applications an institution can submit to a given call). REE will continue to work on facilitating this demand management as quickly, efficiently, and fairly as possible.
Simplification and deduplication
Where possible, UKRI are trying to reduce duplication of schemes and harmonise them to use the same terminology. For example, in relation to innovation funding schemes there now will be a “new framework [which] reduces the number of schemes [they] run, helping simplify our offer and making sure [they] use consistent terminology across UKRI” (Prosperity Partnerships to enable collaborative R&I; Impact Acceleration to test applicability of new ideas to commercial application; Proof of Concept funding to test these ideas at scale, and Entrepreneurship training support).
Who will UKRI work with and expect universities to partner with?
UKRI is growing increasingly ambitious in encouraging private co-investment: UKRI is targeting 3:1 leverage on its Priority Programmes (compared to historic levels of 2:1 in wider R&I investment), so bids developed alongside industry, charity or other private funding may be viewed more favourably. Innovate UK, the Catapult network and new sector-specific Tech Boards are the main named delivery partners on this side of the strategy.
Collaboration with local government (be that city regions/councils, combined authorities, or NHS bodies) is another expectation. Through the £500m Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (which funded its first tranche of programmes in April 2026), UKRI wants city regions, combined authorities and universities to co-design programmes around genuine local strengths. In parallel with this and other investments (e.g. OxCam Arc), UKRI will also publish a refreshed “place funding policy” this year. This regional approach was further cemented in the devolution of “later-stage innovation funding” in the recent Rewiring the State – Cabinet Statement.
Internationally, UKRI is prioritising partnerships with the greatest mutual scientific and strategic benefit, particularly multilateral programmes like Horizon Europe and organisations such as CERN. Of note, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)’s annual report and accounts for 2025-26 were published recently, showing that 2025-26 Horizon Europe associated cost was £2.043bn against an allocated figure of £2.736bn.
Broader context
UKRI’s reforms sit inside a wider policy landscape rather than standing alone. The Industrial Strategy’s eight priority sectors (IS-8) provide the framework most Priority Programmes will map onto; the Defence Industrial Strategy (Sept 2025) commits to significant defence spending growth with an emphasis on dual-use technology (aligning with UKRI’s push on AI, quantum and engineering biology); and the AI for Science Strategy (Oct 2025) earmarks around £137m for AI-driven science, likely feeding into UKRI’s own AI-focused calls. The Post-16 White Paper, discussed above, shapes how QR funding and specialisation evolve alongside the SIRF review.
This backdrop now sits under a new government. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July 2026, and one of his first acts was to abolish DSIT, folding its science and innovation responsibilities into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) under Jonathan Reynolds, with some digital and creative-industries functions moving to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport under Lisa Nandy, and universities policy moving to Lucy Powell at Education.
Early signals suggest Burnham intends to preserve the existing R&D settlement and Industrial Strategy rather than reopen them, but his “Manchesterism” emphasis on devolved, bottom-up growth, echoed already in UKRI’s own Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, makes it likely that regional research funding and devolution deals gain even more prominence over this parliament.
What this means for you and for UWE
Think about sector and regional strengths
Show how your work contributes to Industrial Strategy sectors (e.g. IS-8 sectors such as AI, health, clean energy), major agendas (NHS Long Term Plan, AI for Science) or regional strengths (West of England creative tech, green clusters etc.).
Embrace interdisciplinary calls and programmes.
Collaborate across UWE, external academics partners, or with industry partners to fit with the new Priority Programmes, supported by UWE’s new internal funding routes if pump-priming is needed.
Contact REE’s BID team to get help with positioning bids for outcome-driven calls, as well as keeping on top of new funding opportunities through the Research Funding Bulletin.
Consider commercialisation and partnerships early.
Engage REE’s Innovation and Impact team as soon as you realise your research could spin out technology or inform policy.
Develop and nurture industry, third-sector and local government contacts to bolster bids, with help from REE’s Business and Alumni Partnerships team.
Monitor and learn new processes
Get ahead by reading UKRI’s guidance from their pilot on Distributed Peer Review and other new schemes so that timely submissions and quick revisions (if invited) don’t catch your team out.
Lynne Fernandes Optometrists is a highly skilled, national award-winning Optometrists founded by Lynne and Gerard Fernandes. It is one of the most respected and trusted UK independent opticians, with highly qualified optometrists and industry-leading technology. Their innovative eye care and exemplary customer service is continuously improved by investment in equipment and products to provide personalised eye care and vision correction of the highest standard.
