Connecting Cultures

How cultures connect and how those connections have shaped our world across the centuries are key questions for anyone attempting to understand the reality we live in. As technology shrinks the space around us, turning the global into the local, there is arguably more need than ever for scholars to contribute to greater understanding between cultures.

The theme "Connecting Cultures" brings together the interests of leading scholars from across Warwick, coupling existing and emerging interests with a strong commitment to training the next generation of researchers via dedicated postgraduate programmes. Key Warwick research in this area focuses on mobility, intercultural studies, translation and language politics, the cultural dimension of health and health policies, and cognate areas and aims to contribute at both a theoretical and an applied level to debates around what connects and what divides cultures.

Academic Lead:

Dr Loredana Polezzi, Department of Italian
L.Polezzi@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7652 3253

Research Support Lead:

Dr Liese Perrin
L.Perrin@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 3935 or (024) 7657 3974

Digital Change

Digital technologies have enabled new ways of working and communicating, allowed us to ask new questions, and also offer the means to answer existing questions more fully and systematically. The Digital Change programme seeks to inform Warwick about new developments in technology that could assist or even transform research and teaching; connect people and structures across the university; offer practical assistance to translate ideas into reality; highlight and help with funding opportunities; and explore changes that lie just round the corner. Warwick’s commitment to distinctive innovation and next-step thinking should be especially visible in terms of how it formulates, produces and disseminates its research on the digital and through the digital. Digital Change will initially focus on the Arts and Social Sciences Faculties, linking them to the many groups inside and beyond the university – locally, nationally and internationally - where there are inspiring ideas and expertise that can help shape Warwick’s digital future.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Mark Knights, Department of History
M.J.Knights@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 4690

Research Support Lead:

Dr Liese Perrin
L.Perrin@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 3935 or (024) 7657 3974

Energy

The inexorable rise in the global demand for energy will require profound changes in the way in which it is produced and utilised. Such changes are vital if ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are to be achieved. In the EU, member states including the UK are committed to reducing emissions by at least 20% by 2020 with further ambitious targets of 80% or more by 2050.

These changes will only be achieved through technological advances which in turn can only happen through sustained and substantial investment in research and innovation. Warwick has core strengths in several key areas of Energy research, including: Power Electronics; Solar Energy; Thermal Energy; and Confined Fusion for Clean Energy. With a current grant portfolio of over £20m and strong links to industry and policy makers, Warwick’s Energy-related research is a truly multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral activity. Our vision is for Warwick to be a world-leading centre of excellence in Energy research and the Energy GPP is the vehicle for making this happen.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Philip Mawby, School of Engineering
P.A.Mawby@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7652 4742

Research Support Lead:

Dr Christopher Veal
Christopher.Veal@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 5517 (RSS) or (024) 7655 1061 (Maths)

Food Security

Diminishing resources, an increasing population, competition for land and the uncertainties of climate change have led policy makers, scientists and others to question the future stability and security of our food supply systems. There are also anxieties about issues such as national security, international governance of intellectual property, regulation, planning, and gender inequalities.

Food system sustainability is a complex issue. Given the considerable size of the global food trade, food security and food system sustainability combine domestic and foreign policy matters.

Academic Lead:

Dr Rosemary Collier, School of Life Sciences
Rosemary.Collier@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 5066

Research Support Lead:

Sarah Holcroft
Sarah.Holcroft@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7615 0270

Global Governance

Contemporary society faces unprecedented challenges of global governance. The policy agenda is crowded with issues that are substantially global in nature, such as communications, conflict, ecology, energy, finance, health, labour standards and trade. The ways in which these matters are handled (or mishandled) have profound implications for material welfare, social justice, democracy, peace, and perhaps even humanity’s very survival.

