science wire

Neuroscientists join major EU consortium dedicated to advancing new Alzheimer’s disease therapies
Two Bristol University neuroscientists have become the only UK-based academic members of a major European Union-funded consortium dedicated to accelerating the next generation of Alzheimer's disease research and drug discovery.

£3.5million funding grant awarded to Creative Community projects
The University of Birmingham has been awarded more than £1,200,000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a creative urban economy project as part of a larger £3.5m investment in three national projects set to support communities and their creative economy.

Sports Minister opens new £6.7m world-class sports facility at Durham University
Sports Minister opens new £6.7m world-class sports facility at Durham University The Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP, will today (February 21) open a new £6.7m world-class

Dame Elish Angiolini elected next Principal of St Hugh’s

Many young people still underestimate how much they drink
Many young people still underestimate how much they drink A new University of Sussex-led study reveals that many young people still lack the knowledge and skills required to follow the government's guidelines for responsible alcohol consumption.

England takes gold as preparations continue for London 2012
Over the weekend of February 11-12, University of Birmingham Sport (UBSport) alumni headed to the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield to compete at the UK Indoor Trials and Championship.

Making the leap from ’theory to theatre’
A Leeds professor is one of eight of the UK's most promising leaders in medical health research to be awarded a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) professorship.

Schools Liaison Officer Diary: Selwyn in Scotland

Boost for supercomputing facilities
A new phase of supercomputing has been launched at the University. David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, announced the next stage of development of two giant computers, HECToR (High-End Computing Terascale Resources) and BlueGene Q, at an event at the University.

Glasgow-led project delivers 266 new homes in Pakistan’s flood-hit Swat Valley
A University of Glasgow-led project which channelled Scottish Government and other donor funding into Pakistan's flood-hit Swat Valley district has resulted in the construction of 266 new homes.

Working to change the world

Fund raising boost for The University of Manchester
The UK's leading technology investment manager MTI has confirmed it is actively fundraising for the world's largest unquoted investment fund dedicated to university spin-outs.

Access Fair highlights Oxford’s outreach work

New deal brings men's and women's boat races onto same day
New sponsorship deals for the boat race will enable the men's and women's races to be held on the same stretch of river on the same day for the first time, it has been announced today (8 February 2012).

UK Cabinet Office and Oxford team up to promote government project leadership

Innovation and reform key to ending financial crisis, says Sussex economist
Innovation and reform key to ending financial crisis, says Sussex economist Government needs to implement radical, strategic financial reform that favours innovation and the technology economy – or face economic instability with major social consequences.

UniTV’s first live broadcast
UniTV's first live broadcast UniTV broadcast a show live online for the first time as part of the Students' Union's Full-time Officer elections.

New study probes radical rethink on culture
The University of Manchester is to host a £1.5 million investigation, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), into how society can get the most out of the vast array of often overlooked cultural activities Britons take part in.

£4m boost for asthma research
The Medical Research Council (MRC) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have co-funded a groundbreaking programme of asthma research at the MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma.

Plans for new childcare centre to be built on campus
Plans for new childcare centre to be built on campus The University is close to concluding an agreement with the Co-operative Childcare, part of Midcounties Co-operative, to secure the future of childcare on campus.

New investment aims to establish the UK as a global graphene research hub
Today sees the announcement of full details of how an additional £50 million will be spent to keep the UK at the forefront of research into ‘wonder material' graphene.

Minister launches new forum set to forge innovation between universities and industry

Is third party funding effectively regulated in the UK?
A study shows that the market for litigation funding, otherwise known as third party funding, is firmly established for commercial disputes in the UK and is extending into cases involving ordinary citizens, such as personal injury and group actions.

Great handbags – but what about the politics?
Audiences are spellbound by Meryl Streep's performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. As a PhD student looking at British politics in the same era, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite was keen to see how the movie portrayed the woman who changed the face of Britain.

Major new grant funding for cultural institutions

Museums recognised by major Arts Council grant

Ageing UK infrastructure systems need to be more joined up
A research consortium led by Oxford University warns that significant investment will be needed in many cases to replace the UK's ageing infrastructure systems.

SEI Co-Director visits Croatia ahead of EU referendum
SEI Co-Director visits Croatia ahead of EU referendum A Sussex specialist on European referendums and East European politics visited Croatia last week just days before Croatians voted to join the European Union.

UK government backs Imperial researchers in drive to eliminate neglected tropical diseases
By Sam Wong Renewed support from the British government will enable research groups based at Imperial College London to distribute an additional 100 million treatments for schistosomiasis in Africa.

More feel ’English’ than ’British’ in England
Voters living in England have become more assertively 'English' and place much greater emphasis on their English rather than their British identity, according to a joint University report.

Challenging the thinking on drugs

Ambitions project launched in Southwark

Shipwrecked: women and children first?
Romantic notions of heroism - the captain refusing to leave his sinking ship, women and children being ushered to safety - have been shattered by reports emerging from the Costa Concordia.

Hopes and fears for 2012 -- business and advisers share their views
Businesses and advisers have shared their hopes and dreams for the coming year, in the first survey for 2012 of the University of Nottingham's Barometer Project.

Teams claim overall 2011 Varsity victory

Report backs government-funded older people’s advice service
Analysis of the FirstStop initiative reveals that the service saves money and improves quality of life. With better information and advice about how to deal with the housing, care and financial challenges of ageing, people are able to remain independent in their own homes or move to housing that really suits them." —Gemma Burgess A government-funded information and advice service helping older people to prepare for later life is proving a much-needed resource as Britain becomes an increasingly top-heavy society, a new report says.

Researchers back Gove school reforms
A landmark study of English secondary schools has backed Government education reforms – but with strong caveats.

Seeking benefits, avoiding conflicts
A new report on Uganda's emerging oil and gas industry says companies can improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to give fairer employment, compensation and land deals to communities. The report Seeking Benefits and Avoiding Conflicts: A Community-Company Assessment of Uganda's Hydrocarbon Industry is the culmination of a year of consultation, validation discussions, roundtables and workshops, conducted by the Ugandan members of the study team and coordinated by the Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas (CSCO).

Half of care home patients suffer drug errors
Errors in administration of medication are a serious problem in long-term residential care.

Cambridge success in leading equality survey
The University of Cambridge ranks among the very best employers in the country for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff, according to a leading survey of workplace equality.

A million NHS users are suffering preventable or inadequately treated pain
At any one time a million people in England are living with long term pain which could have been prevented or be being significantly better treated, according to joint UCL School of Pharmacy and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association report published today.

For crying out loud!: Baby cries get a speedy response
The sound of babies crying is uniquely able to get adults to react at speed, Oxford University researchers have found. They compared the scores of 40 volunteers on the classic arcade game 'Whack-a-mole' after listening to babies crying with their scores after hearing sounds of adults in distress or birdsong similar in pitch and variability to infants' cries.

UCL Vice-Provost (Research) responds to minister’s Our Hi-Tech Future speech
Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research), comments on the recent speech, Our Hi-Tech Future , by the Minister of State for Universities &.

East Midlands to lead the way in sports medicine
PA 07/12 A unique £10 million centre for sport and exercise medicine is to be set up in the East Midlands as part of Olympic-year government plans to promote health and fitness, announced today by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

HRH The Princess Royal to help celebrate 25 years of Nottingham occupational therapy research
PA 06/12 HRH The Princess Royal will hear how 25 years of work by Nottingham occupational therapy researchers has helped to lessen the impact of disease and disability on everyday life and deliver innovation in patient rehabilitation during a visit to the city later this week.

Legal aid reforms to save less than predicted
The Government will save less than half of the £270 million it predicts through the proposed reforms to legal aid, and planned cuts will actually result in additional costs for the taxpaper by shifti

What happens to the young and educated without a job?
A new study led by the University of Oxford is looking at how young educated people who are unemployed become politicised in different ways - either through violent struggle or as reformers working for a more equal society.

Professor Dermot Kelleher named as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine
Professor Dermot Kelleher FMedSci, one of Ireland's foremost medical leaders and a pioneer in the field of immune response and infectious disease, has been appointed Principal of Imperial's Faculty of Medicine.

If you plan, then you’ll do... but it helps to have a friend
While you are more likely to do something if you plan it in advance, new research from the University of Leeds shows that partnering up can really boost the likelihood of sticking to your resolutions.

New Year’s Honours 2012

MBE for Nottingham stroke expert
PA 02/12 A Nottingham professor who has dedicated her professional life to helping to rehabilitate people affected by stroke has received royal recognition for her work.

University graphene pioneers are knighted

New Year Honours for members of the University of Cambridge

New Year Honours 2012

‘Extreme Sleepover #3’ – gathering the views of indigenous women in rural Ecuador
In the third of a series of reports contributed by Cambridge researchers, geographer Sarah Radcliffe describes her work with women from impoverished indigenous communities in Ecuador.

