Grant Scheme Research Articles

Practice ecology of sustainable travel: The importance of institutional policy-making processes beyond the traveller

Changing mobility behaviour towards activities and actions that have a less detrimental impact on the environment, public health and society is an objective of transport policy jurisdictions globally. In line with a burgeoning body of research examining behaviour and social change, this paper explores the governmental systems that influence mobility behaviours through a social practice lens. This paper blends two social practice theoretical models, the ‘3-Elements Model’ and ‘Systems of Provision’, as a means of understanding the delivery of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), a central government grant scheme for English local authorities. We examine how the meanings, materials and competences within the practices of bid writing by local authorities and scheme selection by government influenced the distribution of funding to local authorities. The research starts from the principle that, where funding is provided by central government, in the case of this research that of the UK, an opportunity is created for mobility practices to change. The significance of funding is not easily theorised by the 3-Elements model but is more helpfully explained when that model is blended with the wider Systems of Provision model to create a model of practice ecology. Our theorisation allows for a rigorous exploration of the ‘practice scaffolding’ which shapes how people travel. Policymakers are recommended to consider a practice ecology approach when developing mobility management schemes to tackle air quality, climate change and obesity issues more effectively.

UK considers post-Brexit research fund open to world

The government will assess whether a UK grant scheme could help to make up for lost European Union research funding. The government will assess whether a UK granting scheme could help make up for lost EU research funding.

Government reactions to private substitutes for public goods: Remittances and the crowding-out of public finance

Migrant remittances have been praised as an important source of capital for development. However, one aspect that has been relatively neglected so far is: How do governments respond to the inflow of remittances? This research claims that remittances crowd out public finance, because governments enjoy higher approval rates in the presence of remittances without the need to buy electoral support and face lower pressure for increasing public spending when private substitutes exist. Empirical evidence for this hypothesis is provided from subnational public finances in Mexico, using exogenous variation in migrants’ exposure to U.S. labor market conditions as an instrument for remittances. The panel analysis of trends in municipal budgets reveals that state governments responded to the inflow of resources by allocating funds away from municipalities with a stronger presence of remittances. This is true for private remittances as well as for collective remittances, i.e. cases in which migrants and public actors jointly finance public spending via matching grant schemes. The effect is driven by poorer municipalities and is stronger in states governed by the traditional party PRI that has been associated with a long history of clientelistic rule.

Green Finance in Singapore: Barriers and Solutions

Some Asian countries such as the People’s Republic of China and Japan are very active in green finance. This study reviews how green finance in Singapore is working, examines existing barriers, and suggests some solutions. Singapore, a well-established financial hub in Asia, aims to be a hub for green finance in Asia. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank of Singapore, has formed a network with seven other central banks in the world called the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening Financial System, which intends to promote sharing of experience and best practices in green finance with other countries. Along with forming the network, the MAS has established a Green Bond Grant scheme to promote and ensure the issuance of green bonds in Singapore. In parallel, the Association of Banks in Singapore published Guidelines on Responsible Financing to promote and support environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. The Singapore Exchange asks its member firms to strictly comply with the ESG disclosures. At an individual firm level in Singapore, City Development Limited (CDL), a real estate development company, and Development Bank of Singapore Limited (DBS), a commercial bank, issued Singapore’s first and second green bonds in 2017. The proceeds of the CDL green bond are allocated to finance retrofitting and upgrading of a commercial building in Singapore, while the proceeds of the DBS green bond are to be invested in renewable energy and climate change adaptation, among other uses. How successful the two green bonds are in meeting their pronounced goals and how well and effectively they contribute to the diffusion of renewable energy remains to be seen.

What Does China’s Twin-Pillared NGO Funding Game Entail? Growing Diversity and Increasing Isomorphism

Two trends are gaining prevalence across China: (1) NGO needs for funding in order to survive and (2) the transformation of the government and private foundations into major NGO donors. This study explores grassroots NGOs’ experience with the government’s purchase-of-services contracting and private foundations’ grant schemes in Shanghai, Beijing and Sichuan. The research findings show that two opposite effects of the funding game are simultaneously felt: growing space for diversity and increasing isomorphic pressures. The two donor types have jointly created a result-driven and institutionalized environment in which NGOs easily lose sight of their missions and uniqueness. Nonetheless, despite finding their options extremely limited, NGOs adopt constantly evolving, multifaceted resource strategies.

Methodology approaches and challenges in population‐based longitudinal study of a neuroprotective model for healthy longevity

The 36-month Long-Term Research Grant Scheme project: Towards Usual Aging - Neuroprotective Model for Healthy Longevity among Malaysian Elderly was designed to address multidimensional aspects including psychosocial, biophysical health, nutrition and dietary pattern, and auditory and visual function to highlight the magnitude of these associations in a single study. A total of 2322 respondents aged ≥60 years were recruited at baseline using the multistage sampling method, followed up at 18 months and 36 months. Response rates at baseline, 18 months and 36 months were 87.8%, 77.3% and 67.1%, respectively. At baseline, the prevalence of successful aging, usual aging and mild cognitive impairment was 11%, 73% and 16%, respectively. The prevalence of single and multimorbidity at baseline were 25.9% and 50.3%, respectively. The incidence rates of mild cognitive impairment at 18 months and 36 months were 6.5 and 5.6 per 100 person-years. The incidence rates of multimorbidity at 18 months and 36 months were 23.7 and 21.5 per 100 person-years, respectively. The Long-Term Research Grant Scheme project: Towards Usual Aging study provides an opportunity to investigate the interactions between wide ranges of aspects of the older population in a nationally representative sample of the older population. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 233-239.

Renovation of apartment buildings with prefabricated modular panels

New recast of the EPBD requires that that Member States shall establish a long-term strategy facilitating the cost-effective transformation of existing buildings into nearly-zero energy buildings. Lack of fund and lack of awareness is often considered to be the main barrier for the renovation. Experiences with renovation grant scheme in Estonia showed that large scale renovation scheme is a challenge to the construction industry and increased demand creates new problems like labour shortage and increased construction costs. Current renovation rate of apartment buildings in Estonia is approximately 200 buildings (~1%) per year. Demand is higher but current renovation technologies makes it difficult to significantly increase the renovation rate. Achieving the deep renovation goals with current technologies would require expansion of the whole construction sector (designers, contactors, material industry), which is difficult to achieve. Therefore, innovation and new technologies are needed. The prefabrication would be one solution to allow automation of the renovation process and renovate the existing housing stock within a reasonable time period.

Antiproliferative and antiangiogenic effects of zerumbone from Zingiber zerumbet L. Smith in sprague dawley rat model of hepatocellular carcinoma

Context: Zerumbone (ZER) is known to exhibit anticancer properties on various cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. However, the anti-angiogenesis effect of ZER on liver cancers in vivo is not yet addressed clearly. Aims: This study aimed to investigate the in vivo antiproliferative and antiangiogenesis effects of ZER using rats with diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: The antiproliferative and anti-angiogenesis effects of ZER were determined using the hepatosomatic index, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) immunoassay, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry analysis. Results: Nontreated rats with HCC had higher median liver weight than those treated with ZER or suramin. The expression of VEGF, matrix metalloprotease, and Ki-67 that were high in nontreated HCC rats was down-regulated with ZER or suramin treatments. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 21.0 (SPSS Inc, IBM, Maryland, USA). The data were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation and analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance. P Abbreviations used: ZER: Zerumbone; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; MMP-9: Matrix metalloproteinase-9; VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; DEN: Diethylnitrosamine; PBS: Phosphate-buffered saline; ELISA: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; TUNEL: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling; FFPE: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded; H and E: Hematoxylin and Eosin; DAB: Dako Envision®+Dual Link System; HRP: Horseradish peroxidase; H2O2: Hydrogen peroxide; PBST: PBS in Tween 20; SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Science; RUGS: Research University Grant Scheme. Correspondence:

Use of National and International Databases for Evaluation of International Project Award Potential of Slovak Research Organisations

This contribution aims to identify those Slovak public and private-sector research organisations with potential to engage in EU-funded projects. The international publicly accessible CORDIS database, the global citation database Web of Science Core Collection (WoS) and the national database on research information SK CRIS and the Slovak university employees’ registry at PortalVŠ were explored to evaluate this potential. Success in various domestic and international research grant schemes in combination with some bibliometric indicators could represent a solid base for achieving this goal. Some problems encountered in data processing were addressed and some solutions were proposed to improve data quality.

