Grant winners – 8 December 2016

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Research Grants

• Award winner: Sabine Lee
• Institution: University of Birmingham
• Value: £47,675

“Peace babies” – the unintended consequences of United Nations peacekeeping

• Award winner: Oliver Edward Walton
• Institution: University of Bath
• Value: £80,693

Living on the margins: using literary comics to understand the role of borderland brokers in post-war transitions

• Award winner: Naomi Sykes
• Institution: University of Nottingham
• Value: £206,301

Going places: empowering women, enhancing heritage and increasing chicken production in Ethiopia

• Award winner: Aleksandra McClain
• Institution: University of York
• Value: £30,069

Archaeologies of the Norman Conquest

Royal Society

University Research Fellowships

• Award winner: Brice-Olivier Demory
• Institution: University of Cambridge
• Value: £447,615

Fast-track characterisation of habitable worlds

• Award winner: Shakti Lamba
• Institution: University of Exeter
• Value: £478,397

Testing evolutionary theories of cooperation in the real world

• Award winner: Thomas Kitching
• Institution: University College London
• Value: £335,599

Determining the nature of dark energy using gravitational lensing

• Award winner: Heather Harrington
• Institution: University of Oxford
• Value: £472,033

Algebraic and topological approaches for molecular biology

National Institutes of Health Research

Research Grants

• Award winner: Karen Newbigging
• Institution: University of Birmingham
• Value: £400,091

Investigating the contribution of the voluntary sector to mental health crisis care in England

• Award winner: Fay Crawford
• Institution: Fife Health Board
• Value: £389,092

An evidence-based evaluation of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of foot ulcer risk assessment and structured care interventions for people with diabetes

• Award winner: Deborah Caldwell
• Institution: University of Bristol
• Value: £296,669

A network meta-analysis of complex interventions to prevent mental ill-health in children and young people: evaluation of effective and cost-effective intervention components

In detail

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Award winner: Sarah Berry
Institution: King’s College London
Value: £526,898

The health impact of industrial interesterification of dietary fats

Fats are constituents of a balanced diet and give many foods their texture and flavour, but some are associated with greater risk of heart disease. Interesterification is an industrial process that hardens vegetable oil to be used in the place of butter and lard (high in saturated fat) and partially hydrogenated fats (high in trans fat). Initial studies suggest that interesterified fats may cause greater changes in blood fat levels than other fats, a risk factor for heart disease. The research will focus on the health effects of common interesterified fats; first using a database of fat intakes for a sample population to predict how blood fat levels may change if interesterified fats were replaced with solid fats such as butter and lard, and, second, through a human study into the effects of different fats on heart disease risk factors.