Violence Prevention
A successful violence prevention model developed at Cardiff University is set to be implemented in the Dutch capital Amsterdam.

‘Extreme Sleepover #1′ – Breathless at Everest base camp
In the first of a series of reports contributed by Cambridge researchers, physiologist Andrew Murray studies responses to extreme altitude as part of a programme that will improve hospital treatments for critically ill-people.

Ethnic differences for heart disease risk
Scots of Indian and Pakistani origin also have much greater levels of hospital admissions for both conditions than people of white Scottish ethnicity. University researchers found that Sots of Pakistani origin were twice as likely to be admitted to hospital with chest pain compared with white Scots.

New Cambridge study measures countries’ well-being
The key message is that the UK government, like many around the world, now recognises that economic measures such as GDP do not provide adequate information about a society's progress." &m

Seven Imperial researchers receive prestigious Fellowships
By Colin Smith Seven researchers from Imperial College London have this month been awarded prestigious fellowships totalling more than £6 million, designed to help them to develop their potential as the next generation of world-leading scientists and engineers.

Site of earliest house is scheduled by the Government
21 Dec 2011 One of Yorkshire's most outstanding historical sites has been given protection by Heritage Minister John Penrose.

Businesses offer cautious backing over PM’s handling of Eurozone crisis
PA 396/11 Small businesses and their advisors appear to have backed the Government's stance over the Eurozone crisis, a survey has shown.

New Oxford scholarships at Blavatnik School of Government

Making a difference to women
Improving the quality of care for childbearing women and their families is the focus of a new Professor of Midwifery appointment at the University.

Formula for success in increasing smoke alarm use
PA 392/11 The most effective strategy to encourage more people to have a working smoke alarm in their homes has been revealed by a team of healthcare researchers. A combined approach of offering education, free or low-cost equipment and a home safety inspection is likely to have the most impact, the study by a research team involving academics from the Universities of Leicester, York and Nottingham has discovered.

Financial help for social work training at Nottingham
PA 391/11 People who apply for professional social work courses at The University of Nottingham are being urged to take advantage of bursaries which have been protected from government cuts for the next academic year.

Europe in crisis - Sussex experts speak out
Europe in crisis - Sussex experts speak out The collapse of the Euro, a UK exit from Europe, the end of the coalition and even the political disintegration of the UK – these are still po

Solar power generation more powerful in Europe this century
Climate change will increase the amount of electricity generated by solar power in some parts of the world while decreasing it in others. The University of Leeds findings, published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science , have major impacts for countries looking at what type of solar power to build, where to build it and financial rates of return.

Britain’s Public Finances: Past, Present and Future
Why do governments tax, spend, lend and borrow? At a time when fiscal management is under intense scrutiny around the world, Robert Chote , Chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), wi

Lecturer visits Africa to see fruit of his labours

University hosts the launch of the Labour’s Small Business Taskforce’s interim report
Chuka Umunna MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, today launched, “Fulfilling the Promise of British Enterprise” - the interim report from the Labour Party's

The Northern Way – how the North can become the world’s nuclear base
13 Dec 2011 The North of England has the opportunity to become one of the world's leading nuclear manufacturing hubs, creating many thousands of new jobs and generating substantial economic growth for the UK, according to a University of Manchester report.

Applications to Sussex bucking national trend

Scientists develop pioneering telescope
University scientists are helping design and launch a satellite that will map more of the Universe than ever before. The satellite, known as Euclid, will follow on from the Hubble telescope, launched by in 1990. The Hubble broke new ground in space observation and led to many discoveries in our knowledge and understanding of physics.

Wildlife broadcasters ’should pay for ecosystem services’
Media corporations that make and broadcast wildlife programmes and films should pay towards the cost of nature conservation under an existing innovative funding mechanism for the 'use of ecosystem services'.

Sussex invests in PhD scholarships

Cold War PR – spinning the ideological battlefront

Impact of injuries in the UK more than two and a half times higher than estimated
PA 378/11 Injuries in the UK are having a much greater impact on peoples' lives than previously estimated, a study has found. The research, involving academics from The University of Nottingham, used data direct from patient experiences combined with information on the number of patients treated in emergency departments and admitted to hospital to reveal that the true impact of injuries in the UK is actually 2.6 times higher than experts believed.

Sussex pledges to attract, support and retain female scientists

‘These rough notes and our dead bodies…’
The story of the Terra Nova expedition, explored through the letters, diaries and photographs of its members, is to be told during a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at Cambridge University's Polar Museum.