‘Global governance’ refers to the rules and regulatory processes that apply to problems with intercontinental and planetary scope. The Global Governance GPP aims to further enhance Warwick’s position as a world leader in global governance scholarship by bringing together researchers from across a range of departments (including business, economics, health, history, law, linguistics, politics, philosophy and sociology) in order to collaborate on major efforts to define, explain, assess and shape regulatory provisions for the more global world of the twenty-first century.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Jan Aart Scholte, Politics and International Studies
J.A.Scholte@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 2939

Research Support Lead:

Nikki Muckle
nikki.muckle@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 3961

Individual Behaviour

Behavioural Science is the scientific study of human behaviour, and its implications for social and economic phenomena. At Warwick, Behavioural Science is an interdisciplinary initiative across the university, drawing together researchers in, amongst others, the departments of Psychology and Economics, Warwick Business School, and the Institute of Mathematics.

Behavioural science asks fundamental questions about humans, such as:

• Why do people behave in the way they do?
• Are they behaving rationally or irrationally?
• Even if some individuals behave irrationally, is aggregate behaviour (social policy, market activity) more or less rational? Or might ‘herds’ and/or markets present additional challenges?
• What are the forces that mould human happiness and mental health?

These kinds of questions are of fundamental importance to businesses, governments, and society as a whole.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Graham Loomes, Warwick Business School
g.loomes@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7652 3697

Research Support Lead:

Innovative Manufacturing

Manufacturing is a key provider of wealth and employment, accounting for $4.4 trillion of value-added worldwide and is one of the primary mechanisms for realising wealth from new technologies, which is critical to the UK. It is no longer the simple production of goods for one time sale, but is now a complicated network involving many high value but sometimes less tangible activities spanning the whole product life-cycle, these include: design, R&D, marketing, logistics, lifetime services and disposal.

As the UK seeks to rebalance and grow the economy, manufacturing is being targeted and highlighted by many influential bodies and commentators and Warwick’s response to this is the creation of the Innovative Manufacturing GPP, which incorporates the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). With a vast research expertise that spans areas such as metals and alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites, machining, joining and the use of sustainable materials, WMG has helped numerous companies to achieve a competitive edge. Its researchers are drawn from both industry and academia, and over the years their skills have transferred across many sectors including aerospace, automotive, motor sport, medical, consumer electronics, bio medical and leisure.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Richard Dashwood, WMG
R.Dashwood@warwick.ac.uk

Research Support Lead:

International Development

Warwick has substantial expertise across the university on international development issues and a number of departments are known within their professions for particular strength in this field. For example, the Economics department is strong in both economic development and economic history and the Law School is involved with providing extensive legal training programs in India and Ethiopia. The International Development GPP will firstly look to package what the university does in terms of international development research, of which there is a substantial amount already; and secondly will look to increase the quantity and/or change the character of research on international development being carried out at Warwick.

Funding for work in international development, coming both from foundations and government overseas aid agencies is still available despite the global economic situation. In order to align with these funders’ research priorities, and build on Warwick’s research strengths, the International Development GPP has initially identified three potential themes in which interdisciplinary collaboration might develop in the future: gender and development, labour relationships and health.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Chris Woodruff, Department of Economics
c.woodruff@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7615 1096

Research Support Lead:

Science & Technology for Health

Healthy ageing is now high on the agenda nationally and internationally, in recognition of the twin challenges of maintaining the welfare of an increasingly aged population in an era of economic constraints. The research agenda is typically defined in terms of “lifelong health and wellbeing” in recognition of the significant influence of a range of biological, social and economic variables from early childhood to old age – including for example pre-natal and childhood nutrition, mental health, lifestyle choices and public health policies. A key need is for insights that draw on a range of disciplines and have the potential to deliver measurable impact on lifelong health and wellbeing.

At Warwick, we can underpin delivery of high quality cross-disciplinary research in these areas with cross-cutting platforms in which we are acknowledged leaders. These include quantitative biosciences; systems modelling; digital technologies; computational intelligence; translational research (including cutting-edge facilities and expertise in translational medicine supported by the Science City Research Alliance); and Warwick Medical School Clinical Trials Unit.

Academic Lead:

Prof. Sudhesh Kumar, Warwick Medical School
Sudhesh.Kumar@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 4869

Research Support Lead:

Elizabeth Cromwell
Elizabeth.Cromwell@warwick.ac.uk
(024) 7657 5334