ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL

Funding of nearly £3 million has been provided to eight projects as part of the AHRC's Religion and Society research programme. Four applicants have also been awarded additional funding to support research by postdoctoral students.

Award winner: R.G. Brand

Institution: University of Manchester

Value: £371,348

Studentship: £49,106

Multi-faith spaces - symptoms and agents of religious and social change

Award winner: J.R. Carrette

Institution: University of Kent

Value: £4,736

Religious non-governmental organisations and the United Nations in New York and Geneva

Award winner: D. Fergusson

Institution: University of Edinburgh

Value: £251,216

Understanding the encounter between Christianity, psychotherapy and spirituality in Scotland (1945-2000) in theory and practice

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Award winner: J.M. Harper

Institution: Bangor University

Value: £349,606

Studentship: £49,106

The experience of worship in late medieval cathedral and parish church: investigation, realisation and interpretation

Award winner: D.N. Gellner

Institution: University of Oxford

Value: £418,034

Studentship: £55,334

Vernacular religion: varieties of religiosity in the Nepali diaspora

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Award winner: E. Hsu

Institution: University of Oxford

Value: £348,155

Icons and innovation in south-west China's religious texts

Award winner: T. O'Toole

Institution: University of Bristol

Value: £328,947

Muslim participation in contemporary governance

Award winner: P. Weller

Institution: University of Derby

Value: £358,7

Studentship: £49,106

Religion and belief, discrimination and equality in England and Wales: theory, policy and practice (2000-10)

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Two research projects that aim to bring stem-cell treatments to clinical trial have been awarded up to £5 million in funding. The projects, which feature collaborations between UK and US research teams, are part of a jointly funded initiative between the MRC and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Award winners: Peter Coffey (University College London) and Mark Humayun (University of Southern California)

Value: £2.4 million

Stem cell-based treatment strategy for age-related macular degeneration

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Award winners: Paresh Vyas (University of Oxford) and Irving Weissman (Stanford University)

Value: £2.3 million

Development of therapeutic antibodies targeting human acute myeloid leukaemia stem cells

Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council

Nearly £17 million of funding has been awarded to three multidisciplinary collaborations that will focus on neurodegenerative diseases. The projects will investigate the causes of these diseases to try to improve early diagnosis and develop effective therapies.

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Award winner: Peter St George-Hyslop

Institution: University of Cambridge

Value: £6,155,689

Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders

Award winner: Christopher Shaw

Institution: King's College London

Value: £4,879,012

Motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia

Award winners: Nicholas Wood, John Hardy and Anthony Schapira

Institution: University College London

Value: £5,952,000

Parkinson's disease

IN DETAIL

European Union

Award winner: Zahir Irani

Institution: Brunel University

Value: EUR201,115 (£181,400)

CEES (Citizen-oriented Evaluation of eGovernment Services: a reference process model)

Working with colleagues from the American University of Beirut and Turkish private-sector partner Turksat, Professor Irani aims to develop a scientific evaluation framework to measure how satisfied citizens are with governments' use of information and communication services. It is hoped that the results from this study will be used to improve future e-government services and enhance its interactions with the public.

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