Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic – Outreach Innovation Awards
From March 2020, The Royal Society used its convening power to support efforts to model the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and help guide the UK’s response. In particular, it set up the Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) initiative, which was designed to provide support from the UK mathematical modelling community for existing research groups- with the goal to enhance modelling capacity to support rapid assessment of strategies of immediate policy relevance.
From January 2021, the RAMP Continuity Network (a UKRI funded project) has been delivering a series of meetings, workshops and virtual study groups. The aim of this has been to ensure scientific networking to help maintain strong communication links among RAMP-initiated projects, and further develop links between these and the wider modelling community around COVID-19.
As part of this activity, awards of up to £5,000 have been made available for Early Career Researchers based in the UK in the field of infectious disease modelling to undertake projects with a significant outreach component. The projects had to include communication of infectious disease modelling concepts to the general public and/or the wider scientific community. Applicants were invited to be creative and all applications involving any type of outreach activity were considered.
Applications were invited that looked to:
- Develop and run training events for undergraduate students to deliver outreach talks or workshops in schools
- Create and publicise online public lectures
- Develop podcasts or websites
- Construct activities for science exhibitions
- Create citizen science projects
- Make online science outreach videos
An application process led by Dr Robin Thompson, Professor Chris Budd and Professor Mike Cates took place in March 2022 and we are delighted to announce that 8 projects are now being taken forward.
Updates will be available as the projects are completed when the Grant closes in July 2022.
Successful applicants were:
| Dr Kaustubh Adhikari | Open University |
| Dr Rebecca Baggaley | University of Leicester |
| Dr Ruth Bowness | University of Bath |
| Dr Emma Davis | University of Oxford |
| Dr Joshua Finneran | University of Cambridge |
| Professor David Gavaghan & Dr Ben Lambert | University of Oxford & University of Exeter |
| Dr Edward Hill & Dr Laura Guzmán Rincón | University of Warwick |
| Dr Qingyao Qiao | University of Manchester |
- 20th May 2022 - Dr Qingyao Qiao posted this article on LinkedIn about sharing
understanding of the COVID-19 transmission risk on construction sites - at Digital Construction Week. - 30th May 2022 - Dr Edward Hill and Dr Laura Guzmán Rincón released a podcast where they interview researchers & collaborators from the Zeeman Institute for Systems Biology and Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research group (SBIDER), based at the University of Warwick They talk about their work in the biological & medical sciences and share recent news from the group.
- 10th June 2022- Dr Edward Hill and Dr Laura Guzmán Rincón released the first of the "SBIDER Careers Podcasts".
- 19th July 2022 - Dr Edward Hill and Dr Laura Guzmán Rincón released the second of the "SBIDER Presents" podcasts - "How have humans adapted to combat malaria parasites? - Bridget Penman & the second SBIDER Careers Podcast " Moving from an academic to a non-academic role - Samik Datta.
- 10th August 2022 - Dr Ruth Bowness & Dr Chris Rowlatt prepared an animation that highlights the importance of within-host modelling of infectious diseases.
- 11th November 2022 - Dr Joshua Finneran and Dr Carolanne Vouriot published a teacher resources page on Tackling Air Pollution at School.
