NIHRDataInsights/HRCSData huggingface dataset:
Title: The National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal)
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Sex education can positively impact upon sexual behaviour and reduce the likelihood of adverse sexual health outcomes, but the quality of provision and coverage of topics is variable. There is a need for evidence-based ways to improve knowledge of sex and relationships that speak to people across the lifecourse and from all walks-of-life. Uniting internationally-recognised scientists in sexology, epidemiology, and education, with the UK’s leading charities (Brook and the Sex Education Forum) promoting young people’s sexual health and the delivery of quality life-long relationship and sex education (RSE), we will use creative arts and online technologies to produce innovative resources that meet this need. Evidence from Britain’s nationally-representative sexual health survey (the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, ‘Natsal’) and our previous public engagement will be used: (i) to create a free-to-use interactive online resource for the general public, allowing exploration as to what is ‘normal’, the factors that shape sexual lifestyles, and the underpinning scientific research; (ii) as a catalyst to facilitate dialogue with and between young people on issues around sex that matter to them. This young people-centred learning will be translated into resources to better equip teachers to deliver RSE, crucially coinciding with the introduction of mandatory RSE in schools in England (2020) and Wales (2022). These evidence-based tools will empower people of all ages to improve their knowledge of sex and relationships, their sexual health and wellbeing. They will also demonstrate proof-of-concept around novel mechanisms for engaging the public with Natsal and science more broadly.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Master’s Programme Awards in Humanities and Social Science: MScR (Bioethics)
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Thank you for the opportunity to apply to renew our Masters programme award. We are seeking renewal so that we can continue to offer outstanding Bioethics training opportunities to promising young scholars. Based in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine (CEM), our programme is designed for students who are interested in a research career in Bioethics, and its aim is to foster future bioethics research and develop future bioethics research leaders, through equipping MScR students with the diverse skills and knowledge needed for doctoral (and further) inquiry. We specifically aim to grow into a national feeder programme for research careers in bioethics, including as a feeder into our own PhD programmes, and support our students in applying for PhD funding. To date we have funded three promising Bioethics scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, two of whom have secured PhD funding and one is in the process of applying for it. In our renewed programme we will be revising our selection criteria to ensure candidates can more easily adjust to unforeseen changes in their projects, offering enhanced initial training opportunities, and ring-fencing two studentships for healthcare professionals. We look forward to continuing to support a next generation of Bioethics research leaders.


Research activity codes: 2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: UK participation in EU Joint Action - Sharing Health Data
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: • Execute UK assigned tasks and responsibilities within the Joint Action to a high standard, establishing the UK as a valued and trusted partner. • Gather a body of evidence of NHS and UK expertise on data processing in the health sector to contribute to the development of the European Health Data Space. • Regularly convene and consult a wide range of UK stakeholders to ensure that UK health data interests across the sector are fully understood and represented. • Maintain regular updates and briefings on the scope and objectives of the development of the European Health Data Space, to maximise UK preparedness. • Identify and pursue opportunities to progress UK interests in the health sector, and on digital policy development more broadly.


Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Encouraging and Supporting Progression: the MA in History of Medicine
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Our current MA award enables us to recruit and train students who would otherwise be deterred from studying at MA level due to a fear of incurring more debt. Despite securing studentships, and developing cogent, novel research ideas, these students doubt their ability to progress as researchers, struggle to acknowledge their own achievements, and question whether they belong in the university’s research community. Wellcome MA funding offers a rare opportunity to diversify the research community: while UKRI funding supports capable doctoral students, lack of MA funding prevents many promising students from progressing beyond a BA. Our renewal plan utilizes this opportunity, aiming to dismantle barriers that prevent talented researchers from progressing. We also aim to prepare our students to tackle complex health challenges by highlighting the role of history and humanities within multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary health research projects. We have capitalised on institutional investment to create a sustainable and intellectually diverse cross-faculty Newcastle medical humanities network. This has enriched our medical humanities research-led teaching, facilitated cross-disciplinary supervision, and enabled students to tap into a growing number of relevant research resources, networks and activities. We will encourage our students to adopt innovative multidisciplinary agendas at the outset of their research careers.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Health Histories Futures: The M.Sc. in Health History programme
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The opportunity to renew the Wellcome Trust (WT) Masters Programme Award comes at an exciting time for the M.Sc. in Health History (HH) at the CSHHH Glasgow. The purposes of the initial award were to; enable UK based applicants to study on the degree at a time of growing demand for teaching in the field; to drive connections with students from outside of the UK as Health History develops in Asia and Africa. The Centre has proven able to meet these objectives, having funded one South African and two UK students to date. All were integrated successfully into a student body that includes those from partner institutions in Shanghai through the WT funded Medical Humanities China-UK (MHCUK) programme. This proposal will secure further resources for the development of this increasingly diverse Medical Humanities student community at a time when the M.Sc. HH continues to grow new capacities for career-building and training in partnerships both within, and beyond, academia. Its international scope also prepares it to actively engage in the re-establishment of collaborations around the globe in the wake of disruption caused by COVID-19 by placing the next generation of Health History scholars at the heart of this process.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Transnationalism and Changing Medical Practice Paradigms in Exile Tibetan Medicine and the West
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Transnational medical practice is a common phenomenon in contemporary Tibetan medicine, especially among exile practitioners in India and Nepal. Both in the form of medical tours abroad or local treatments of foreign patients and via telemedicine, doctors provide transnational medical care. However, as a result of the deterritorialization of practice and practitioners or new phenomena like telemedicine and innovations in medical treatment options, varying degrees of changes in contrast to national treatment paradigms occur that raise questions about the efficacy or benefit for patients. This research seeks to explore and analyse transnational Tibetan medical practice and asks to what extent this trend transforms essential principles, perceptions, and representations of Tibetan medicine. The aim is to determine and question tendencies towards a modern or global Tibetan medicine, following Wujastyk and Smith's categories of modern and global Ayurveda. Using the methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with Tibetan medical doctors and patients, I will conduct a 13 months long multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Europe. Ultimately, the research will help to understand the challenges to and possibilities for globalised medical practice, contributing to the growing anthropological interest in global health. Keywords: Tibetan medicine, transnational medical practice, therapeutic travel, telemedicine

Lay abstract: Medical practice crossing national boundaries is a common phenomenon in contemporary Tibetan medicine, especially among exile practitioners in India and Nepal. Both in the form of medical tours abroad or local treatments of foreigners and via telemedicine, doctors provide transnational medical care. However, due to such expanded medical practice or phenomena like telemedicine and innovations in treatments, varying degrees of changes in contrast to national treatment paradigms occur that raise questions about medical efficacy or benefit for patients. Using participant observations and interviews with Tibetan medical doctors and patients, I will conduct multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in India, Nepal, and Europe to explore and analyse transnational Tibetan medical practices. I will try to determine to what extent this trend transforms essential principles, perceptions, and representations of Tibetan medicine to offer a better understanding of the value and limitations of transnational medical practice, both for practitioners and patients of Tibetan medicine.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Darwin Tree of Life
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Life has evolved from a single origin to generate >1.5 million eukaryotic species. Sequencing all species will provide an inventory of life, transform understanding of evolution, catalogue eukaryotic gene toolkits for biology and biotechnology, and enable monitoring of ecosystems under increasing stress. The Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) is a new initiative that will exploit long read technologies to sequence all 60000 species in the British Isles and play a leading role in the Earth BioGenome Project. This data resource will underpin bioscience for the coming century. We are a consortium of partners who will build and prove an end-to-end pipeline of sample collection, sequencing, genome assembly, annotation and data dissemination that can deliver this visionary project. We will: • Establish sample collection networks (to collect, record and voucher ~8000 species) • Put in place large-scale sequencing and analytic processes (including for single cells and small-bodied taxa) • Generate reference quality, deeply annotated genome assemblies for 2000 species • Develop portals to disseminate the reference genomes, empowering wider scientific communities to embrace genomics in their future endeavours • Share expertise in protocol development and informatics among the Darwin Tree of Life partners to strengthen institutional capacities across the consortium, and with the global EBP.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Enabling research uptake through integrating networks and communities of practice
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Findings from health research should be translated into recommendations that can be implemented within policy and practice if research is to deliver its maximum impact and ability to change health outcomes. Currently research ‘success’ typically concludes with the publishing of papers in high impact journals with less attention to how, and indeed whether, those findings are made visible and accessible to those tasked with decision making that should be changing their practice on the basis of these new findings. Compounding this is the current difficulty for these practice and policy decision-makers to easily be made aware, find, access and synthesise new research recommendations. The Global Health Network seeks to address this by bringing researchers and decision makers together to find new tools and mechanisms for researchers to present their outcomes as recommendations that can be readily discoverable and put into practice. This proposal will firstly, establish a community of practice for researchers and decision-makers to share knowledge and develop resources, processes and mechanisms that can support turning results into discoverable, practical and usable recommendations. Secondly, to deliver an advanced digital database which enables rapid synthesis of the available research recommendations to drive improvements in uptake.


Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: A Quantitative Analysis of the Health Extension Program to Inform Human Resource Policy Interventions in Ethiopia
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: In 2004, Ethiopia launched the Health Extension Program (HEP) - a primary health care delivery strategy focussing on the delivery of 16 essential health services, targeting the rural poor. Health Extension Workers (HEWs) were employed as key vehicles for delivery of HEP. Though their deployment was in large numbers, current policy initiatives towards HEP are hampered by the dearth of empirical, quantitative data on HEW behaviours; the determinants of their job choices and the implications of these dynamics on retention policies for this workforce. This project proposes to investigate the labor market response to changes in wages, working conditions, and training opportunities of HEWs, using a discrete choice experiment. Additionally, this will be the first study to undertake an economic evaluation of available health workforce policies to provide critical insight on which policies to pursue for better retention of HEWs, as well as using mathematical modelling techniques to ascertain the causal impact of HEP on the equity of health service delivery in Ethiopia. With these three research packages, the project aims to create pioneering evidence that fills critical gaps in literature to inform human resource policy interventions in the context of HEP, leading to improvements in population health in Ethiopia.

Lay abstract: To augment the critical shortage of human resources for health, in 2004 Ethiopia implemented a policy reform called the Health Extension Program (HEP) that has trained and deployed Health Extension Workers (HEWs) across remote areas, to deliver 16 essential primary healthcare services. Although deploying HEWs in large numbers is important, their motivation is a key driver in ensuring retention and good performance, which remains under-researched. I propose to use quantitative techniques to investigate the nature and determinants of HEW’s job choices. To provide critical insight on which available health workforce policies to pursue for better retention of HEWs I will undertake an economic evaluation of available health polices, and use mathematical modelling techniques to ascertain the causal impact of HEP on the equity of health service delivery in Ethiopia. My project aims to mobilize social science evidence and address significant challenges of equity and access in the Ethiopian health system.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Health, Law, and Society (LLM)
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The below proposal relates to the University of Bristol’s LLM in Health, Law, and Society. It provides: • Reflections on the impact of the award so far; • Explains how we would make the most of a renewal; and • Summarises my vision for the next three years. The proposal involves critical self-reflection, explanation of how and why I continue to believe that the LLM is a worthy programme for this funding award, and an outline of how we would modify the running of the award in the coming years. Notably, the changes relate to: practical support for wider skills-development beyond the taught aspects of the programme; and the University of Bristol Law School’s commitment to supplement the fees on two of the scholarships to enable inclusion of students from Low and Middle Income Countries.In the additional materials to this application, the proposal is complemented by demonstrations of institutional support, and links to wider materials that may be useful in considering the merits of the application.


Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Participation, Accountability and Maternal Deaths Among Communities Living in Northern Kenya
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The research question is ‘how does participation in social autopsy influence citizen action to prevent maternal deaths?’ This qualitative study will use ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews to explore the nature and outcomes of participation during social autopsies for maternal deaths. Citizen participation and social accountability theories recognize the importance of health co-production i.e citizens and health providers collaborating (Rifkin, 2014). Studies on social accountability focusing on citizens holding duty bearers to account have been conducted, (Ciccone et al., 2014), but there has been little focus on holding citizens to account as health co-producers. A pilot study on social accountability in Kenya found that citizen participation was weak with limited feedback to health providers (World Bank 2015). The insights developed through this study will contribute to developing theory on participation and social accountability in a broader context. The 3-delay model is a framework that has identified delays that contribute to maternal mortality and can thus be applied in its prevention (Thaddeus et.al , 1994). The study explores participation during social autopsies and the extent to which citizens reflect and act on the delays for health co-production and mutual social accountability. Key words: Social accountability, Citizen participation, Health co-production, Social autopsy

Lay abstract: Citizen participation and social accountability are necessary for improving health outcomes including maternal health. Strategies to address maternal mortality include the 3-delay model and social autopsy. The 3-delay model focuses on barriers at community and institutional level that contribute to maternal deaths. Two of the three delays focus on community level barriers while the third delay focuses on health provider barriers. Social autopsy is a participatory process that allows citizens and health providers to review circumstances that result in a maternal death as a learning mechanism to prevent future deaths. Through this process of reflection and learning, citizens may be mobilized to take actions that would address barriers and prevent future deaths. My research question is ‘how does participation in social autopsy influence citizen action to prevent maternal deaths?’ I will use ethnography (observation and in-depth interviews) to research this question and explore citizen reflection for prevention of maternal deaths..

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Modelling the circadian clock
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The circadian clock is driven by a specialised group of clock genes. The products of clock genes are called transcription factors, because they regulate the activity of DNA. One group of clock genes are repressors of DNA transcription and the others are activators. These two component groups oscillate in the cell, with peaks in in activity of the repressors approximately occurring 12h in anti-phase to the activators. This model is now established as dogma in the field. Remarkably, we still know remarkably little of how the proteins encoded by clock genes behave in the cell. To establish this, we will attach fluorescent probes to each of the core clock genes and study their interactions in single cells, using advanced laser confocal microscopy. This will enable me to assess the number of protein copies at any one time and from this produce a mathematical model of the circadian clock which is founded on quantitation of the core elements. This has never been done before. I am especially interested to see how stable the oscillator is if I manipulate key clock components, and will be able to use this to define how cellular time-keeping operates.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Cellular Sensing and Regulation via the Hippo Pathway
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: How cells decide whether to multiply or to specialise is a vital process with roles in embryonic development, tumour growth, and organ regeneration after injury. One regulator of this process is the signalling pathway termed the Hippo pathway, consisting of proteins which control genes that promote both cell proliferation and specialisation. The activity and regulation of these proteins, and where they can be found in the cell, is the subject of my PhD. For this, I will be creating cells with altered Hippo pathway proteins to make them easily detectable, so that I can identify where the proteins are found in the cell in response to different stimuli. I will also generate cells lacking certain Hippo components to identify what happens to the cell when these key proteins are missing. To understand how these processes function in a whole organism, I will manipulate the pathway in zebrafish embryos, which are an excellent model system as they can be directly observed during development and regenerate their organs very effectively. These studies will help us to understand the difference between cell proliferation during development, regeneration, and cancer, as well as suggest potential drug targets to manipulate the pathway.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Sustainable and Selective Molecular Assembly Using Methyltransferase Enzymes
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Nature is able to perform chemical reactions with startling efficiency. It achieves this with enzymes: chemical catalysts built by living things from amino acid sequences. Our understanding of the relationship between an enzyme's sequence, 3D structure and function has given rise to the field of biocatalysis. A major goal of this field is to use these powerful catalysts in industry, such as for pharmaceutical manufacture. However, much of that potential remains unvisited. One of the applications involves extending the carbon skeleton of drug molecules, as adding even a single carbon can have a dramatic impact on the performance of a drug. However, the established synthetic routes for achieving this are wholly inadequate for reasons of selectivity, efficiency and ecology. For this project, I will aim to discover, develop and apply new and existing enzymes for modifying organic compounds. I will first explore techniques for adding different chemical structures onto molecules using known enzymes. I will then 'mine' the genomes of organisms to find promising new enzymes. Lastly, I will modify these new enzymes and integrate them into cascades, which altogether can modify a range of target molecules. Once refined, these cascades will be applied to large-scale chemical manufacture.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE