NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
Health Technology Assessment Programme
• Award winner: Tjeerd van Staa
• Institution: Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
• Value: £314,974
Antibiotics for exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a randomised trial within the General Practice Research Database
• Award winner: Paul Emery
• Institution: Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, National Institute of Health Research Leeds
• Value: £1,458,569
SWITCH: randomised, controlled trial of switching to alternative tumour necrosis factor-blocking drugs or abatacept or rituximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have failed an initial TNF-blocking drug
• Award winner: Michael Clarke
• Institution: Royal Victoria Infirmary
• Value: £292,119
An external pilot study to test the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial comparing eye muscle surgery against active monitoring for childhood intermittent distance exotropia (X(T))
Service Delivery and Organisation Programme
• Award winner: Crispin Richard Coombs
• Institution: Loughborough University
• Value: £161,028
The role of unlearning in healthcare managers' decision- making
THE LEVERHULME TRUST
• Award winner: William Barnes
• Institution: University of Exeter
• Value: £143,405
Plasmonics and gain: underpinning science
• Award winner: Susan Perkin
• Institution: University College London
• Value: £109,332
The electrical double layer in pure ionic liquid next to an electrode surface
• Award winner: Patrick Haggard
• Institution: University College London
• Value: £114,771
Neuropsychology of choreographic patterns in aesthetic perception of dance
• Award winner: Richard Compton
• Institution: University of Oxford
• Value: £215,735
Characterisation of nanoparticles for environmental monitoring
• Award winner: Simon Liversedge
• Institution: University of Southampton
• Value: £245,959
Phonological processing during silent reading in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI)
• Award winner: Alban Potherat
• Institution: Coventry University
• Value: £133,702
A new approach to the numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic duct flows
• Award winner: John Moses
• Institution: University of Nottingham
• Value: £232,580
Biomimetic asymmetric synthesis in biological membranes
• Award winner: Neil Roberts
• Institution: University of Plymouth
• Value: £146,741
Deforesting Europe: a pollen-based reconstruction of Holocene land cover change
• Award winner: George Wolff
• Institution: University of Liverpool
• Value: £170,947
A molecular 135,000-year record of environmental change from Lake Ohrid
• Award winner: Philip Moriarty
• Institution: University of Nottingham
• Value: £145,790
Mapping molecular force fields and energy landscapes with picometre resolution
• Award winner: John Maurice Campbell Plane
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £176,774
Lab-on-a-chip synthesis of cosmic dust analogues
• Award winner: Enzo Pascale
• Institution: Cardiff University
• Value: £184,329
A study of galactic polarised dust with BLAST-Pol
The rest of the winners will be listed in the 17 February issue of Times Higher Education
IN DETAIL
Public Health Research Programme
• Award Winner: Kamran Siddiqi
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £1,148,448
The CLASS trial (Children Learning About Second-hand Smoke): evaluation of a school-based intervention to protect children from second-hand smoke
The dangers of second-hand smoke, its influence on young people's smoking behaviour and its contribution to health inequalities are acknowledged. Lead researcher Kamran Siddiqi will conduct a cluster of randomised controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of a school-based intervention known as Smoke Free Homes in cutting children's exposure to second-hand smoke, reducing uptake of smoking among 11- to 15-year-olds and encouraging smokers to quit. Parents and children will be recruited from 50 deprived Yorkshire schools. Children's exposure to second-hand smoke will be assessed at regular intervals pre- and post-intervention via interviews, surveys and saliva samples.