The Large Grant Seed-corn Funding scheme's primary purpose remains to pump-prime research leading to the submission of large, externally funded research applications by enabling academics to develop a full proposal for submission to an external funder. The expectation is that such applications should be clearly identified and formulated in the application and should be substantial in nature and in value (£300,000 and above, which is a slight change from the previous years). The maximum amount per application is £5,000.
The scheme is closed for applications now.
We plan to launch the second round of applications in January 2025.
In December 2024, the IHSS funding panel awarded funding to the following projects for 2024 - 25.
Coding Crime: Big Data, Mass Incarceration, and the Internationalization of Computerized Policing, 1960-1990 led by Dr Katharine Hall (Politics and International Relations),
Mapping Inhuman Reparations led by colleagues from the School of Geography IHSS Fellows Drs Archie Davies and Elsa Noterman and Professor Kathryn Yusoff,
Beyond Best Practice: Developing Sustainable Nuclear Safety Governance for the Nuclear Sector in Africa led by Dr Innocent Batsani-Ncube (Politics and International Relations),
Building Community Resilience Through Effective Interventions for Technostress Mitigation: Enhancing Digital Skills and Support Networks for the Digital Well-being and Empowerment of Elderly Technology Users led by Dr Haytham Siala (Business and Management),
Willingness to Tolerate: Why Voters Overlook Allegations of Sexual Misconduct in Political Candidates led by Dr Sofia Collignon (Politics and International Relations),
Mobilities, Circulation and Exchange on the Western Indian Ocean Littoral led by IHSS Fellow Dr Yasmin Fedda (Arts),
Cooking Connections: Exploring the Sociocultural Role of the Kitchen and Youth Nutrition in Brazil and the UK led by Professor Paul Heritage (People's Palace Projects),
Managerial Expectations and Firm Resilience in the UK led by Dr Charlotte Meng (Business and Management).
The projects awarded in June 2024 for 2024 - 25 are:
Reimagining Childhood and Rights led by IHSS Associate Fellow Dr Hedi Viterbo (Law),
On the margins of legal capacity: Understanding the intentional agency of persons with cognitive impairments led by IHSS Fellow Dr Camillia Kong (Law),
Coolitude, Radical Imaginings and the Legacies of Indenture led by Dr Holly Eva Ryan (Politics and International Relations);
Cassava, Toxicity and Science at African Borderlands: An interdisciplinary enquiry into agricultural adaptation and survival in Uganda led by Dr Elizabeth Storer (Geography),
Governing migration through crisis: UK and US experiences led by Professor Kavita Datta (Geography),
The price of lottery-based public housing allocation led by Dr Vimal Balasubramaniam (Economics and Finance),
The carbon footprint of war and the brave new world of sustainable warfare led by IHSS Fellow Dr Benjamin Neimark (Business and Management),
Engaging stakeholders in the history of the biological clock led by Dr Edmund Ramsden (History),
Short Forms in the Global Literary Marketplace led by Dr Rehana Ahmed and Dr Shital Pravinchandra (both from the School of the Arts).
Economic Cost of Violence in Brazil led by Dr Pedro Souza (Economics and Finance),
Vaccines of Mass Protection + Different Rules Apply led by Professor Sophie Harman (Politics and International Relations),
Measuring support for democratic backsliding led by Dr Javier Sajuria (Politics and International Relations),
Urban homes for artists: policy, practice and planning in London led by Professor Alison Blunt (Geography),
Food on the move? Promoting food security through post-colonial infrastructure repair; a study of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway, Zimbabwe led by Professor Tim Brown (Geography),
Decolonising ‘Difficult Heritage’ Through Film led by Dr Grazia Ingravalle (Languages, Linguistics and Film),
The Governance of Health for Irregular Migrants led by Dr Corina Lacatus (Politics and International Relations),
The Future of Work in UK Freeports: Business Strategies, Work and Employment in Green Frontier and Logistics Industries in Three Regions led by Professor Liam Campling (Business and Management),
The political ecology of pain led by IHSS Fellow Dr Archie Davies (Geography),
UK Climate Diplomacy led by Professor David Whyte (Law),
Evidence-based medicine in the age of big data: the AI turn in fertility care led by Dr Manuela Perrotta (Business and Management),
Recast(e)ing the Indian Ocean: Mapping the co-working of caste, race, and capital through labour migrations in the Indian Ocean World led by Dr Niranjana Ramesh (Geography),
Youth Justice in the British Empire led by IHSS Associate Fellow Dr Hedi Viterbo (Law),
Engaging stakeholders in histories of ‘rarity’ in biomedicine led by Dr Jenny Bangham (History),
Tackling gender inequality in the labour market: The role of firm and government policies led by Dr Anna Raute (Economics and Finance),
Women Making Art History in post-war Britain, ca. 1945-1974 led by Dr Emilie Oleron Evans (Languages, Linguistics and Film),
Spreading La Revolución: Radios and the Transformation of Latin America in the 20th century led by Dr Felipe Gonzalez (Economics and Finance).
IHSS Fellow Dr Keren Weitzberg's (Politics and International Relations) Future ID: Power, Access, and Exclusion in Biometric and Digital Identity Systems
Cinemas of Extraction: Film, Deserts and the Making of the Planetary Frontier led by IHSS Fellow Dr Daniel Mann (Languages, Linguistics and Film)
The Violence of Urban Injustice – The Radical Potential of Urban Space, between Brazil and Palestine/Israel led by IHSS Associate Fellow Dr Sharri Plonski,(Politics and International Relations)
Dr James Bradley's (Geography) project Rock-Hosted-Life: Revealing the Microbial Communities Inhabiting Antarctic Rocks
Governing the Ice: Science, International Hierarchies, and Cooperation in Antarctica led by Dr Joanne (Yuan) Yao (Politics and International Relations)
IHSS Associate Fellow and Research Programme Director Dr Mario Slugan (Languages, Linguistics and Film) and Uuriintuya Batsaikhan (Positive Money Europe) Colonialism and Race Relations in High-School Curricula around the World
Dr Agnieszka Lyons's (Languages, Linguistics and Film) (Pre)SETH - Spatial Engagement in Trauma Healing
Dr Zahra Sharifonnasabi's (Business and Management) The Impact of Industry Branding on Emerging Market Firms' Export Performance
The Generation of AI in Ghana led by Dr Kerry Holden (Geography) and Dr Matthew Harsh (California Polytechnic State University)
IHSS Fellow Dr Louise Ashley's (Business and Management) and IHSS Research Programme Director Dr Will Monteith's (Geography) The Only Way is Up? How First-generation Graduates Contest Dominant Narratives of Social Mobility
Daoism on Film: Aesthetics and Practices of Anthropocosmic Cinema led by Dr Kiki Tianqi Yu (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)
Race, Religion, and Industry in Central Africa: American Protestants in the Congo under Belgian Rule, 1891-1960 led by Dr Reuben Loffman (School of History)
Gender Violence and Killings of Girls and Women in Mexico: Trends, Causes and Effective Interventions led by Prof Roxana Gutierrez-Romero (School of Business and Management) aims to narrow the critical gap in knowledge and contribute to the literature and policymaking and design effective interventions to prevent and reduce gender violence.Planetary portals: changes of state in the Anthropocene led by Dr Kerry Holden (School of Geography) and Prof Kathryn Yusoff (School of Geography) aims to expose the forgotten stories and geographies of extraction through the production of a series of conceptual maps, portal methodologies and artistic practices in collaboration with partners in London, New York and Cape Town.Group Formation and Maintenance in the Abbasid Caliphate, 750-1000 led by Dr Anna Chrysostomides (School of History) aims to compare the factors that caused ethnic or religious groups to form or disintegrate in the Islamic Abbasid caliphate which, at its height, spanned from Northern India to Africa. The project hopes to explore non-Muslim (Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish and polytheist) identity formation and disintegration alongside the ever-changing identities of early Islamic groups.Global Ecologies of Work: A Case Study of Namibia’s ‘Green Hydrogen Rush’ led by Dr William Monteith (School of Geography) proposes to address the ‘labour gap’ in debates on climate solutions by conducting one of the first comprehensive investigations into the emerging green hydrogen industry in Namibia.War and Welfare: Historical Record Linkage and the Possibilities for Assessing Social and Economic Rupture led by Dr Francesca Cornaglia (School of Economics and Finance). Using the First World War as a case study, this initial scoping exercise will ascertain the methodologies for linking large datasets to explore the true extent of the ruptures to social and economic life caused by war. The aim of this stage is to scope the largely digitised material to develop deeper understandings of the familial, marital, health (physical and mental) and employment circumstances of the men who were conscripted and/or went to war.
