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Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Brazil - Newton Advanced Fellowship
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Awards for early to mid-career international researchers who have already established (or in process of establishing) a research group. Awards support researchers in their own country, providing funding for training and development in collaboration with a UK partner, with the intention of transferring knowledge and research capabilities to partner countries.
China - Newton Advanced Fellowship
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Awards for early to mid-career international researchers who have already established (or in process of establishing) a research group. Awards support researchers in their own country, providing funding for training and development in collaboration with a UK partner, with the intention of transferring knowledge and research capabilities to partner countries.
China - Newton International Fellowship
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Scheme supports early-career international researchers to spend two years undertaking research at a host university or research institution in the UK, enabling them to benefit from a period within a first class research environment in some of the UK’s best universities. Awards provide stipend, research monies, and relocation costs.
Mexico - Newton International Fellowship
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Scheme supports early-career international researchers to spend two years undertaking research at a host university or research institution in the UK, enabling them to benefit from a period within a first class research environment in some of the UK’s best universities. Awards provide stipend, research monies, and relocation costs.
Partnerships for Forests (P4F)
UK - Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Partnerships for Forests programme (P4F) supports investment models in which the private sector, public sector and communities can achieve shared value from forests and sustainable land use. It aims to add value to standing forests by incubating new investments in agroforestry and non-timber forest products, and helping local and indigenous community enterprises, smallholder farmers and larger businesses connect to new markets and scale up production. It can also target commodities that have traditionally driven large-scale deforestation, facilitating multi-stakeholder approaches and solutions which support transitions to sustainable production models to fulfil zero-deforestation supply-chain commitments.
Jordan-UK El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The Jordan – UK El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability is a joint initiative between the British Academy and the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan (RSS). Its aim is to enhance the research and innovation capacity of Jordan for long-term sustainable development. The initiative is supported by the Newton-Khalidi Fund. This call is open to applicants with established expertise in any area relevant to the challenges of sustainability, particularly in the context of Jordan. Such areas could relate to, but need not necessarily be limited to: food security, water, energy and the environment, cities and infrastructure, climate change, sustainable livelihoods, health and well-being, migration and displacement, inequalities, and education. Specific objectives include expanding research and innovation capacity within the social sciences and humanities in Jordan with a particular focus on the area of sustainable development and issues of relevance and importance to the local context; and improving Jordan’s international research and innovation competitiveness while responding to socio-economic challenges in the country.
Palestinian Bedouin at risk of forced displacement: IHL vulnerabilities, ICC possibilities
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
This project seeks to better understand the humanitarian impact of continued forcible transfer of the Bedouin communities living in E1, Jerusalem, and how impunity for violations of international law contributes to the deterioration of humanitarian vulnerabilities. Through qualitative enquiry, combining desk based research and first hand semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the project will gather together a significant body of evidence to highlight to ongoing deleterious impact of repeated violations of IHL (and impunity for violations) on those living at the sharp edge of the situation in Israel-Palestine, namely the Bedouin communities of E1. In their 2017 report, Humanitarian Facts and Figures: Occupied Palestinian Territory, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that forced displacement is listed as one of the four key drivers of humanitarian vulnerability. The report highlighted that, "between 2009 and 2016, Israeli authorities demolished or seized over 4,800 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, mostly in Area C and East Jerusalem". It further indicated that "46 Palestinian Bedouin communities in the central West Bank, home to some 8,000 Palestinians, the majority registered Palestine refugees, have been targeted by the Israeli authorities for "relocation" to a number of designated sites". The expansion of Israeli settlements, considered illegal and condemned as a "flagrant violation under international law" by UN Security