^{Image credit: R9 Studios FL on flickr}

Together with Daud Mohammed Hamidi from Durham University, GSD Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen has won a £15,730 Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) award from the Royal Academy of Engineering to explore the uses and social development consequences of low-cost clay-based water filters that can be produced by potters locally.

The University of Warwick’s Connecting Cultures Global Research Priority (GRP) has awarded £1,200 to the emerging research project “Learning Space” co-led by GSD Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen and Lao researcher Thipphaphone (Kee) Xayavong.

With the support of the Connecting Cultures GRP, the researchers will be able to support the conversion of locally co-produced narratives into creative products for cross-cultural dialogue within and beyond Lao PDR, and to engage critically with mainstream assumptions (automatic links between formal education and Western ideals of health behaviour) and approaches (human capital) in global development agendas.

The project takes place in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement Laos and the University of Health Sciences in Vientiane, and the broader study is supported by the Warwick Institutional Research Support Fund and the Institute of Advanced Study.

Many congratulations to Ellie Hayter, final-year Economic Studies and GSD student and founder of the sustainable skincare brand ‘Gaia&Vie’, who was recently awarded a grant from the Warwick SU Environment and Sustainability Fund.

A research team co-led by GSD Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen and Lao researcher Thipphaphone (Kee) Xayavong have been awarded a £4,000 grant from the University of Warwick’s Institutional Research Support Fund (IRSF).

• New PhD scholarships in Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick available to UK and EU students, thanks to £1,350,000 from Leverhulme Trust
• Scholars will receive transdisciplinary training: expertise from different academic faculties, as well as mentorship from front line organisations, such as UN Habitat
• Researchers will be trained to be "as comfortable analysing data on human-environment interactions as liaising with governments and empowering communities" -- Professor João Porto de Albuquerque

Congratulations to our students for securing funding for research projects over the summer!

The Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) enables undergraduate students to carry out an interdisciplinary summer research project. The scheme is open to any undergraduate student at Warwick. Research can be completed in the UK or abroad.

Four GSD students have successfully secured a bursary this year: Benjamin Georges-Picot, Angelo Balagtas, Cathy Dong and Tanyaradzwa Kasinganeti. Their research projects will be presented in the form of a poster showcase at the annual URSS Celebration and Research Showcase, which will take place at the start of the next academic year.

^{Photo credit: Warwickshire County Record Office, PH350 269a}

Dr. Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla, the Head of School for Cross-faculty Studies is part of a team that has successfully secured funding for a Public Engagement project at the University of Warwick. The project is being supported by Warwick’s Public Engagement Fund, designed to assist researchers of all levels to undertake projects or activities that build upon their public engagement experience and impact.

^{Image credit: Dr Marco J Haenssgen}

Supporting idea generation and research design for a project on behavioural spill-overs in Thailand, the Institute of Advanced Study and the Warwick Interdisciplinary Centre for International Development have awarded £3,150 and £950 to a research team around Global Sustainable Development (GSD) Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen.

^{Image credit: Dr Marco J Haenssgen}

Dr Jess Savage, Senior Teaching Fellow in Global Sustainable Development has been awarded £44,676 from the University Global Challenges Research Fund: Accelerator Programme to undertake a research project titled "Protected Areas and People: Exploring perceived wisdoms surrounding natural resource management and sustainability". The aim of the research is to help find sustainable, long term solutions by developing strategic tools for the effective design and implementation of management systems. This will allow the expansion of current knowledge networks throughout Cambodia, and into nearby Myanmar.

GSD Assistant Professor Dr Marco J Haenssgen has won a £19,793 GCRF Catalyst award to support the research project “Dynamism of land use and livelihood strategies among highland ethnic minorities in Northern Thailand: Co-producing narratives of change.”

Together with the Thai anthropologists Dr Mukdawan Sakboon and Dr Prasit Leepreecha from Chiang Mai University, the research team will use the innovative qualitative research method of story completion to document and illustrate livelihood changes in the highlands of Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Over the past 30 years, livelihoods among highland ethnic groups have changed dramatically, with government-orchestrated shifts away from opium production and self-sufficient agriculture towards cash and mono crop cultivation, capitalist systems of production, and tourism business. Not only has this created new definitions of “rich” and “poor” villagers, but it also changed people’s relationship to the natural environment. In the fluid political environment of Thailand, villagers’ livelihoods and their uses of the land they live on have again come under scrutiny, raising fears of expropriation and displacement. This project aims to use the story completion technique together with visual media to produce narratives that give villagers a new channel to engage policy and the broader public with their personal experiences and livelihood changes.