RVC-led programme awards £170,000 in grants

Projects exploring the role of people, business and culture in tackling infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are sharing £170,000 awarded in grants from an RVC-led programme.

The Bloomsbury Science, Economics, Technology (SET) programme – a £5 million research scheme – has made the awards to six social science-led projects.

Projects

The projects receiving funding are:

• “Knowledge exchange through a Bedouin lens: a photovoice exploration of camel owner perceptions of zoonotic disease risk” – led by Jackie Cardwell (RVC) in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
• Enhancing political economy research skills to tackle infectious disease and AMR challenges” – led by Mehroosh Tak (RVC) in collaboration with the LSHTM
• “Assessing social acceptability and economic impact of centralized antibiotic usage data collection for GB cattle farms” – led by Dr Tak in collaboration with SOAS University of London
• “Tackling antimicrobial resistance in rivers: a design-based policy approach” – led by Naomi Bull (LSHTM) in collaboration with the RVC and SOAS
• “Contextualising antimicrobial resistance perspectives in Sri Lanka and European Union” – led by Risa Morimoto (SOAS) in collaboration with the RVC, and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• “Visual arts and localised evidence and decision-making” – led by Polly Savage (SOAS) in collaboration with the LSE and LSHTM

Partners

The Bloomsbury SET is a consortium of the RVC, LSHTM, LSE, SOAS and the London International Development Centre, and aims to “accelerate the delivery of innovative scientific and technical solutions to help safeguard global health”.

Ray Kent, director of research administration at the RVC, said: “The six funded projects represent an exciting opportunity to investigate social and cultural aspects of infectious disease and AMR, which can so easily be overlooked in our rush to identify and implement technology-based solutions.

“We trust that, in combination, these studies will lead to genuine insights into how co-designing solutions with local people can reduce costs and encourage shared ownership of challenges in low-resource settings, leading to better outcomes for disease prevention and control.”