Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing Pump-priming Funding Call 2024-25 Awards Announced

The pump-priming call supports research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and accelerates intervention discovery and development in mental health and wellbeing. In total, over 50 applications were received from 10 faculties at UCL as well as Professional Services. 

The review panel approved funding for 17 applications, with total funding of over £375,000 awarded. Successful applicants, drawn from across 9 faculties as well as external partners, received funding of up to £25,000 to support research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and accelerates intervention discovery and development.

Dr Liza Griffin and Professor Jonathan Roiser, co-chairs of the funding call’s review panel, commented:

““A huge number of excellent proposals were submitted to UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing Pump-Priming Funding Call 2024-25. We were delighted to be able to support seventeen cross-disciplinary applications from almost all UCL faculties. These represent a range of conceptual and applied projects using novel methods - from animal models to social interventions - including many that incorporate co-production approaches building upon partnerships with communities and organisations outside academia. We very much look forward to seeing the outcomes of these exciting projects, exploring more effective ways to promote wellbeing, the social changes and spaces that support good mental health, and new models of mental illness.”

Summary details of the projects awarded are below:

Making Visible Invisible Communities’: Community centres as spaces that hinder and/or promote mental health support needs of young people invisible to school and healthcare settings (Visible Co-Space Study)
£24,948.27
Dr Keri Ka-Yee Wong, IOE
Dr Lusi Morhayim, Bartlett

Accelerating intervention discovery of community-based solutions to improve maternal mental health and well-being in Zimbabwe
£24,971.43
Dr Emma Wilson, Population Health Sciences
Dr Kirrily Pells, IOE

Change Stories UK: an exploratory study investigating the mental health and wellbeing impacts of housing developed through Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in London
£24,729.80
Dr Gemma Moore, Bartlett
Professor David Osrin, Population Health Sciences

Development of a Psychological First Aid (PFA) Group Intervention for Students affected by War, Conflict or Disaster
£25,000
Dr Charlie Cole, Student and Registry Services
Dr Talya Greene, Brain Sciences

Embodying the Social: the challenge of urban violence and inequalities in the era of the exposome
£24,853
Professor Sahra Gibbon, Social and Historical Sciences
Professor James Kirkbride, Brain Sciences

Exploring how caregiving promotes mental health for care-experienced young people: Developing logic models through an intersectional approach
£19,246
Dr Eva Sprecher, Brain Sciences
Dr Veena Meetoo, IOE

Graphic Scores: Using sound and art to bring together young people living with Parkinson’s and improve mental health
£24,936.21
Dr Jennifer Foley, Brain Sciences
Mrs Alison Carlier, Artist

Green space adaptation, and mental health and wellbeing outcomes (GREEN.WELL)
£24,677.53
Professor Catalina Turcu, Bartlett
Professor Hugo Spiers, Brain Sciences

Improving support for older survivors of domestic abuse: A national network to increase research capacity, challenge stigma, and develop pathways to care: the IRIS project
£24,894.49
Dr Vasiliki Orgeta, Brain Sciences
Dr Jean Stafford, Population Health Sciences

MANDDOLIN4: Music And Neuroscience against Dementia: from Designs to Outcomes through Listening Interventions Inclusively Informed for Individuals
£22,227.98
Dr Jess Jiang, Brain Sciences
Dr Naaheed Mukadam, Brain Sciences

Mi Salud Mental: Using Curriculum-Infusion to Promote Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing for University Students in Spanish and Latin American Studies
£12,808.17
Professor Leslie Gutman, Brain Sciences
Dr Mazal Oaknín, Arts & Humanities

Restricting cognitive access to suicide: development and proof-of-concept testing of a cognitive restriction intervention to dissuade suicide attempts by hanging in middle-aged men
£23,960.64
Dr Alexandra Pitman, Brain Sciences
Ms Millie Lowther, Brain Sciences

The feasibility of improving sleep and well-being in visually impaired individuals using a computationally informed temperature intervention
£12,463.30
Dr Michael Crossland, Brain Sciences
Mr Danny Ball, Brain Sciences

Welcome Home: Improving the Built Environment of People living with mental illness in the Community
£25,000
Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett
Dr Artemis Igoumenou, Brain Sciences

Developing in vitro and animal models to advance a novel therapy for major depression
£20,000
Dr Yichao Yu, Medical Sciences
Professor Cathy Fernandes, Medical Sciences

Exploring neurophysiological measures of affect and engagement during wellbeing activities in patients experiencing disorders of consciousness
£21,056
Professor Sophie Scott, Brain Sciences
Ms Amy Pundole, Brain Sciences
Professor Clare Elwell, Engineering Sciences

Towards informative translation from basic neuroscience to mental health: Reinforcement learning as a bridge between rodent and human flexible behaviour
£18,470.40
Dr Gabrielle Gregoriou, Medical Sciences

Dr Andrew MacAskill, Medical Sciences

Professor Quentin Huys, Brain Sciences