Life with Houseplants after Lockdown led by Dr Giulia Carabelli (School of Politics and International Relations). Dr Carabelli is developing an argument for human-plant relationships understood through the lens of solidarity, relationality and collaboration conducting preliminary research at Alnwick Gardens in Northumberland.
Dr James Bradley (School of Geography) will use funds to experiment on material gathered at the Jotun Springs in Svalbard to provide preliminary data informing the development of his research project proposal entitled DEEP-LIFE: Dispersal of life from the deep biosphere to the Cryosphere.
Constitutions of Accumulation: Regimes of dispossession and racialization in the Chagos Archipelago Dr Tanzil Chowdhury (School of Law) is exploring the relationship between UK Public Law and regimes of dispossession and racialization, taking the dispossession of the Chagos Archipelago between 1968 and 1971 as a point of departure.
Dr Philippa Williams (School of Geography) will use her grant to undertake work mapping India’s digital health ecosystem, the digital leaders and drivers and to conducting interviews with medical health practitioners in order to develop her grant proposal on Political anatomy of digital health in India.
Dr Rowan Lubbock (School of Politics and International Relations) will use his grant to explore the connections between humanity’s transformation of the earth and the transformation of ‘the international’ in his proposal Fields and Frontiers: Agriculture and the Making of International (Dis)Order.
The Pillage of Distant Worlds: An Intellectual History of the North/South Divide Dr Musab Younis (School of Politics and International Relations) is in the preliminary stages of developing this research project about global inequality and will start with support for a comprehensive literature review.
Dr Lucy Bolton (School of Languages, Linnguistics and Film) will be leading a project entitled "British Film Costume Design: Creation, Manufacture, Performance and Afterlife”. This is a collaboration the British Film Institute, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich.Dr Richard Coulton (School of English and Drama) will receive support to work on his project “Extended Specimens: Indigeneity and the Early Herbarium”. This project will significantly extend and consolidate an existing research collaboration between Coulton and Mark Carine / Charles E. Jarvis at the Natural History Museum (Plant Sciences).
Micro-AP: Microbial activity in frozen Arctic Permafrost
Dr James Bradley (School of Geography)
Governing the ‘spatial imaginary’ after Brexit: the future of English city-regions Dr Patrick Diamond (School of Politics and International Relations)A State of Legislatures: American Legislative Output, 1789-1861Dr Daniel Peart (School of History)
Multimodal Mobility: Exploring a synthetic approach to word/image combinations that foster media literacy Professor Adrian Armstrong (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)
The Peace Project: Thinking Nonviolence in Visual CultureDr Guy Westwell and Dr Anat Pick (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)
Creating a chronological framework for linking climate, environmental change and human colonisation of the South PacificDr Anna Bourne (School of Geography)
Designs on International OrganisationsDr Isobel Roele (School of Law)
Gender Bias and Witness Credibility in Sexual Assault TrialsDr Erez Levon and Dr Yang Yee (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)
Political Parties and Democracy in Latin American Cities (PADILAC)Dr Sam Halvorsen (School of Geography)
Digital Financial Inclusion at the Margins (DFI-ATM)Professor Kavita Datta and Dr Philippa Williams (School of Geography)
Movement Parties: A New Chance for Democracy?Dr Lasse Thomassen (School of Politics and International Relations)
Multimedia sharing in WhatsApp and its impact on reducing social isolation among transnational grandparents.Dr Agnieszka Lyons (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)