IDS researchers are among those receiving new funding grants under two UK initiatives to foster innovative and international social science collaborations.
Dr Shilpi Srivastava, a research fellow at IDS, is one of 68 of the most promising research leaders to be funded under the latest round of UKRI Future Leadership Fellowships, and five projects led by IDS researchers are awarded grants under the British Academy’s ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants programme.
Developing the most talented innovators
The UKRI’s flagship Future Leaders Fellowships allow universities, businesses and research institutes to develop their most talented innovators. Dr Srivastava will lead a project under the fellowship that focuses on droughts and floods in India, Bangladesh and the UK.
The scientists on the project will observe and work with emergency and disaster managers, water infrastructure operators and engineers, and control room operators to explore their strategies of uncertainty management. They will draw on cross-disciplinary perspectives and methodological innovation combining social sciences, arts and design, and storyline approaches. Through this the researchers will identify what is working best, where, and why, and co-produce excellent applied research to amplify reach and impact.
Funding challenge-oriented research
The five IDS-led research projects recently awarded the British Academy’s ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants are being supported by the UK Government’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), managed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants fund research on specific global challenges, and engage with local and national community, societal, business and policy stakeholders to design, develop and embed the research findings.
The projects led by IDS researchers will address current challenges within pastoralism in Türkiye, digitalisation of social protection and global health, including pandemic preparedness in South Africa and Sierra Leone and tackling inequities in HIV/AIDS in Uganda. The projects include:
Pastoralism and action for sustainability: Participatory planning for the governance of extensive grazing in Türkiye
Research Team: Professor Ian Scoones, Institute of Development Studies; Dr Mehmet Fatih Tatari, Bilkent University.
Strengthening community resilience for pandemic preparedness in the Western Cape, South Africa
Research Team: Professor Hayley MacGregor, Institute of Development Studies; Dr Mercy Brown-Luthango, University of Cape Town; Professor Andrew Boulle, University of Cape Town; Professor Mary-Ann Davies, University of Cape Town; Dr Gareth Haysom, University of Cape Town; Professor Nicholas Nisbett, Institute of Development Studies.
Pandemic preparedness: Learning from the successes and failures in transdisciplinary working in Sierra Leone
Research Team: Dr Syed Shahid Abbas, Institute of Development Studies; Dr Esther Mokuwa, Njala University.
Citizen Voice and Social Accountability in the Digitalisation of Social Protection in South Africa: Designing the use of responsible digital civic technology as an enabling mechanism
Research Team: Dr Caroline Khene, Institute of Development Studies; Dr Gugulethu Baduza, Rhodes University; Dr Becky Faith, Institute of Development Studies; Dr Hafeni Mthoko, The IIE’s Varsity College.
Tackling inequities in HIV/AIDS treatment ‘failure’ and mortality in Kampala, Uganda through participatory research with young men on the social determinants of health
Research Team: Dr Megan Schmidt-Sane, Institute of Development Studies; Dr David Kaawa-Mafigiri, Makerere; Ms Tabitha Hrynick, Institute of Development Studies; Mr Nelson Sande Kakande, Joint Clinical Research Centre