Directing research funds to the right research projects: a review of criteria used by research organisations in Australia in prioritising health research projects for funding

ObjectivesHealthcare budgets are limited, and therefore, research funds should be wisely allocated to ensure high-quality, useful and cost-effective research. We aimed to critically review the criteria considered by major Australian...

Music, Mediation Theories and Actor-Network Theory

In this double issue of the Contemporary Music Review we focus not on Adorno but on theories of music’s mediation that have emerged in the last two decades, offering some systematic reflection. The impetus for the issue came from the research programme ‘Music, Digitisation, Mediation: Towards Interdisciplinary Music Studies’ (or MusDig). MusDig received funding from the European Research Council Advanced Grants scheme under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme, ERC grant no. 249598. The MusDig programme was directed by Georgina Born and ran from 2010–15 based at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford. MusDig consisted of a series of comparative ethnographic studies that each addressed, in different ways, how music is being transformed around the world by digitisation and digital media. Studies were located in Cuba, India, Kenya, Argentina, Canada and the UK, but the programme also encompassed ethnographies of music’s online consumption and circulation, of internet-mediated music genres, and of the software platform, Max. As the title announces, questions of music’s mediation were central to MusDig from its inception; a core theoretical ambition was, through the combined ethnographic, historical and conceptual work engaged in by the researchers, to further develop those mediation theories that have been emerging in recent years in relation to music. This issue is one of the main vehicles for attaining that goal. It interweaves research from the MusDig programme (articles by Christopher Haworth and Patrick Valiquet, and this introduction) with that of colleagues also working broadly with these ideas.

An evaluation of Scottish woodland grant schemes using site suitability modelling

Woodland expansion is a key component of Scottish land use policy, with targets to increase woodland cover from 18% towards 25% of land area by 2050. However, to date there has been little assessment of whether forestry policy is achieving its objectives. Here, we present an evaluation of woodland grant schemes based on site suitability modelling for the Lochaber Forest District in northwest Scotland. We perform a spatial analysis of woodland creation between 1988 and 2014 using site suitability scores generated through the Forest Research Ecological Site Classification (ESC) methodology. We further conduct in-depth interviews with fourteen stakeholders within the grant-scheme application process to explore the influence of ecological suitability on woodland planning. We find that 92% of woodlands are suited to current climate conditions, and that suitability has improved under the latest grant scheme. This is concurrent with an increased emphasis on suitability modelling in decision-making, though could be explained by cultural changes or a more rigorous approvals process. We find that ecological variables are used to inform woodland location and species selection, but that woodland type is more commonly determined by grant structure. Finally, we discuss other potential limits to grant scheme success, including climate change, edaphic variables and woodland management.

Lifetime Risk Factors for Post Bronchodilator Lung Function Decline: A Population-Based Study from 1st to 6th Decade

Background: Interactions between early life and adult insults on lung function decline are not well understood, with most studies investigating pre-bronchodilator (BD) FEV1 decline. We investigated relationships between adult risk factors and post-BD lung function decline and their potential effect modification by specific early life and genetic factors. Methods: Multivariable regression was used to examine associations between adult exposures (asthma, smoking, occupational exposure, traffic pollution, atopy and obesity) and decline in post-BD spirometry between ages 45 to 53 years in the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (n=857). Effect modification of these relationships by childhood respiratory risk factors including low childhood lung function, and glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene polymorphisms was investigated. Findings: Accelerated FEV1 decline was associated with baseline asthma of early onset (excess rate: -7·0; -12·5, -1·6 mL/year) and smoking (-13·8; -18·7, -9·0 mL/year). In addition, it was associated with occupational exposure to vapours/gases/dusts/fumes (-11·8: -19·0, -4·2 mL/year) only in carriers of the GSTM1 null allele (p-interaction=0·04). Findings for changes in exposure status support those for baseline exposures. Accelerated FEV1/FVC decline was associated with these factors and living <200m from main roads. Associations of occupational exposures and personal smoking with FEV1 decline were accentuated for those with lower childhood lung function (p-interaction= 0·04 and 0·06, respectively). Maternal smoking accentuated the effect of personal smoking on FEV1 decline (p-interaction=0·08). Interpretation: While establishing adult risk factors that affect post-BD lung function decline, this study provides new evidence for accentuation of individual susceptibility to adult risk factors by low childhood lung function, GSTM1 genotype and maternal smoking. These findings suggest that susceptibility to adult risk factors may be programmed in early life. Strategies should target high-risk groups to minimize synergy between potential risk factors on accelerated lung function decline. Funding Statement: This study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia under NHMRC project grant scheme (299901, 1021275) and NHMRC European collaborative grant scheme (1101313) as part of ALEC (Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 633212); The University of Melbourne; Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust of Tasmania; the Victorian, Queensland & Tasmanian Asthma Foundations; The Royal Hobart Hospital; Helen MacPherson Smith Trust; and GlaxoSmithKline. Declaration of Interests: Authors have no conflicts of interest Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Human Ethics Review Committees of all relevant institutions. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

CHild and Adolescent Health Pathways study: a pragmatic implementation study

Childhood obesity remains one the most important public health challenges globally, potentially affecting 60 million children by 2020. Increasingly, children are becoming overweight at a relatively young age, which affects metabolic health, both in childhood and later life. In New South Wales NSW, Australia, one in four school-aged children and adolescents are overweight or have obesity. Noticeably, the prevalence of severe obesity continues to increase in this age group. Despite this prevalence, weight issues are rarely recognised or managed when patients attend clinical services and there are few appropriate clinical services available. Several Local Health Districts LHDs, across socio-economic and culturally diverse populations, are implementing a new service aiming to deliver integrated weight management services for children and adolescents. This presents a unique opportunity to research the implementation and integration of these new services alongside established services to determine the clinical effectiveness and impact of the services. No such research has been undertaken previously in Australia. Methods: This study will ascertain what factors affect acceptability, reach, and participation and retention rates and measure clinical effectiveness through changes in child weight outcomes. The study aims to: Audit existing tertiary and secondary care models for managing children above a healthy weight. Evaluate the newly established secondary care clinics, models of care and healthcare pathways. Determine what factors, including acceptability, reach, participation and retention rates, effectiveness and sustainability, are important for different models of care through focus groups and stakeholder interviews. Undertake economic analysis to determine cost of services. A range of process and economic cost measures will be collected from: i routinely collected data; ii document review; and iii surveys, key informant interviews and focus groups with clinical staff, health service managers, and patients and families. For the clinical effectiveness component, the primary outcome will be change in body mass index, adjusted for age and sex, at 6 months from baseline. The secondary outcomes will be change in key food and physical activity behaviours at 6 months from baseline. The study has successfully secured funding through the NSW Health Translational Research Grant Scheme. Outcomes: The findings will provide an understanding of the most effective design and delivery of local services, enhancing the accessibility, acceptability, reach and impact of paediatric weight management services. This will enable recommendations to be made for future services planning to optimise scalability and sustainability of integrated, responsive and effective care of paediatric patients with overweight or obesity.

New wave of intellectual emigration from Russia: motives, channels and mechanisms

The papers analyzing modern emigration intentions of Russians and their fulfillment are not numerous. One of the reasons behind that is the lack of reliable statistical data concerning persons who leave their home country and do not notify the registration body of their departure for the new place of residence. However they are great in number. What can be done to fill the gap is to provide a statistical analysis of the main countries accepting Russian emigrants, which was already done by certain researchers, or to use qualitative sociological methods. The present paper analyzes the results of semi-structured interviews with skilled emigrants who left Russia in 2011-2017; the interviews were part of a research project conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in 2017. The analysis of participant interviews helps to indentify the motives, channels and mechanisms of Russian emigrants with higher education diplomas and to answer the questions referring to similarities and differences between individuals of different professions, age groups and those leaving for different countries when they choose certain patterns. The authors conclude that the lack of relevant differences in intentions across all the above-mentioned groups is one of the main findings. Over recent years most of skilled emigrants have been driven primarily by economical and partially by political motives. Nevertheless, the choice of channels and mechanisms of emigration are greatly shaped by the professional background, type of employment, age and even the migration direction. IT workers and employees working in finance and economic sector tend to relocate using labor contracts; young scientists opt for grant schemes or free internships; older generation involving creative professionals and people of liberal professions turn to education channels using their own funds. The group of remote job skilled emigrants is distinctive as they use the whole variety of channels and mechanisms to move abroad.

Calibration of Geomagnetic and Soil Temperatur Sensor for Earthquake Early Warning System

The study of Design of Earthquake Early Warning System for Real Time Using Geomagnetism and Total Electron Content with Fuzzy Logic through competitive grants scheme has obtained the prototype of the earthquake early warning system. However, it still needs improvements on in the calibration of thesensor system especially for MAG3110 sensor and DHT11 sensor. This calibration was done by adjusting the sensor system to the existing measuring devices standards in the Physics Department laboratory of the Sains Faculty Lampung University, to obtain measurement accuracyand to get a good result about where and when the earthquake would occurand how strong the earthquake would be. The calibration of MAG3110 sensor and DHT11 sensor obtained the standard correction results, the standard deviation of MAG3110 from 3 axes, namely x axis was 8.5, y axis was 2.66, and z axis was 1.9, whereas the standard deviation for DH11 sensor was 0.1161.

Square Pegs, Round Holes: Barriers to Access in Small Grant Schemes as a Path to Human Security

Small grant schemes aim to provide local development actors with access to funding for human security and development projects that applicants deem locally valuable but may otherwise go unfunded. These grant schemes aim to be a flexible source of funding for local actors to achieve their goals. However, there are barriers to access which restrict their accessibility for many local or smaller actors competing for funds. This paper explores how barriers to accessing small grant schemes manifest by comparing and contrasting a number of such programmes through qualitative analysis. It identifies and presents a typology of barriers that limit access, thereby hampering the potential of such schemes as a truly reflexive and accessible development tool.

PHP82 - Value For Money, the Overlooked Aspect in Research Funding Decisions

Objectives: Governments and research organisations allocate considerable resources to fund medical research; however, research budgets are limited and decisions have to be made about the best way to prioritise research projects competing for funding. This is often done by assessing submitted proposals against predefined criteria. We aimed to review the criteria considered by major Australian funding organisations to select research projects for funding. Methods: We reviewed all grant schemes listed on the Australian Competitive Grants Register. Schemes included were health related, active in 2017 and with publicly available selection criteria on the funders’ websites. Fellowship, scholarship and training schemes were excluded. Data extracted included scheme name, funding organisation, selection criteria and the relative weight assigned to each criterion. Selection criteria were grouped, based on a modified Essential National Health Research approach, into five categories: relevance, appropriateness, significance, feasibility and value for money (i.e., research benefits compared to research costs). Results: Thirty-eight schemes were included from 158 identified. Almost one half of the schemes (47%) were under the National Health and Medical Research Council. All schemes considered feasibility criteria (research environment, team quality and/or research plan), 95% considered significance (innovation, implementation, translation and/or impact), 92% considered appropriateness (ethics, proposal’s quality and/or scientific rigour), 63% considered relevance (disease burden, national/organisational goals, equity and/or knowledge gap), and only 21% considered value for money. When reported, the relative weights for the selection criteria varied across schemes with 20-75% for feasibility, 20-60% for each significance and appropriateness, 5-30% for relevance and 15-33% for value for money. Conclusions: In selecting research projects for funding, research organisations in Australia focus mainly on research quality, significance and feasibility; nevertheless, value for money is often overlooked. Research funding decisions should be guided, along other considerations, by value for money of competing research proposals to maximise return on research investment.

Design Microprotests

Design Microprotests

Citizenship and the Indonesian Diaspora: Lessons from the South Korean and Indian Experiences

The existence and movement of diasporas across the world significantly challenge the existing legal norms on citizenship and migration. The responses from law-makers from the origin countries vary. Most European, Latin America and African countries adopt dual citizenship laws. However, most countries in Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia, do not favour dual citizenship. This is mostly because of the ideological perception of citizenship. In this sense, many countries grant special status or schemes to their diaspora (neither citizens nor residents of the country) in the form of an external quasi-citizenship based on ethnic descent, called “ethnizenship” by Bauböck.This article, drawing on on-going research, compares the Indonesian experience with that of two other countries that have adopted quasi-citizenship schemes. India and South Korea have been chosen for comparison since both countries have particular statutes that recognise and regulate diaspora status. India created the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card scheme in 1998 and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card scheme in 2003. These two schemes merged in 2015 into the Overseas Citizens of India Card Holder (OCC) scheme through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2015. While India adopts a regulatory model of diaspora through a citizenship law regime, the South Korean experience showsa different attitude towards their diaspora. The Korean Government has refused the Korean diaspora’s proposal for dual citizenship and created a semi-citizenship called “Overseas Korean” status through immigration law. This article discusses the Indian and South Korean experiences dealing with their diaspora in order to propose a regulatory model for Indonesia’s diaspora.