Council resolution 2334 of 2016, has been a driver for confiscation of Palestinian private and public land, demolition of homes (including Bedouin shacks) and repeated displacement of Palestinian civilians. The confiscation and demolition of property in Bedouin villages, and the ensuing forcible transfer/relocation of these vulnerable communities, is recognised as a violation of IHL and human rights by the UN, EU and other international actors. Forced displacement of civilians in an occupied territory is also considered a crime under International Criminal Law. The planned expansion of the 'Ma'ale Adumim' settlement block east of Jerusalem is exacerbating the humanitarian vulnerabilities of the Bedouin and herder communities in the E1 area. Bedouin communities such as those residing in Abu Al-Nuwwar, Wadi Abu Hindi, Al Khan Al-Ahmar, Jabal Al-Baba and Sath Al Bahar are at the front line of defence for resisting Israeli settlement expansion, thus ensuring Palestinian access to Jerusalem. This scenario does not just affect individual Bedouin villages at risk of demolition and transfer, but carries grave implications for the broader Israeli-Palestinian situation. Thus, Palestinian Bedouin at risk of forcible transfer have, unintentionally, become key players in the regional context, whilst simultaneously facing unique humanitarian vulnerabilities that must be better understood. A number of Israeli policies and practices in those areas, including a restrictive permit and planning regime, demolitions and threats of demolitions of property and the active promotion of relocation plans all contribute to the coercive environment, "which generates pressure on Palestinians to leave their communities". In the Israeli-Palestinian context, impunity for violations of international law, including IHL, has been recognised as a "driver of conflict". In espousing the benefits of holding violators of IHL to account, it has been noted that, "effective accountability not only ensures that perpetrators are brought to justice, but also ensures that victims have access to remedies and serves to deter future violations and to try to repair the harm suffered." As such, it is vital to understand the impact of violations of IHL on the Bedouin and herder communities in Palestine, and engage with the ICC's work. This project will work fill this gap, and produce an edited book and policy report.
Historicising Natures, Cultures and Laws in the Etosha-Kunene Conservation Territories of Namibia
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
How can conservation of biodiversity-rich landscapes come to terms with the past [Vergangenheitsbewältigung], given historical contexts of extreme social exclusion and marginalisation? How can key biodiversity areas whose global value rests on ahistorical ideas of Nature resist an uncritical presentism, to be better understood as entangled with diverse human histories and values? How can conservation policy and practice recognise deep cultural and linguistic differences around 'the nature of nature'? Our research responds to these questions through a cross-disciplinary humanities programme analysing dynamic dimensions of conservation territories in the Kunene Region of the former German colony that is now Namibia. Kunene's Etosha National Park and neighbouring beyond-Etosha conservation designations are home to diverse indigenous and marginalised peoples. Our research team of three women academics in Germany, the UK and Namibia has a combined 50+ years of ethnographic, archival, oral history and livelihoods enquiry in Etosha-Kunene. We propose a new collaborative three-year programme of six intersecting work packages (WPs): WP1 on 'Historicising Socio-ecological Policy in Etosha-Kunene' offers a detailed discourse analysis and history of public conservation policy affecting natures and peoples associated with the region, interrogating shifting influences, interests and governance technologies; WP2 on 'Comparative Indigenous Perspectives' assembles our long-term research in the region into a new comparative analysis of indigenous Khoe, San and Himba-Herero understandings of natures-beyond-the-human, drawing on current theories in the anthropology of nature; WP3 on 'Making Identity and Indigeneity in Etosha-Kunene' explores how indigenous identities are made, focusing especially on how distinct and intersecting 'Khoe' and 'San' identities have been present(ed) in ethnographic, linguistic, conservation and legal discourse; WP4 on 'Spatialising Coloniality in Etosha-Kunene' (re)traces the thought and practices of selected colonial European actors from the mid-1800s, bringing their written narratives into conversation with indigenous interlocutors inhabiting the same places and spaces (see WP2); WP5 on 'Collecting, Curating and Returning Etosha-Kunene Natures' investigates how the natures of Etosha-Kunene have been both represented and shaped by natural history collections of specimen-artefacts assembled by the (mostly male) European actors we study in WP4; WP6 focuses on public engagements, via a mobile exhibition, a website, and a series of workshops sharing and further exploring issues arising in WPs 1-5. In sum, we offer a multivocal and radically historicised analysis of Etosha-Kunene that contributes new thinking on coloniality, indigeneity and 'natural history'. Our aim is to support conservation laws and praxis to more fully recognise the diversity of pasts, cultures and natures constituting this internationally-valued region.