Deborah Bull, King’s Cultural Partners Director
King's College London is pleased to announce that Deborah Bull has accepted the newly created role of Director, King's Cultural Partners, and will join King's in March 2012.

Improving older people’s hospital care
Action to tackle the sometimes shocking standards of hospital care for older people was priority at a high-level University-hosted conference.

Current benefit and taxation system - unfit for purpose
The tax and benefit system needs a radical redesign to fit it for the 21 st century according to a new policy paper from experts at the University of Birmingham and The Centre for Welfare Reform.

Warwick economist to lead £15 million research initiative into private enterprise in developing countries
Warwick economist to lead £15 million research initiative into private enterprise in developing countries University of Warwick economics professor Christopher Woodruff will oversee a new initiative that plans to invest £15 million into research on private enterprise development in low-income countries, it was announced today.

Alan Turing pardon petition launched
A University of Leeds academic is supporting an e-petition calling on the Government to posthumously pardon the mathematician and computer pioneer Alan Turing for his conviction of gross indecency.

Birmingham experts respnd to the autumn economic statement
Birmingham's academic experts provide their views on George Osborne's autumn economic statement. "Most welfare benefits have been increased fully in line with inflation, somewhat contrary to expectations.

Lost world of local artist in new museum exhibition
Researcher reveals lost world of local artist in new museum exhibition University of Sussex art historian Alexandra Loske's trip to a Lewes antique shop led to her own exhibition of rarely seen works at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

Rugby rivalry renewed
One of the oldest rivalries in rugby is to be renewed in a unique match in London. Two of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union, the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, will meet in London for the first time.

Academy of Medical Sciences honour

Spinal Injuries Association secures Lottery funding for peer support service
A community-based peer support service for people who have recently sustained a spinal cord injury is set to be extended across England following a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

Ingenious Britain: Dyson invests £1.4m in academic research at Cambridge
In a £1.4m deal, announced today, Dyson is funding a Cambridge University professorship to support breakthrough engineering and scientific research over the next decade.

Widening participation in Dentistry

Plans for partnership in North West London aim to bring innovations to healthcare
Imperial College London and healthcare providers in North West London today announce plans to form a new partnership to improve the health and care of the local population of 1.9 million people.

Vice-Provost begins Presidency of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Professor Sir John Tooke, Vice-Provost (Health) at UCL, has today begun a five year term as President of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

University wins Times Higher Award

Study will help guide women’s choices in where to give birth
Women with straightforward pregnancies can choose whether they'd like to give birth in a hospital obstetric unit, a midwifery unit or at home, knowing that giving birth is generally very safe. But there are some important differences between these birth settings in benefits and risks for the mother and baby, the Birthplace in England study has shown.

University wins Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its Nuclear work

UK recovery will require strong public sector leadership confident of its special role and more closely connected with those it serves
Leadership in the public sector is facing an unprecedented crisis of confidence at a time when public services are facing huge challenges.

India Institute Avantha Chair
King's India Institute receives £3.5million from Avantha Group King's has received a £3.5 million gift from the Indian Avantha Group to endow a Chair that accompanies the Directorship of the India Institute.

Mossbourne Academy comes to Cambridge
Former Mossbourne Academy student Martha Levi Smythe was visited at Christ's College, Cambridge by a few friends from her old school last week: thirty of them! The whole of the Hackney comprehensive's Year 12 were in Cambridge for a day exploring HE options.

Achieving Recognition and Support for Carers
Carers could benefit from gym membership, laptops or short holidays to help keep them well when giving a high level of care to sick, frail or disabled relatives, a major study has found. Researchers led by Professor Sue Yeandle of CIRCLE (the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities) at the University of Leeds studied the impact and effectiveness of 25 multi-agency projects set up to explore new ways of supporting some of England's most hard-pressed carers.

New national social enterprise network to be launched at Plymouth University
A new government and industry-backed national network, which will support social enterprise and help higher education institutions grow sustainable businesses, is set to be launched at Plymouth University this week.

Study on infant pneumonia deaths
About one in four of all infants who die from flu-related pneumonia live in India, according to a new University study.

Degree education ’more equal’ than league tables claim
A new study suggests a competitive market for university students which uses standardised information about courses to highlight differences in ‘quality' is misleading.

Homerton College hosts myth-busting mission for pupils from Aldershot
Connaught School says "Cambridge University are on a myth-busting mission to find the brightest stars in the state sector, and we're delighted to be on their hit-list".

