Congratulations to Dr John Gallacher from the School of Medicine who recently secured an additional £7.5 million for stage two of the multi-million pound MRC programme ‘MRC UK Dementias Research Platform (UKDP)’ designed to accelerate progress in dementia research.
Launched this month, the MRC UKDP is a public-private partnership that will unite a wealth of partners and knowledge in a fresh drive to understand neurodegenerative disease onset and progression. The Platform will combine a broad conceptual approach with cutting-edge technologies and significant statistical power, integrating UK strengths in neuroscience, population science and clinical research capability.
The project was awarded first stage funding of £4.5m in 2013, with Dr Gallacher leading the project, with an executive team of investigators from six institutes: Cambridge, Edinburgh, Kings College London, Imperial College London, UCL and Swansea, along with the UCL-based MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing.
Stage one, commencing this month, will develop a new Platform, a single portal informatics hub, which will provide a unique approach to dementias research, looking not just at the brain but at the whole body.
Dr Gallacher has now secured stage 2 funding of £7.5 million. The stage 2 proposal focuses on providing strategic resources for EM by enriching strategically selected cohorts, addressing key methodological issues and pump-priming a programme of experimental medicine studies.
Further development of the platform is anticipated as the opportunities it provides are more widely understood. For example, predicated on the ability of the platform’s ability to provide accurately risk stratification, MRC and NIHR have recently funded a deep and frequent Phenotyping (DFP) feasibility study with a view to providing a further £5M for the full study. The DFP project may be considered a stage 3 development of UKDP and is an example of how UKDP can be used to leverage further resource for dementias research.
Dr Gallacher’s research attracted national and international media coverage, featuring as the main health story on the BBC’s website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27236004
For more information, visit http://medicine.cf.ac.uk/news/cardiff-lead-new-mrc-uk-dementias-research-platform/
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Two members of staff from the College have been successful in winning bids for teaching awards from the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on the area of collaborative learning.
Dr Stephen Rutherford from the School of Biosciences has won a Teaching Development Grant from the HEA to undertake the study of ‘Shadow Modules’ to identify best practice for running collaborative activities.
Dr Keren Williamson from the School of Healthcare Sciences also won a Teaching Development Grant to undertake a project which will provide a framework for student leaders to work collaboratively with academic staff to develop novel pedagogic materials and to empower students to deigns and deliver elements that support their curriculum.
There were 230 applications across the UK, with only 12 grants awarded. So congratulations to both Stephen and Karen.