Partition of Identity: An exploration of Belonging in Bengalis in Pakistan, 1971- 2021
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Following the violent Liberation War of 1971 in which Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan, there was a wave of migration from Bangladesh to the more economically stable Pakistan. Often settling in Sindh province, particularly Karachi, these Bengali migrants have participated widely in the Pakistani economy. Many have been refused citizenship rights in line with the Pakistan Citizenship Act of 1951 and despite their Pakistan-born children and grandchildren having little direct knowledge of Bangladesh, they remain without official documentation. This can create challenges in everyday activities (around education, employment and health) and strengthen the idea that they are not 'true' Pakistani citizens as emphasised by a wider state narrative. Recently, with the arrival of a newly elected government, momentum has been building towards granting the community full rights. Moreover, with the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's creation in 2021 drawing ever closer, our project comes at a critical time. Our research takes place in 3 phases and overall, we aim to investigate how the identities and contributions of these Bengali migrants are understood within the community, and how they have they been understood by a wider Pakistani state narrative since 1971. Furthermore, we aim to understand how these two accounts influence each other. No existing record of this group exists. By co-producing a new history of identity, activism, migration memory and belonging with our interviewees and arts partners, we will ensure that the voices of Pakistani Bengalis are recorded and heard. Our sample will be diverse including Pakistani Bengali men, women and young people of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our project will: - transform academic and public understandings of how lack of citizenship influences social identity and sense of belonging, and stimulates resistance, among Bengalis in Pakistan, particularly in young people. This will be through creating written and aural records from this group, accessible for anyone to read or listen to. - expand understandings of how social representations of minority groups can influence their treatment and social positioning in the developing world - enhance awareness of the Pakistani Bengali minority group in terms of its cultural heritage and socio-economic contribution to Pakistan through the range of project outputs The project will be conducted with a series of partners based in the UK and Pakistan. These include: UCL, Where the PI is based, Lahore University of Management Science, where the Co-I is based, the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, National College of Arts, Lahore Students Union and Pakistan Institute for Education and Labour Research. Our partners will be involved to differing degrees in the 3 research phases. In Phase 1 we will conduct a strategic search through historical, policy and media documents for depiction of the community. This will inform the interview and archival elicitation work in Phases 2 and 3. It will also give information on wider state and media representation of this group. Phase 2 will involve oral history interviews and archival elicitation with 48 adults and 30 young people. We will also conduct art workshops with young people. Here we will gather information on community representation of self. In Phase 3, artists and musicians will re-imagine both state representation and also community representations to produce new outputs based on the community. By the end of the project, we will have created and developed a new oral history archive, art and music based on the research, a documentary, a website, online exhibition, museum exhibition, two output events, media articles, 3 journal articles and co-edited book. Most importantly, we will advance the field by generating important new knowledge regarding the Bengali community in Pakistan following their migration in 1971 and ensure that their stories are told and voices are heard.
Do neighbourhoods matter? Country- cluster- and individual effects on attitudes towards intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The study will address significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of women's and men's attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women (IPV) at the neighbourhood-level in 54 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Central-, East- and South Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North- and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with the effects of extreme heat in developing countries: implications for climate change.
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The increase in extreme temperatures associated to global warming and climate change are creating drastic effects at a planetary scale. These impacts seriously disrupt economic activities, particularly among the most vulnerable in the developing world, such as traditional farmers or low productivity informal workers in urban areas. Their ability to cope with environmental disruptions and to adapt to a changing climate can have strong implications in terms of vulnerable households' wellbeing. The goal of the proposed research is to deepen our understanding on how environmental events associated with climate change affect income generating activities and individuals' subsequent adaptive behaviour in developing countries. Accounting for these responses is very important to obtain more precise estimates of the economic costs of climate change, to identify potential winners and losers, and to inform the design of context-specific mitigating policies.
Brazil - Newton Advanced Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
This programme focuses on mid-career researchers in Newton Fund countries, and develops their research strengths by providing support for training and development in collaboration with a UK partner with the intention of transferring knowledge and research capabilities to researchers in partner countries.
India - Newton International Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Enables talented early career post-doctoral researchers from partner countries to spend two consecutive years undertaking research at a UK host institute. The fellowship supports talented early career researchers from partner countries to develop their research capabilities by hosting them with some of the best research departments in the UK.
Turkey - Newton Advanced Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
This programme focuses on mid-career researchers in Newton Fund countries, and develops their research strengths by providing support for training and development in collaboration with a UK partner with the intention of transferring knowledge and research capabilities to researchers in partner countries.
Turkey - Newton International Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Enables talented early career post-doctoral researchers from partner countries to spend two consecutive years undertaking research at a UK host institute. The fellowship supports talented early career researchers from partner countries to develop their research capabilities by hosting them with some of the best research departments in the UK.
Understanding and addressing the impact of stressful live events on the mental health of older adults in Colombia
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Deliver signficant reseach funding for internationally competitative and innovative collaborative projects between researchers from Colombia and United Kingdom that will allow the pursuit of shared research interests.
Participatory research to support the development of culturally sensitive mental health and wellbeing services for the Kankuamo people of Colombia
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Deliver signficant reseach funding for internationally competitative and innovative collaborative projects between researchers from Colombia and United Kingdom that will allow the pursuit of shared research interests.
FENGBO-WIND - Farming the ENvironment into the Grid: Big data in Offshore Wind
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The proposed project will develop an integrated computational simulation approach capable of handling the complex interactions between the local atmosphere, the coastal ocean and sedimentary environment, farm aerodynamics, turbine response and grid integration in offshore wind farms. This will target a substantial reduction in the cost of energy in offshore wind by exploiting: high-fidelity optimization of array design and operation, tailored to a specific site and able to deal with realistic marine atmospheric boundary layer conditions, in particular the very slow dissipation of rotor wakes; combined with big-data analysis of very-large-scale simulations of the whole system under extreme conditions, to minimize integrity risks without overly conservative safety factors. Both situations will be investigated within the context of the development of offshore farms off the Chinese coast, which brings particular challenges regarding coastal characteristics (e.g. high sediment concentrations) and extreme events (in particular typhoons). To achieve this we propose a multiscale approach to wind farm design and network integration that considers, first, a more accurate characterisation of extreme events (and active mitigation strategies) in the analysis through highly-resolved computer simulation; second, new optimization techniques for the design and operation of wind farms that allow for sustained power extraction using relevant knowledge of both the marine atmosphere and individual turbine (aeroservoelastic) dynamics; and third, robust grid design and operation strategies that accommodate wind resource variability and maximise the sustainability of energy generation. FENGBO-WIND will carry out the most ambitious computer simulations to date on farm dynamics and farm/environment interaction, to build physics-based predictive capabilities on farm output and investigate long-term interactions between farms and their local environment. An interdisciplinary consortium of experts, including Earth/environmental scientists, civil and electrical engineers, and fluid dynamicists, have been assembled to tackle this challenging computational problem. The team will have access to (1) the world's largest supercomputer (Sunway TaihuLight) to carry out full system simulations of energy output and farm state for specific environmental scenarios, (2) operational data from existing wind farms off the Chinese coast as well as conditions at a target site through a partnership with a local grid company, and (3) performance data for a state-of-the-art wind turbine design from the leading Chinese manufacturer. The results will be benchmarked against state-of-the-art industrial design tools and protocols for grid integration for offshore wind farms.
Birth across the Borders: exploring contextual education as a catalyst for improved maternal health.
