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U21 HSG Early Career Researcher Fund
U21 Health Sciences Group are delighted to announce funding awarded to nine Early Career Researcher Projects this year. As a reminder, the U21 HSG Early Career Researcher Fund was offered this year to support academic staff from U21 HSG member institutions at a relatively early stage of their careers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The nine £5,000 funds were offered to aid the recovery of early career researcher’s development and to help re-establish their careers following this challenging period.
Ideas for submissions included: collaborative research projects, publication support, connecting with other network members and online CPD/training opportunities.
Up to £5,000 was awarded this year to each successful applicant.
We are delighted to announce this year’s funded projects detailed below:
U21 HSG funded ECR projects 2021
▶ Project Title: Comparative analysis of nursing faculty experiences in Canada and the United States
▶ Project Summary: The nursing profession in both Canada and the United States (US) is currently plagued by recurrent faculty shortage. This shortage directly impacts the supply and demand of registered nurses in the clinical work environments and their ability to deliver high quality patient care. The purpose of this comparative research is to undertake a critical analysis about work-life experiences of new/non-tenured nursing faculty in Canada and US.
▶ Lead University: McMaster University
▶ Lead Applicant: Sheila Boamah
▶ Partner Universities: University of New South Wales
▶ Project Title: Modelling spatiotemporal patterns of environmental exposures and related health outcomes
▶ Project Summary: This initial work aims to estimate the mortality risk as per health conditions on spatial variation in temporal trends concerning environmental factors present at geographic locations.
▶ Lead University: The University of Queensland
▶ Lead Applicant: Darsy Darssan
▶ Partner Universities: University of New South Wales and University of Hong Kong
▶ Project Title: Genomic profiling of neuronal plasticity after optogenetic-stimulation treatment in a stroke mouse model
▶ Project Summary: In this study, using a bioinformatic gene ontology analysis, we will identify genes potentially involved in this synaptic plasticity modulation process and promoting neuroprotection after stroke
▶ Lead University: The University of Queensland
▶ Lead Applicant: Cong Wang
▶ Partner Universities: Fudan University
▶ Project Title: Investigating the psychological impact of COVID-19 on sub-Saharan Africa migrant workers across two continents: Australia and Canada
▶ Project Summary: This project will explore the immediate and long-term psychological impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers of SSA ancestry in HICs including Australia and Canada.
▶ Lead University: The University of New South Wales
▶ Lead Applicant: Blessing Akombi-Inyang
▶ Partner Universities: University of Melbourne, McMaster University, University of Birmingham
▶ Project Title: Nanotechnology for Bone Tissue Engineering
▶ Project Summary: This collaborative project aims to provide a safe and efficient nano-delivery system to differentiate dental stem cells (specifically periodontal ligament stem cells) into designed functional cells and then to track those dental stem cells.
▶ Lead University: The University of Queensland
▶ Lead Applicant: Dr Chun Xu
▶ Partner Universities: Fudan University
▶ Project Title: Digital Physiotherapy Practice: A Capabilities Framework for Education and Workforce Development
▶ Project Summary: This research proposal application will help define and create the first set of international digital physiotherapy practice capabilities and performance domains. The objective is to direct subsequent physiotherapy university education and workforce development, in order to identify and propagate the digital knowledge and skills at the core of current and future physiotherapy practice.
▶ Lead University: The University of Melbourne
▶ Lead Applicant: Dr Mark Merolli
▶ Partner Universities: University College Dublin (Physiotherapy), University of Nottingham (Physiotherapy)
▶ Project Title: Online mental health education for university students
▶ Project Summary: The U21 ECR funding will support the early career researcher to Develop a Korean version of the already developed course via a new partnership with Korea University to benefit a large student population; Facilitate knowledge translation via presenting the research findings at international conferences; Encourage research outreach by supporting publications on open-accessed journals that are accessible to the community
▶ Lead University: The University of New South Wales
▶ Lead Applicant: Dr Jin Han
▶ Partner Universities: Korea University
▶ Project Title: Looking inside the muscles: Unravelling the muscle coordination strategies in runners with and without knee pain.
▶ Project Summary: This is an international collaborative research project; that engages three ECRs in the Health Science discipline from two U21 HSG institutions; it will enable multiple publications and dissemination at basic, translational, and clinical science forums; and training in state-of-the-art equipment and analysis techniques, which will provide new insights into a significant health condition (musculoskeletal pain) that affects people throughout the life span.
▶ Lead University: The University of Queensland
▶ Lead Applicant: Dr Manuela Besomi
▶ Partner Universities: University of Birmingham
▶ Project Title: Identifying sex-specific targets in neuropathic pain through spatial transcriptomics
▶ Project Summary: This project summarises research activities to be undertaken allowing the candidate: (i) to complete work focusing on changes in gene expression in chronic pain, which will result in a publication; (ii) to attend and present novel findings in an international conference; (iii) to collect preliminary data for a future grant application.
▶ Lead University: The University of New South Wales
▶ Lead Applicant: Dr Nathan T Fiore