Dr Charlotte Ross attended the University of Birmingham Sandpit residential event from 15-17 September. This event was designed to encourage interdisciplinary research on the theme of ‘resilience’, one of the topics selected by the Leverhulme Trust for its Research Programme Grants.
The Sandpit, organised by Malcolm Press, and attended by staff from all five colleges, enabled a productive degree of cross- and interdisciplinary discussion to take place, and allowed new, innovative, collaborative research projects to be devised. There was also the incentive of a pot of funding (£200,000), for which each research team bid.
All the projects devised were awarded funding, and there was a great deal of support for new ideas. Charlotte Ross will be working on a project entitled ‘Persistence Resilience’, with John Round (Geography) Lauren Andres (Urban Planning), Isabel Szmigin (Business School), Chris Ryan (Computer Science), Chris Baber (Electronic Electrical and Computer Engineering), Tony Beech (Psychology), Andrew Quinn (Engineering) and Oleg Golubchikov (Geography). This project was awarded £30,000 to explore strategies of persistence resilience in marginal communities.
The outputs will include a co-authored article in a peer reviewed journal and the submission of an FP7 funding application.
There will be a research showcase event at the University in February, at which you will be able to find out more about all the projects supported by the Sandpit.