University enters collaboration to develop text mining applications
The University of Manchester has joined forces with Elsevier, a leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, to develop new applications for text mining, a crucial research tool. The primary goal of text mining is to extract new information such as named entities, relations hidden in text and to enable scientists to systematically and efficiently discover, collect, interpret and curate knowledge required for research.

Bordesely Green Girls School has a whale of a time at Cambridge

University launches HE taster course for injured servicemen
Plymouth University has launched the first HE taster course specifically designed to create skills and career development pathways for injured servicemen and women.

University launches President’s Doctoral Scholar Award

US alumni events

Ambitious new building project at Manchester Business School

Abandon ship or keep the faith Cameron’s EU test
Abandon ship or keep the faith? Cameron's EU test Prime Minister David Cameron is enduring a rocky ride at home and abroad over matters European this week.

Higher education partnership launch

Driving innovation

Citizenship debate kicks off popular London lecture series

Visions of a ’car-free future’ created by Leeds researchers
City centres could become virtually car-free over the next 20 years under new plans proposed by University of Leeds transport researchers.

Chrissie takes Ironman Championship title again, while Rachel rejoices at fourth place
Alumna Chrissie Wellington won the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship title on Saturday, October 8, deservedly earnnig the crown for the fourth time in five years.

Advanced new training for Wales’ future dentists
Dental students are set to benefit from the most some of the most modern training facilities in the UK.

Universities to get their teeth into oral health problems
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is to support the Universities of Glasgow and Dundee with £132,000 to strengthen their collaboration on dental and oral health research, which will contribute to better dental health services and care across Scotland.

Lightning research advances
Cardiff University has launched a new research facility, the Morgan-Botti Lightning Laboratory today (13 October).

World-famous opera star Sir Thomas Allen appointed Chancellor of Durham University

The Fourth National Assembly Election
Was the result of the 2011 National Assembly election a vote in favour of the Labour party, or one against the UK government?

First class bid leads to new University Technical School for City
Plymouth has received a resounding endorsement for a bid that will see it awarded considerable funding to create a brand new type of school that will focus on technical subjects for 14 to 19 year olds.

Children’s intensive care comes under scrutiny
Standards of care in children's intensive care units come under scrutiny in a new audit report published today by the University of Leeds and the University of Leicester.

Cyber war might never happen
Cyber war, long considered by many experts within the defence establishment to be a significant threat, if not an ongoing one, may never take place according to Thomas Rid of King's College London.

American Football Head Coach selected for IFAF World Development team
University of Birmingham Sport's (UBSport) American Football Head Coach has been announced as the only UK representative to be part of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Development team.

Chief Scientific Advisor visits Nottingham’s Malaysia Campus
The UK's Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir John Beddington, visited The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) on Friday 7 October 2011.

New study finds 42% of countries have no provision for palliative care
A new study by the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA), and co-authored by Professor David Clark of the University of Glasgow has found that only 136 out of the world's 234 countries have one or

Durham named as Top 3 UK University in prestigious league table

Sussex retains top-100 place in world rankings

Carrier bag confusion
A new report shows that Welsh shoppers are not clear on the reasons behind the minimum 5p charge for a single use carrier bag.

Governments urged to rethink policy on young people’s aspirations
A new University of Glasgow study challenges widely-held assumptions about the aspirations of young people from deprived backgrounds.

New Chair of the Board appointed at Tamar Science Park
Following a national recruitment campaign and an intensive selection process, prominent businessman Simon Chamberlain has been appointed as Chair of the Tamar Science Park (TSP) Board.

A thousand jobs in Manchester
A thousand unemployed people have now been found work thanks to the efforts of the city's two universities to recruit workless residents.

UK homes need to warm to new sustainable heating technologies, says report
by Colin Smith UK homeowners need to be encouraged to replace gas boilers and adopt new low carbon sustainable heating systems in the future, if the country is to meet its CO2 reduction targets, according to a briefing paper released today .

Studying visual impairment and depression
New research under way at Cardiff University's School of Optometry and Vision Sciences could provide new hope for visually impaired people suffering from clinical depression.

Cabinet Secretary for Education re-opens The Hunterian Museum
After almost two years of closure, the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum has been formally re-opened by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell MSP.

Making the most of the power of networks
"A friendly forum where people can meet and share ideas and best practice," is how Debbie Gibbs describes the Personal Assistants (PA) Network that she and Gaynor Butterwick have established.