The Knowledge Base team was made up of Mario Vafeas, Michelle Jackson, and Mary-Ann Sherratt. Professor of Marketing, Mario Vafeas teaches undergraduate and masters; he is involved in Knowledge Exchange Projects with SMEs, and research in the field of buyer-seller relationships and value co-creation. Michelle Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in the Business School, teaching at undergraduate and master’s level and is an experienced marketer and marketing manager. Mary-Ann Sherratt was the Workforce Development Portfolio lead, and Clinical Lead for Optometry and is now Head of Optometry and Consultant Optometrist at Bristol Eye Hospital.
About the KTP Associate:
David Todd worked as a Marketing and Business Change Manager with Lynne Fernandes Optometrists and UWE Bristol. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategy, Change and Leadership, as well as Business Administration. During his time on the KTP programme, David benefitted from extensive training, including a course at Ashorne Hill on Strategy and Innovation, and studied for a Diploma in Digital Marketing.
When asked if he would recommend the KTP Associate role, David shared:
“I would thoroughly recommend the programme to other graduates. You quickly gain knowledge and experience that can make a positive difference to the organisation you work with. You will always have problems, and I have found on several occasions talking to the right people makes a tremendous difference – people want to help. I feel that it is a springboard to a successful and interesting career. The programme gives you the tools and knowledge to progress and enables you to be an asset to your organisation. It is just a pity that more people do not know about it!“
Photo: David Todd, KTP Associate
About Innovate UK:
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. Their mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.
The Challenge the KTP Addressed:
The KTP project set out to address the follow aims:
Repositioning and relaunching the EyeSense subscription
A key challenge for LFO was to fundamentally reposition and successfully relaunch its EyeSense subscription, clearly articulating its value proposition and differentiating it from traditional eye care offerings in a market dominated by large competitors.
Introducing performance standards and monitoring
LFO faced the challenge of introducing consistent performance standards and robust performance monitoring across the business, in order to enhance patient experience while simultaneously improving eyecare outcomes.
Scaling the business and workforce
Another significant challenge was increasing the number of LFO practices on the high street and expanding the workforce within a year of project completion, requiring scalable systems, leadership capacity, and sustainable growth processes.
For Lynne Fernandes Optometrists (LFO), continued growth, competitiveness, and resilience in the face of the ‘big three’ presented a clear challenge. Competing on price was neither viable nor desirable; to prosper, LFO had to differentiate itself by delivering demonstrable added value to customers.
This made the expansion of its EyeSense subscription service not just an opportunity, but an imperative. However, scaling this service posed a significant challenge: it demanded management capability, alongside robust clinical and business systems and processes that the company did not yet have in place.
Photo: Newly refurbished practice on Wells Road (Bristol)
The Solution:
To address Lynne Fernandes Optometrists strategic growth ambitions, they undertook a programme of organisational development, focusing on embedding new management practices, cultural change and leadership capability.
These changes were essential to enable the scalable relaunch and growth of its innovative EyeSense subscription service, which offers predictive and preventative eye care and differentiates the business from more reactive competitors. LFO had previously engaged marketing expertise where the understanding of the importance of care quality had been misunderstood. Similarly, it was difficult to find people with clinical expertise who understood business and marketing.
Facing challenges in aligning clinical expertise with business and marketing capability, LFO partnered with experts from Bristol Business School and Optometry to manage this growth period rigorously. This led to the embedment of these changes within LFO, ensuring long-term impact beyond the project’s lifetime.
Photo: Inside the Nailsea Practice
The Impacts/Benefits of the KTP
The KTP delivered clear benefits for all partners. For Lynne Fernandes Optometrists, it resulted in a defined positioning statement for EyeSense, and a marketing plan for EyeSense, providing a strategic framework for future communications. The project also introduced standardised operating procedures, a new patient record coding system, and an electronic questionnaire, supporting improved efficiency and consistency. In 2025, the LFO group achieved 10% growth – EyeSense revenue had increased due to a fee uplift. Retail performance had been particularly strong, which was an impressive result given the broader UK retail landscape and the challenges which faced optical retail.
For UWE Bristol, the KTP project generated both academic and practitioner-focused outputs, including data collection for two research papers, one of which examines how tensions affect resource integration and outcomes in a private healthcare setting, and, jointly with the Associate, the development of a teaching case study based on brand positioning and branding hierarchy in an SME. These outputs contribute to academic dissemination and strengthen the potential for a future REF impact case study.
The KTP Associate gained a professional marketing qualification and completed the Strategy Innovation course, supported the advancement of their research and strategic skills through interviews, customer research via customer survey and operational development. This fed into the development of a positioning statement for EyeSense, which will guide all future marketing communications, and also led staff training and the implementation of new procedures, contributing to capability building within the business. They also developed standardised operating procedures – supporting staff development, new ways of working and ran staff training sessions.