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Families that lose a mother in pregnancy or childbirth face many challenges. They are left with a gap that can lead to a loss of income and poverty. It can cause a lot of family pressures, especially for girls are left to care for younger children and are not able to go to school. Many of these families come from communities that are already poor, with very little infrastructure and limited access to decent healthcare. This can cause a much higher risk of death, both for mothers and babies, especially in poor countries. Opportunities are more limited because families lack money and education. Myanmar is a South East Asian country that has had many years of tension and conflict between the different people groups. Many of these groups live in remote mountainous areas where basic resources and infrastructure such as electricity are limited. There is often little healthcare in these areas with very few doctors, nurses or midwives to care for mothers and their families. One in 23 women in Eastern Myanmar either die or come close to death during pregnancy or childbirth. These challenges are all very typical in developing countries across the world today, but a lot can be changed with education that makes sense to mothers and families in their situations. Working together with our local partners we intend to learn more about the specific challenges facing families in four regions of Myanmar. From this we will co-develop three education programmes which will be especially adapted for each region. One of these programmes will help families and communities understand the processes of pregnancy and birth, recognise what is normal, what is unusual and what is dangerous and to know what to do and where to go to get help. Our second programme will further train health workers to understand the different signs and symptoms that are dangerous in pregnancy and birth and find ways to help mothers in time to prevent complications. Poverty is very high in parts of Myanmar, so our third programme is for community leaders and local people to support them to start and grow businesses. This way families can afford to eat well and get good healthcare when they need it. Our project will focus on remote regions in Myanmar and together we plan to learn how to find ways to overcome the legacy of many years of poverty and conflict. This project will include staff from our universities in Northern Ireland and Thailand as well as local partners who come from or have been working in the region for many years. Through this project we hope to help support the work of all our partners and improve education for mothers, families and communities. A key part of our project is making sure that the education they receive makes sense in their situations and includes their beliefs and customs leading to improved health, social and economic opportunities and accessible healthcare. We plan to share what we do with other organisations working in Myanmar who may also benefit from our research. Finally, it is hoped that our research will contribute to current policies and practices in partnership with the government of Myanmar and the ethnic health organisations.
A school closer to home: using mealtimes to foster language development, improve girls' nutrition and align home and school in rural Kenya and Zambia
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
We develop a new way to address educational disadvantage in rural Africa, through a collaboration between academics from Kenya, Zambia and the UK, teachers, families and community groups. The connection between home and school is key to sustainable education: (i) parents must recognise the school's priorities if they are to support their child's continuing education, (ii) teachers need to understand their pupils' home environment so they can build on positive home experiences and (iii) schools must build on children's existing skills and knowledge and fit with their goal of a successful life in their community. There is currently a serious disconnect between home and school in Africa and this is exacerbated in rural Kenya and Zambia by the predominance of non-local teachers who often don't speak pupils' native languages. We aim to connect home and school learning by targeting Early Childhood Education and Development programmes (ECDE; age 4 - 6). Unlike primary and secondary schools, ECDE centres recruit teachers from the local community. The relationship between parents and teachers is closest in ECDE settings, providing a crucial opportunity to build bridges between home and school. It is also a critical opportunity for mitigating early disadvantages for girls and empowering females in leadership roles since ECDE teachers are predominantly female. We prioritise language and nutrition as fundamental to all later learning, and aim to (i) identify positive practices in the home that benefit early language development and nutrition and (ii) to work together with ECDE teachers as researchers to empower them to develop teacher and parent networks to share best practice in school and at home. We target mealtimes for our observations of behaviour and language since they are a particularly rich time for social interaction, and the focus on eating gives an authentic setting for natural communication. Our objectives are (i) to measure home and school mealtime behaviour and language to identify practices that are most crucial for raising the quality of language children are exposed to (e.g., whether adults and children sit together; whether they have a television) (ii) to observe eating behaviours in the home, assess the extent to which girls' eat less food, or less nutritious foods, and identify practices that raise levels of female nutrition (e.g., girls may eat more if they share food as a family, rather than when girls and women eat separately) (iii) to work together with our teacher-researchers and community advisors to co-develop a teacher-network and parent outreach programme, based on evidence from objectives 1 and 2. The aim is to raise awareness and share practices that increase the quality of language children are exposed to at home and in school and raise levels of female nutrition, motivated by evidence of gender inequalities. Objective 3 will be achieved firstly by working together to identify key messages that are culturally appropriate and achievable (e.g., switch the TV off before eating at home; encourage teachers to sit together with pupils when eating in ECDE centres). Second, by working together in practitioner networks, guidance will be developed to inform a parent outreach programme to be shared with well-established groups in the community. The network will also provide a platform for teachers to conduct their own research, share research findings and discuss best practice. Importantly, it will provide a vital link to teachers in primary and secondary education, to develop continuity in children's education. Finally, the evidence base we provide through objectives 1 and 2, and the networks created in objective 3 provide a powerful basis for contributing to the development of the new ECDE curriculum in Kenya and to lobby for similar priorities in Zambia.
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