The GW4 Alliance has launched the GW4 Building Communities Fund, which is designed to bring together academics from across the four universities to create new, or build on existing, communities focused on major research or societal challenges.

Professor Guy Orpen, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise at the University of Bristol and Chair of the GW4 Board said: “The GW4 Alliance provides significant research capability and critical mass, and aims to produce a step change in research that could not be achieved by one institution alone. The Building Communities Fund will play a key role in enabling this to happen."

The Building Communities Fund is a two-stage funding programme, open to all academics from all subject areas across the GW4 Alliance. The first stage is the GW4 Initiator Fund which offers up to £20,000 to help set-up workshops and activities for new and established communities.

Once a research GW4 community has been successfully established they will be able to apply for the second stage, the GW4 Accelerator Fund. This stage is designed to establish structured pump-priming activities with the expectation that it will lead to external funding for the community.

Professor Colin Riordan, Chair of the GW4 Council said: “The launch of the GW4 Building Communities Fund is an important milestone for the Alliance. We already know there are existing and well established research collaborations between academics from across the GW4 Alliance.

“Establishing a dedicated Fund will create a renewed focus and kick start the creation of communities of academic staff who have complementary expertise and are capable of creating high impact research that could not be carried out by a single institution. I would urge colleagues from across the GW4 Alliance to get more information and to apply.”

Further details surrounding the call can be found on the Building Communities page.