What the partners have to say…
“The KTP has been a challenging but supported way of increasing and learning from cross discipline collaboration to the benefit of Lynne Fernandes Optometrists. In turn this will benefit patients in our geographical area and potentially influence national eyecare.“
Gerard Fernandes, Company Chair, Lynne Fernandes Optometrists
Photo: Gerard Fernandes, Optometrist and Director, Lynne Fernandes Optometrists
What the Knowledge Base partners have to say…
Academic Lead
“From an academic perspective the KTP was an opportunity to apply research-based knowledge to real-world commercial problems. The two-year project generated teaching material and provided the academic team with data for a new research paper. Working on a multi-disciplinary project, which had full commitment from the firm’s leadership team, was a very positive and rewarding experience.“
Mario Vafeas, Professor of Marketing, UWE Bristol.
Photo: Mario Vafeas, Professor of Marketing, Bristol Business School, UWE Bristol
Academic Supervisor
““Being involved with a KTP reminds me of the importance for business tutors, like myself, of the benefit of practical, live, real-time exposure to actual businesses. Gaining knowledge and experience is incredibly valuable for students, as it enriches their understanding and provides a practical context to theoretical learning. When students can relate their studies to real-world experiences, it not only enhances their learning but also prepares them for future professional challenges.”
Michelle Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, UWE Bristol
Photo: Michelle Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Bristol Business School, UWE Bristol
It has now been 3 years since the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) opened at UWE, supporting knowledge exchange and impact emerging from arts and humanities-based research.
Since then, seven IAA funding calls have awarded 85 grants to projects involving 116 UWE staff members, ranging in size from £1k to £23k. These projects represent a huge range of disciplines within arts and humanities research, including law, media studies, visual arts, music, philosophy, history, political sciences, theatre and architecture. This funding is supporting academics to run projects that respond swiftly to emerging opportunities, strengthen collaboration with non-academic stakeholders, and accelerate the translation of research outputs into real-world impact.
This work has seen an incredible 199 new partners taking part in collaborative proposals, and the delivery of 260 collaborative activities with organisations such as Global Goals Centre, Bristol Woman’s Voice, MISFITS theatre and the Lords Research Service. Across the IAA funded projects, 49,000 people have taken part in knowledge exchange and impact events such as industry roundtables, training courses, school workshops, theatre performances and focus groups.
IAA funding has successfully supported UWE academics to make strong partnerships with industry, improving their processes, sustainability and commercial positioning. Tavs Jorgensen is setting up a commercial venture which looks to transform the brick and tile manufacturing industries; Sofie Boons is working to make the jewellery sector more sustainable in their gemstone production; and Jac Fennell is integrating wearable tech from Milbotix’s SmartSocks® (an SME in UWE Enterprise Zone) into HUG (a soft comforter designed for those living with dementia).
The work of the IAA projects is creating change at a local, national and international level. Documentary film maker Judith Aston and public policy expert Laura De Vito have been working very closely with the Avonmouth community to co-create a theory of change for this contested area of Bristol, while Jack Lowe has developed a digital game that supports cultural heritage organisations to include more diverse perspectives in the stories they tell about place and local heritage. Lisa Mol’s expertise in heritage and climate change conservation in war zones has supported charity Heritage for Peace to continue their work in Yemen, and Peter Clegg collaborated with police forces in The Sovereign Base Area of Cyprus to explore how accredited higher education training could assist them with navigating their nuanced context.
One of UWE’s strengths is in inclusive innovation and we see this in many of the IAA funded projects. Tom Mitchell working closely with the charity Drake Music to co-design and fabricate a new accessible digital musical instrument, and Amy Saleh prioritised equality in her project delivery by only using global majority suppliers (catering, filmmakers, designers etc.) for her project ‘Lit Legacies’, which designed educational materials to tackle the ‘teaching barriers’ in Black British literature.
Many of the IAA projects have been successful in translating their research into changes within policy and professional practice. Suwita Hani Randhawa brought together key political and civic actors to develop new policy insights around ecocide and is now an adviser to the Scottish Parliament to further influence policy changes. Verity McIntosh worked with Watershed in the build-up to the launch of their immersive gallery space Undershed, to ensure the experience design centres access and inclusion for all users.
The range of projects funded through the IAA reflect the diversity of UWE Bristol research and how we are ensuring our engaged arts and humanities research to have commercial, social and cultural impact. Support for impact development is always available for UWE academics and current IAA projects continue to develop their impact work, so there will be even more to celebrate over the coming year!
Visit the RISE page to find out more about how UWE research is driving societal improvement and transforming futures for the better. For more information on UWE Bristol’s arts and humanities research, impact or our Impact Acceleration Account, please do get in touch.
