Grant winners

ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL AND THE NETHERLANDS ORGANISATION FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Anglo-Dutch network initiatives in the humanities

Joint applications for up to €40,000 (£33,000) each have now been successfully funded for networking or exchange activities relating to two thematic areas: Sustainable Communities in a Changing World and Cultural Interactions of Research.

• Award winners: Martin Conboy and Marcel Broersma

• Institutions: University of Sheffield and University of Groningen

Capturing change in journalism: shifting role perceptions at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries

• Award winners: Robert Gleave and Leon Buskens

• Institutions: University of Exeter and Leiden University

The Sharia Project: a UK-Netherlands Islamic legal studies network

LEVERHULME TRUST

Research Project Grants

Basic sciences

• Award winner: Igor Lerner

• Institution: University of Birmingham

• Value: £198,600

Kinetics of entangled-photon generation with high- and low-intensity sources

• Award winner: Robert Scotland

• Institution: University of Oxford

• Value: £243,323

Exploring ways to accelerate taxonomy: foundation monographs and the world flora

• Award winner: Lorenzo Frigerio

• Institution: University of Warwick

• Value: £161,157

Studying the biogenesis of protein storage vacuoles by reprogramming leaf development

International Networks

Humanities

• Award winner: Michela Massimi

• Institution: University College London

• Value: £104,162

Kant and the laws of nature: lessons from the physical and life sciences of the 18th century

• Award winner: David Stirrup

• Institution: University of Kent

• Value: £98,632

Culture and the Canada-US border

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

Health Services and Delivery Research programme

• Award winner: Jane Sandall

• Institution: King's College London

• Value: £216,524

The efficient use of the maternity workforce and the implications for safety and quality in maternity care: an economic perspective

• Award winner: Scott Weich

• Institution: University of Warwick

• Value: £220,487

Understanding the increasing rate of involuntary admissions in NHS mental healthcare

IN DETAIL

Efficiency and Mechanism Evaluation programme

• Award winner: Eric Alton

• Institution: Imperial College London

• Value: £3,073,905

Randomised double-blind placebo-controlled Phase 2B clinical trial of repeated application of gene therapy in patients with cystic fibrosis

Every day in the UK a child is born with cystic fibrosis (CF). The disease was once fatal, but conventional treatments in specialist clinics now mean that most sufferers survive to young adulthood, although their long-term prospects are poor. As CF arises from a defect in a single gene (CFTR), the simplest theoretical cure is to deliver a working copy of the gene to cells lining the lung. This study will test whether monthly delivery of a working copy of the CFTR gene for one year can improve the lung function of 130 CF patients, the majority of whom have already participated in a run-in study. The team is well placed to measure the impact of the gene therapy, the most important measurement being an improvement in lung function.