Starting September 8, the fellowship will bring mid-career to advanced researchers in social sciences and health sciences to engage in a 3-week intermittent online training on principles and methods in interdisciplinary approach to the study of health, society, and culture. This event is aligned with our institutional commitment to promote health justice through inclusive research. Selected lectures will be made available to the public through the Journal of Social Health website: http://socialhealthjournal.org/creatives/lectures/
This is our seventh e-newsletter for the GRTA project. Covid-19 has interrupted activities on all four sub-projects, but teams in all the partner institutions have shown remarkable resilience to find new ways of working. Whether it has been adapting to home working, refocussing efforts on Covid-19 action or re-organising plans for engagement, each sub-project is adjusting to the new normal.
Grant extension
Thank you for letting us know how the pandemic has affected your work so far. The admin team are still awaiting guidance from the funder UKRI regarding a grant extension. We are still planning to submit an application for a 6 month extension, which would bring the end date to 30 Sept 2021.
Finance reminders
Please send through your invoices to grta@uea.ac.uk. If you need a reminder of the guidelines for reimbursement you can have another look at the guidelines that have been shared with you by email before.
Selected project updates
Child Malnutrition
At UEA, our laboratories are gradually re-opening following the lockdown. In this blog, Research Associate Thomas McDonagh (pictured above) describes some of the innovative methods the Child Malnutrition team at UEA are using to create customized supplements which are easy for children to consume:
You can read about the diversity of teaching, policy engagement and research developed by the Family Literacy partners in the last few months and find out what the teams have been up to during the pandemic:
The GRTA project has funded five new microplastic analysis kits for institutions in Malaysia to develop a monitoring network for microplastic pollution across the country. A video tutorial for using the microplastic analysis kits produced by the GRTA film-making team is now available for members of the network to view on the Swinburne University website. Currently the Malaysian microplastic network has 10 members, shown on this map, and a new website launched by the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.
Sustainable Food Systems
Whilst the lockdown has prevented the project partners from visiting local communities in India, fortunately the GRTA filmmaking team visited in March to provide training and equipment to community groups. One of these groups, a youth group called Lahanti Club, have been using the lockdown as an opportunity to produce a number of videos about locally foraged food products:
We are enjoying a wonderful sunny summer in Norfolk this year. Most of the UEA staff are still working from home trying to keep cool in the heatwave! Wherever you are and whatever the weather is like, we hope you can enjoy some time off during this holiday season.
UEA campus in the sunshine
Finance reminders Please send through your GRTA invoices to grta@uea.ac.uk. If you need a reminder of the guidelines for reimbursement you can have another look at the guidelines that have been shared with you by email before.
Grant extension
Thank you for letting us know how the pandemic has affected your work so far, please keep us updated on how the situation is changing for your institution and project activities. The administration team is submitting an application for a 6 month extension, which would bring the end date to 30 Sept 2021. We are still awaiting news on how much additional funding will be available for the costs associated with this. Thank you for your patience.
Selected project updates
Child Malnutrition
Thai team test gummy supplements: The Thai team at Chiang Mai University are now back in the labs developing their recipes for micronutrient supplements. The gummies are strawberry, passion fruit and honey lemon flavour. These ingredients can be supplied locally from the northern part of Thailand.
A gummy is tested for firmness in the lab at Chiang Mai University.
Malay team test oral-dispersible films: The team at Universiti Sains Malaysia are also back in the laboratory, developing and optimising the processing conditions of oral-dispersible films for child malnutrition supplement
In the lab at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Family Literacy
Online workshops on indigenous knowledge and qualitative research in Nepal: Tribhuvan University (CERID) in Nepal organised a series of online workshops, with around 85 masters and doctoral students participating in early July. The interactive workshops included a presentation by Professor Bidya Nath Koirala – an eminent academic in Nepal – who spoke about potential areas of research in the field of indigenous knowledge and practices. Other topics included social justice in research, using mixed methods and developing research designs. The team were delighted with the active participation by students from both urban and rural areas in Nepal.
Kamal Raj Devkota and Sushan Acharya presenting and facilitating the workshops in Nepal.
Family Literacy research reports updates: the teams in Nepal, Malawi, Ethiopia and the Philippines are now writing country-focused research reports based on their ethnographic fieldwork. These reports will be shared with national policy makers and practitioners through workshops and policy dialogue sessions in the next phase of the project and will also form the basis of a synthesis report on family literacy and indigenous learning to be launched at UNESCO international events next year. On 16th July, the team had an online progress meeting to discuss common themes emerging from the findings across the four countries. The teams are also beginning to plan impact/action-orientated activities informed by the findings of the research stage.
UNESCO Chair featured in UNESCO UK website: We are delighted to share that the UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation now appears on the UK National Commission for UNESCO website alongside a network of UNESCO Chairs in the UK. Click here to know more about the Chair’s research and impact activities. The Family Literacy Team are all members of the UEA UNESCO Chair and Professor Anna Robinson-Pant is the Chairholder. Professor Nitya Rao who leads the Sustainable Food Systems GRTA sub-project is also a member.
Microplastics
Sampling begins again in Malaysia: The teams at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and Swinburne University have been able to travel locally to resume sampling of rivers and beaches. They have also returned to their laboratories to resume analysis of samples for microplastics, using the analysis kits shipped from UEA. In addition, they are receiving samples from other partners in the newly established Malaysian Microplastic Network for analysis.
Collecting water sample for microplastics analysis at Terengganu river. Plastic pollution on the beaches at Sarawak, Malaysia.
Sustainable Food Systems
Youth group films reach wide audiences: The videos we shared in the last e-newsletter made by the Lahanti Club, a youth collective in Bihar, India, have been receiving a lot of attention on social media. You can read more about the youngsters and their films in this blog by the Gaon Connection.
Films about foraged foods completed: UEA filmmakers Christine and Alex have completed editing the four films they shot in India before the pandemic. The films were co-produced with local communities to document indigenous knowledge about foraged foods and the impact of land-use changes, and you can view them here:
