Springboard for rising

research stars

Research into radicalisation

Patient needs driving health

research

ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 2009

Welcome to Research News

The past six months have seen major announcements bringing good news for research at the University of Exeter.

The results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirm Exeter’sposition as one of the leading research-intensive universities in the UK. Nearly 90%of Exeter’s research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels. Everysubject across the University was assessed as including world-leading 4* research.

The impact of this achievement was clear in March with the news that the Universityof Exeter will receive one of the biggest rises in the country in our annualgovernment grant for research and teaching. Research funding has increased by26% - the third largest increase among leading UK research universities. Theincrease is the reward for improvements in research quality and quantity.

This Research News gives some great examples of discoveries and ongoing work inhealth, the environment, the armed forces and theology. So our research makes areal difference to people.

And our people make a difference – Exeter submitted 95% of staff to the RAE – 636in total – a much higher proportion than most other universities. When the resultsare adjusted for the number of staff submitted, the University is ranked 15th in theUK for research.

So we are building on our strengths - recruitment is underway for 29 new academicposts to support our £80 million investment in science. The University has made182 new academic appointments in the last two years, including 38 new professors.

This issue turns the spotlight on key academic staff in medicine, politics, engineeringand more, as well as some excellent examples of postgraduate work, which is set tobe boosted by a £7 million investment in the next three years.

Read on and, I hope, be inspired.

welcome

…a rising star among research-intensive institutionsTIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

Research News is issued twice-yearly and edited by Abigail Dixon, Press Office, University of Exeter, with contributionsfrom Sarah Hoyle, Esther White and Liz French. Design and publication by the Design & Publications Office, Universityof Exeter. Front cover: Image courtesy Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, photographer Karen Taylor.For comments on the magazine, including suggestions for future issues, please contact the editor at pressoffice@exeter.ac.uk or on 01392 725770.

Professor Roger Kain CBE, FBADeputy Vice-Chancellor – Research and Knowledge Transfer, University of Exeter

A study by a team of scientistsfrom the UK, US and Canadaand published in Science,provides new insights into themarine carbon cycle, which isundergoing rapid change as aresult of global CO2 emissions.

Until now, scientists have believedthat the oceans’calcium carbonate,which dissolves to make seawateralkaline, came from the external‘skeletons’ of microscopic marineplankton. This study estimatesthat three to 15 per cent ofmarine calcium carbonate is infact produced by fish in theirintestines and then excreted.This is a conservative estimateand the team believes it has thepotential to be three times higher.

Calcium carbonate helps controlthe delicate acidity balance, orpH, of sea water. pH balance isvital for the health of marineecosystems, and important incontrolling how easily the oceanwill absorb future increases inatmospheric CO2.

Lead author Dr Rod Wilson of theUniversity of Exeter’s School ofBiosciences said: “Because of theimpact of global climate change,fish are likely to have an evenbigger influence on the chemistryof our oceans in future. So, it isvitally important that we build onthis research to help fullyunderstand these processes andhow this will affect some of ourmost preciousmarine ecosystems.”

Dr Wilson’s research wassupported by the Biotechnologyand Biological Sciences ResearchCouncil.

Fish guts explainmarine carboncycle mystery

As the recession bites, peopleare looking to cut back onhousehold spending includingfood bills. Theologians at theUniversity of Exeter have been researching Christiantraditions of feasting and fasting to show their relevanceto modern diets likevegetarianism, and have madelinks with current trends.

The Arts and HumanitiesResearch Council funded

project shows that everydaydecisions about food and eating possess deep spiritual,social and economicsignificance.

Fasting was closely linked to the seasonal food cycle.However, in today’s bleakeconomy a thrifty approach tofood, such as buying seasonalfruit and vegetables, helpsensure a smaller grocery bill and healthier diet.

Fasting had other social andpolitical motivations, such asensuring the poor had sufficientfood through lean seasons andrequiring even well-off peopleto experience a meagre diet.

Dr David Grumett, a theologianat the University of Exeter, says:“By taking another look at food,we focus on how our individualchoices affect our society,environment, spirituality andrelationships with other people.”

RESEARCH NEWS • SUMMER 2009

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Frugal eating as recession bites

A University of Exeter team hascompared trips to a local farmshop with deliveries made bycompanies that distributeorganic vegetable boxes to theircustomers. The study also tookinto account the carbonemissions produced by coldstorage, packing and thetransportation of goods to aregional ‘hub’. By bringing thisdata together, the researcherswere able to calculate the totalcarbon emission.

The study found that if theaverage car journey made to afarm shop is a round-trip of

more than 6.7km, then homedelivery was a better optioneven if the competing farmshop used no lighting, heating orchilling. While a delivery van willtravel up to 360km to deliver anorganic vegetable box, this tripwill cover a large number ofaddresses so the carbonemissions per customer will besurprisingly low.

David Coley from the Centrefor Energy and the Environmentat the University of Exeter, leadauthor on the study, said:“People are becoming familiarwith the phrase ‘food miles’,

but don’t have a very clearunderstanding of what it means.We need to look morethoroughly at the many factorsthat lie behind putting food onour tables, before we can saywhat is better or worse for theenvironment.”

The study acknowledges thatthere are many other factors inaddition to ‘food miles’ thatconcern consumers. Forexample, issues around localeconomics and theenvironmental impact ofdifferent food productionmethods.

Buying local isn’t always better for the environment

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New research by the Universityof Exeter has revealed a markedchange in the way the soldier isperceived in the public imagination.

The research shows that in acts ofremembrance today, the soldier ispersonalised and domesticated,remembered as a father, husband,son or wife. In the past, the wardead were portrayed primarily assoldiers and commemorated fortheir strategic role within the warfulfilling their act of duty. Nowthey are remembered aspersonalities.

Professor of Sociology, AnthonyKing explains, “The publication ofthe casualty’s name, rank andregiment is nowdeemed insufficientand announcements have becomeelaborate cultural artefacts. Theytend to be accompanied by abiography, a testimony usually bythe soldier’s Commanding Officer,a photograph and sometimescommentary from familymembers.”

For the last two years, British forceshave been fighting in HelmandProvince, in Afghanistan and 152British soldiers have been killed.

New style war obituaries forHelmand Province soldiers

Research shows for the firsttime that a group-basedpsychological treatment,Mindfulness Based CognitiveTherapy (MBCT), could be aviable alternative toprescription drugs for peoplesuffering from long-termdepression.

MBCT focuses on targetingnegative thinking and aims tohelp people who are veryvulnerable to recurringdepression by stoppingdepressed moods fromspiralling out of control.

In the University of Exeter-led study, MBCT proved aseffective as maintenance anti-depressants in preventing a relapse and more effective in enhancing peoples’ quality of life.

The randomised control trialinvolved 123 people fromurban and rural locations whohad suffered repeatdepressions and were referred to the trial by theirGPs. The participants weresplit randomly into two groups.Half continued their on-goinganti-depressant drug treatment

and the rest participated in anMBCT course and were giventhe option of coming off anti-depressants.

Over the 15 months after the trial, 47% of the groupfollowing the MBCT courseexperienced a relapsecompared with 60% of thosecontinuing their normaltreatment, including anti-depressant drugs. In addition,the group on the MBCTprogramme reported a higherquality of life, in terms of theiroverall enjoyment of daily livingand physical well-being.

Lead researcher ProfessorWillem Kuyken said: “Ourresults suggest MBCT may be a viable alternative for some of the 3.5 million people in the UK known to be sufferingfrom this debilitating condition.People who suffer depressionhave long asked forpsychological approaches to help them recover in thelong-term and MBCT is a very promising approach.”

The study was funded by theMedical Research Council.

New treatment hope for people withrecurring depression

news

First brain study reveals benefitsof exercise on quitting smokingResearch reveals for the firsttime that changes in brainactivity, triggered by physicalexercise, may help reducecigarette cravings. Published inthe journal Psychopharmacology,the study shows how exercisechanges the way the brainprocesses information amongsmokers, thereby reducingtheir cravings for nicotine. Forthe first time, researchers usedfunctional Magnetic ResonanceImaging (fMRI) to investigatehow the brain processes imagesof cigarettes after exercise.

Kate Janse Van Rensburg, aPhD student with the Universityof Exeter’s Schools of Sportand Health Sciences andPsychology, was lead author onthe paper. She said: “Ourfindings add to a growing bodyof evidence suggesting thatexercise can help people giveup smoking. This strengthensthe argument that moderateexercise could be a viablealternative to many of thepharmaceutical products, suchas nicotine patches, for peoplewho want to give up smoking.”

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Sustainab le t rave l between resorts in the South West i s the subject of a research pro ject un it ing Dr Stewart Barr

(Geography) and Professor Gareth Shaw (Bus iness Schoo l) . Working with industry partner the National Social Marketing Centre,

this research explores the relationships between tourism, sustainability and behaviour change. This is part of a £1.5 million Economic and

Social Research Council funded Capacity Building Cluster in Sport, Leisure and Tourism.

Experts in energy pol i cy , supply chains , internat ional re lations and eng ineer ing met at the Royal Soc iety on 2 Apr i l

to launch a major new research cluster focused on energy secur ity. The three-year project will address issues like: Is Britain’s

energy supply under threat from global political insecurities? How will the world-wide recession affect our capacity to source energy? How

vulnerable is Britain to losing the energy supplies we take for granted? The cluster is led by the University of Exeter, with the University of

Sussex, and is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

The 30th anniversary of the revolut ion in Iran was marked with the creat ion of a Centre that formal ly br ings

together the extensive range of expert ise in Pers ian and Iran ian studies current ly based at the Univers ity.

The University of Exeter's Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies, based within the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, brings together

extensive knowledge of Iran's religious, political and intellectual culture that shaped events at this time of change. Director of the Centre

is Michael Axworthy, former Head of Iran Section in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

RESEARCH NEWS • SUMMER 2009

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Archaeologists find earliestknown domestic horses

news

An international team ofarchaeologists has uncovered theearliest known evidence of horsesbeing domesticated by humans.The findings could point to the verybeginnings of horse domesticationand the origins of the horse breedswe know today. Led by theUniversities of Exeter and Bristolthe research was published inleading academic journal Science.

The researchers traced the originsof horse domestication to the BotaiCulture of Kazakhstan circa 5,500years ago. This is about 1,000 yearsearlier than thought and about2,000years earlier than domestic horsesare known to have been in Europe.Their findings strongly suggest thathorseswereoriginallydomesticated,

not just for riding, but also toprovide food, including milk.

The team used a new technique toreveal ‘bit damage’caused by horsesbeing harnessed or bridled. Usinga novel method of lipid residueanalysis, the researchers alsoanalysed Botai pottery and foundtraces of fats from horse milk.

This study was carried out by theUniversities of Exeter, Bristol andWinchester (UK), CarnegieMuseum of Natural History(Pittsburgh,USA), and KokshetauUniversity (Kazakhstan) and wassupported by the NaturalEnvironment Research Council,British Academy and NationalScience Foundation of America.

Research by the PeninsulaMedical School, theUniversity of Brighton andthe Department of Pathologyat Glasgow Royal Infirmary,has found that a commonfamily of viruses may play animportant role in triggeringthe development of diabetes,particularly in children.

The research was carriedout at Peninsula MedicalSchool and funded byJuvenile Diabetes ResearchFoundation. It involved thedetailed study of a uniquecollection of pancreasesfrom 72 young people whodied less than a year after thediagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

More than 60 per cent of theorgans contained evidence ofenteroviral infection of thebeta cells.

Type 1 diabetes usually startsin young people and resultsfrom the destruction of theinsulin-producing beta cells inthe pancreas. Patients whodevelop type 1 diabetes haveto take multiple dailyinjections of insulin for therest of their lives, and thecondition affects around300,000 people in the UK,including 20,000 childrenunder the age of 15.

There are up to 100different strains ofenterovirus and moreresearch will be needed toidentify which are associatedwith the development ofdiabetes, and whethervaccines could be developedto prevent their spread.

New study links virus tocause of type 1diabetes

Work in progressA

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On an average day in the quiet Devon townof Crediton you might stumble on a tai chiclass for the over 70s. You may find socialworkers, physiotherapists, GPs and otherhealth professionals drinking tea together,sharing news about older members of theircommunity. In themselves, these thingsmay not be unusual, but together they havesubstantially improved the lives of localolder people. Since 2004, in Crediton, thenumber of femur breakages as a result ofolder people having falls has gone down bymore than two thirds. GP Dr Ann Homer isthe woman behind this impressive statistic.

Dr Homer is now working with academic andclinical colleagues to try to replicate this workacross Devon and Cornwall, with the potentialof significantly reducing the number of falls andfractures and the associated NHS costs. DrMargaret Somerville from the Peninsula MedicalSchool is leading the project. She says: “Ann hasdone a tremendous amount of work, which, aswell as reducing falls and their consequences forthe NHS, has improved the quality of life forolder people, giving them the confidence tomaintain a more active life. is was mostly theresult of simple, straightforward initiatives. Weare now exploring how we can make thesechanges in other practices across the region.”

anks to a new research collaboration, healthpractitioners, academic researchers and thepublic are working together to tackle some ofthe key health problems facing the South West.

e Peninsula Collaboration for Leadership inApplied Health Research and Care (PenCLAHRC)is a partnership between the Peninsula MedicalSchool, NHS South West, the NHS throughoutDevon and Cornwall and the Universities ofExeter and Plymouth. PenCLAHRC focuses ondelivering high-quality applied health researchinto major conditions including heart disease,diabetes, mental illness, childhood disabilityand age related conditions, and putting theresults into practice. e University of Exeterhas invested over £1 million as part of thetranslational medicine, personalised healthcareand public health theme of its science strategy.

e origins of PenCLARHC lie in a 2006 reportby Sir David Cooksey, which called for the “rapidtranslation of research findings into health andeconomic benefit.” Two years later, thepartnership behind PenCLAHRC won a £10million Government grant and then raised £10million in matched funding to establish one ofnine new research centres pursuing this agenda.

Director of PenCLAHRC, Professor Stuart Logan,has personal and professional reasons for seekingto break down barriers between academic researchand practical healthcare. As a junior paediatricianin the 1980s Stuart and his fellow doctorsencouraged mothers to put their babies to sleepon their front. Later it became clear that thispractice hugely increased the risk of suddeninfant death syndrome. Professor Logan reflectson this: “e advice we were giving was based onmisinterpreted post-mortem data. Sadly it took along time for us to find out that we were wrong.”

“At PenCLAHRC a large part of what we’redoing is accelerating the process of gettingresearch evidence. We know that there can bean enormous lag between research outputs andchanges in clinical practice.”

PenCLAHRC gives the collaboration anopportunity to bridge that gap and ensure researchactivity focuses on answering the questions thatare important to clinicians and patients.

So, how can Professor Logan and his colleaguesfind the right research questions? e answerlies in close collaboration with clinicians, healthservice managers and the public in all stages of theresearch process from design to implementation.Organisations like Cerebra are already involvedwith PenCLAHRC research projects. For example,a number of families with disabled children havehelped to design and steer a large randomisedcontrolled trial in children with cerebral palsy.

e researchers are also committed to usingonline media to reach out to communities andindividuals. Dr Peter Aitken, Director of Researchand Development at Devon NHS PartnershipTrust and PenCLAHRC’s Lead for Improvement,is spearheading PenCLAHRC’s online strategy.Dr Aitken aims to connect conversations, for

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Patient needs driving health research

accelerating theprocess of gettingresearch evidence

Director of PenCLAHRC,Professor Stuart Logan

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Patient needs driving health researchexample by linking online discussions aboutdiabetes between GPs with similar conversationsbetween specialists on another part of the web.He also sees the internet as a way of gathering“ideas from the bedside”, to help researchersidentify the questions that are pertinent topatients. A website has now been set up to servethis purpose: http://community.clahrc.net

Professor Stuart Logan admits that the group faces“a huge challenge” in getting academics, cliniciansand patients to work together to achieve practicalbenefits. However, collaborating within thehealthcare profession is not new. e NHS andthe Universities of Exeter and Plymouth alreadyhave a close working relationship through thePeninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry andmany other projects. Professor Logan says:“We’ve got a long history of patient involvementand have been doing this stuff for a long time.But PenCLAHRC allows us to really develop thiswork.” He sees the Government’s £10 million grantas “a springboard” and the group is busy applyingto other sources for funding for specific projects.

While Professor Logan is aware of the complexityof PenCLAHRC’s remit, he sums up the philosophyvery simply: “Researchers don’t always addressthe questions that make a difference. We have to

make sure that the questions we are askingas academics answer the information

needs of clinicians andpatients.”

We have to make surethat the questions we are asking asacademics answer the information needs of clinicians and patients

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by Sarah Hoyle

SIX

Cutting edge techniquesNatalie Garrett, 26, has been working for overthree years on her Biomedical Physics PhD.Natalie’s work involves cutting-edge techniquesusing laser light interacting with nano-metallicparticles to both image and selectively kill cells.Nano-shells have received a lot of attention inrecent years, and have been hailed by some as acancer miracle cure. Natalie’s research focuseson trying to understand exactly how they affectcells at the molecular level and is funded by theEngineering and Physical Sciences ResearchCouncil.

She says: “I’m passionate about physics and Ilove finding novel ways of using physics to solvebiological problems. We know so little abouthow biological systems actually work and untilwe delve deeper, we cannot hope to understanddisease. I always wanted to make a positivedifference to society - my project allows me toinvestigate cancer cells and develop methods forstudying and killing them while usingsophisticated biomedical physics techniquesand I find this very rewarding.”

Natalie is also passionate about communicatingher work, and science more generally. Earlierthis year she presented at the House ofCommons to a group of MPs and scientists. Her career highlight so far was the publicationof her first paper in the Journal of BiomedicalOptics. However, this could be topped with thenews that as Research News went to press, shehas been shortlisted for the Institute of Physics Very Early Career Award by the Women inPhysics Group.

Science and beliefDr Nasser Mansour shares Natalie’s passion for science communication, although his focusis on the classroom. His PhD looks at scienceteachers’ beliefs, particularly Islam, and

examines the challenges for Islamic cultures inproviding a religious and science education thatmay be at odds with each other. Controversialissues like evolution, cloning and abortion canpose problems for teaching science if personalreligious beliefs influence teaching.

Nasser, 38, is Egyptian and lectured in scienceeducation at Tanta University prior to movingto England for postgraduate study.

He says: “My background is based on studyingnatural sciences, and I did not think about therelationship between science and religion onscience education until I came to Exeter. Itmade me question the difference betweenstudying science here, in a multi-faith society,or in an Arab-Islamic context.”

Nasser’s career changing epiphany came whileinterviewing Egyptian science teachers tocollect data: “eir personal religious views hitme and challenged my previous thoughts abouthow controversial issues could be delivered. Asmost studies of belief and science are carriedout in Western cultures my work shedsimportant light on science education in anIslamic culture.”

e European Educational and ResearchAssociation (EERA) awarded the Best PaperAward to Nasser. He recently completed hisPhD and has stayed at the University tocontinue his career as a Research Fellow in theSchool of Education and Lifelong Learning, andhopes to encourage more young people towardsscience careers.

Global ocean environmentA dream science career is certainly what DrMatthew Witt is enjoying. e 32 year old’sPhD work involved “long days sitting on a beach on the equator – though it was 35 degrees and horribly humid with no shade”.

Postgraduate studyspringboard for risingresearch starsPostgraduate research isrising at Exeter, with a 43%increase in applications overthe last three years. Numberswill be boosted further stillas the University is set toinvest £7 million to create180 new opportunities forpostgraduate study. Some119 postgraduate awardswill be supported by £4.2million from the Arts andHumanities ResearchCouncil. 1,200 people arecurrently carrying outpostgraduate research on our campuses and in the field, and here ResearchNews profiles some of theirwork.

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RESEARCH NEWS • SUMMER 2009

Matthew was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council for his work onmarine megavertebrates and their environment,focusing on leatherback turtles.Under the supervision of DrBrendan Godley and Dr AnneteBroderick he tracked leatherbacksfrom Gabon, detailing theirmovements into the South Atlanticand investigating their likelyinteractions with fisheries.

Much of this work involves theintegration of animal movementdata with satellite derived informationon the global ocean environment.Matthew continues to work at the Centre forEcology and Conservation on the University’sCornwall Campus, now as the PRIMaRE Post-Doctoral Research Fellow assessing the potentialimpacts of the Wave Hub, a proposed energy-from-wave development off the North Cornwallcoast, on sea birds and larger marine animals.

is career progression is exactly what is envisaged by the University in their investment in postgraduate numbers. Professor Robert Van de Noort, Dean of the Faculty of GraduateResearch at the University of Exeter, says: “We are striving to become one of the UK’s top tenuniversities and recognise that to achieve this aim we must play a major role in delivering thenext generation of academic researchers.”

Natalie Garrett Dr Nasser Mansour Dr Matthew Witt

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Research into radicalisation e term radicalisation was synonymouswith Exeter as the trial of local restaurantbomber Mohammad Saeed Alim (formerlyNicky Reilly) examined his motives. Seniorpolitics lecturer Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer closely followed the Old Bailey trial and appeared on Channel 4 News and in other media to discuss it. ResearchNews asked Jonathan to give us somebackground on his work on radicalisation.

“Radicalisation, counter-radicalisation: whatdoes any of it mean? In recent policy reviewsand academic debates, arguments have ragedover ideologies and identities, while concernsremain over real threats about terrorist attacksand violence. Read any number of academicworks and thinktank documents, and you’ll bepresented by a confusing array of vocabulary –extremist, violent extremist, Islamist, neo-Salafi, neo-Wahabbi, Salafi-Jiahdist, orIslamofascist. A confusing array of ideaspurport to explain political violence in the nameof Islam, ranging from the ideological, to issuesof psychological vulnerability, deprivation, asearch for identity, a clash of civilisations, andpsycho-pathology. Differing terms, ideas andactions have led to confused policy.

I, along with others at the University of Exeter,have sought to re-centre these debates onradicalisation by ensuring that this field becomesincreasingly about evidence-based analysis,through research funded by bodies such as theEconomic and Social Research Council, the Artsand Humanities Research Council, theLeverhulme Trust and the British Academy.

In part, the problem stems from a lack ofcontext. To understand radicalisation, tounderstand how it relates to violence, and tounderstand if and how it constitutes a threat toBritish society let alone the internationalsystem requires intellectual precision andcareful empirical observation – two aspectswhich Exeter has well covered. In my ownresearch, my team and I have felt it necessary togo back to basics, to work on a definition ofradicalisation through historical examples andcontemporary events. We derived a definition

for radicalisation: a collectively defined,individually-felt moral obligation to participatein direct action, often textually inspired. isdefinition, however, contains no referencewhatsoever to violence or Islam – and this is keyfor our understanding of this concept

Modern Britain is full of examples ofradicalisation, whether Islamically inspired ornot, where individuals exposed to an injustice orchallenging situation feel it necessary to dosomething about it. Examples range from themundane to the profound: someone deciding torun for local council after deciding they have toreact to changes in rubbish collection, to theneed to participate in the Stop the WarCoalition, or peaceful demonstrations againstevents in Gaza. Equally, when examining thestatements of individuals such as MohammedSiddique Khan, the 7/7 bomber, it is clear thatthis need to do something about what heviewed as the injustice of the War in Iraq ledhim to commit an abhorrent terrorist act.

So is it radicalisation that’s the problem, orterrorism? How do we separate the two? Itcould be that radicalisation itself may notactually be problematic or a threat: we live in atime when political engagement should beencouraged and celebrated, not discouraged andfeared. How do community members themselvesdefine radicalisation and differentiate fromviolent radicalisation? Maybe the cause ofradicalisation in the British context will bedifferent from other contexts – i.e. from highlevels of unemployment and disenfranchisementin French banlieues and from experiences ofdetention and even torture in other areasaround the world. What are the effects of newmedia, such as the internet and satellite TV, on radicalisation and violent radicalisation?

is is a case where research begets morequestions rather than answers, but recognisingand dealing with this lack of knowledge andconfusion is crucial. ese kinds of very basicquestions have massive implications for policymaking and effectiveness – and until we unpackthem completely, they may be subject to abuseand confusion.”

by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer

Police released picture of NickyReilly, Exeter restaurant bomber.

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PeopleAn innovative scheme at the Universityof Exeter is developing the potential ofresearch staff. Research Fellows arefinding themselves the subject of anintense day of observed activity – a‘Development Centre’. Participantsundertake exercises and activities toassess core competencies such as theability to communicate, manage otherpeople, analyse information and makedecisions, and perform under difficultcircumstances. is results in abespoke report showing where to focusdevelopment to help researchers movetheir career forward, and even considera move outside academia or intoindustry. 20 staff took part in pilotDevelopment Centres, with 4 sessionsa year planned thanks to funding bythe Research Councils’ Roberts money.

For more information contact Dr ClaireLambert on C.Lambert@exeter.ac.uk orsee http://tinyurl.com/exeterdc

Research into radicalisation

Sean Fielding has been appointed tothe new role of Director of Researchand Knowledge Transfer at theUniversity of Exeter. Sean will beresponsible for leading the drive to

increase research income and improve the impact ofour research on society. Sean has been at the Universityfor 12 years, latterly as Director of Communication andPartnership. He has significant experience of researchand knowledge transfer initiatives and led the £14mGWR project and the Innovation Centre complex,where he will be based.

Professor Chris Turney, Professorof Physical Geography, received oneof 27 prestigious Philip LeverhulmePrizes. He has been awarded £70,000to fund his research on historic

climate change over the next three years.

In March, the Met Office Chair inClimate System Dynamics, ProfessorPeter Cox, addressed the world’sleading climate researchers inCopenhagen.

Dr Matt Lobley from the Centre for Rural Policy Research has beenrecruited to the Scientific AdvisoryCommittee of PrioNet Canada, aNetwork of Centres of Excellence

funded by the Canadian Federal government. Matt willprovide guidance on PrioNet research proposalsconcerning social aspects of prion disease, includingimpact on farm families and rural economies.

Professor Helen Taylor has beenappointed as Arts and CultureDevelopment Fellow for theUniversity, based in the School ofArts, Languages and Literatures.

Professor Michael Winter, Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research has been appointed to Defra’s Scientific Advisory Council.

Professor Des Walling, Reardon Smith Professor ofGeography, has been awarded the prestigious HydrologicSciences Award of the American Geophysical Union.This is the senior award given by the 7,000 memberHydrology Section of the AGU, and is Professor Walling’sfourth international honour in under two years.

What has been the most rewarding moment ofyour career so far? Helping to establish the Centre forWater Systems in 1998 with Prof Godfrey Walters wasprobably the most rewarding moment. Nowadays, under theshared leadership of Prof David Butler and myself, the Centrehas 8 academics and more than 30 researchers who arestudying challenging topics on urban water andhydroinformatics. I have also enjoyed working with colleaguesto build up the reputation of Exeter as a major player in theurban water engineering field. What I enjoy most is helpingyoung and upcoming researchers to develop their researchand pursue their chosen career in academia and industry.

What has been your major academic achievement?Being awarded the Advanced Research Fellowship in 2001allowed me to devote myself to personal research and buildlinks with the international research community. This 5-yearfellowship resulted in new methodologies, which led tofurther awards of research funding and found application inthe water industry worldwide. I feel privileged to havecontributed to the optimisation work that saved 50 milliondollars on a water network design in the Region of York(Canada). Another example is the high-speed sewer networksimulator, which was developed with the Ewan Group (nowpart of Mouchel), that won the CIWEM Ken Roberts awardfor technical innovation in the water industry and the top

prize in the business intelligence category of the InformationManagement Awards in 2006.

What do you hope to achieve at Exeter? I’d like to keep myown research going and enable the Centre to continue to flourishboth in the UK and on the international scene. This also involveshelping others in the Centre to achieve their full potential.

If you had not been an academic, what would you havebeen? I always wanted to be an engineer but didn’t consideracademia as a possible profession until 10 years into myprofessional career. I used to be a water consultant both in mynative Serbia and later in Canada and judging by that, and howmuch I enjoy working with water industry partners, I would say I got the best from both worlds.

What do you like to do in your spare time? I like runningor cycling either with a group of friends or on my own. Very fewthings could beat the feeling on a sunny morning while joggingalong the Exe and looking down to Topsham on the left andPowderham Castle on the right, or the sight of hundreds ofbutterflies when we end up in Ashclyst forest.

What do you like best about living in the South West?Through my running and cycling I’ve discovered hidden treasures. I also find people approachable and enjoy raising my family herewithout worries of crime and problems associated with large cities.

Interview by email

Name: Prof Dragan Savic

Age: 49

Job: Chair inHydroinformatics and Co-Director of the Centre for Water Systems

Based in: School ofEngineering, Computing

and Mathematics

Education: University of Belgrade, Dipl. Ing. (Civil Engineering) and

MSc (Water Engineering),University of Manitoba,

PhD in Water Engineering

Developing research staff

Professor Claudio Radaellifrom the Department of Politicshas been awarded €950,000 bythe European Commission FP7European Research CouncilAdvanced Grant to address thequestion ‘what has been learnedthrough the use of betterregulation?’. This is a flagshippolicy on the Lisbon agenda forgrowth and jobs, which aims toprovide new governancearchitectures for lawmaking, toincrease the competitiveness ofthe regulatory environment, andto secure wide social legitimacyfor multi-level systems of rules.The project will start inSeptember 2009 and run forfour years.

£3.2 million has been awardedby the Engineering and PhysicalSciences Research Council(EPSRC) to work withQinetiQ’s AppliedTechnologies Divisionexploiting latent Intellectualproperty (IP) in the area ofFunctional Materials to provideTailored ElectromagneticSolutions. The team will workwith an experiencedentrepreneur employed to drivemarket-facing research, developbusiness plans and secure fundingfor up to three spin-outcompanies, or licensed activitywith 3rd parties, as appropriate.The award covers three years,and starts in October 2009.

A team led by Professor DaveNewman of the School ofEngineering, Computing andMathematics has received aUS$100,000 Grand ChallengesExplorations grant from the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation. Thegrant will support an innovativeglobal health research project todevelop a small, portable deviceto diagnose malaria.

Professor Irene Ng of theBusiness School is part of aconsortium, led by the Universityof Cambridge, which has beenawarded a total of £2.6 million bythe EPSRC for research intoservice science and support bygenerating new insights, ideasand approaches to this complexsubject. This area has not beenresearched in the past as it hasnot been well developed byeither the industrial or the publicsectors. The second stage of theproject will focus on thedevelopment and delivery of asuite of tools from the researchoutputs. The value of the grant toExeter is £275,000.

Dr Sarah Hamilton from theSchool of Humanities and SocialSciences has won £40,822 fromthe Arts and Humanitiy ResearchCouncil (AHRC) ResearchNetworks for work InterpretingMedieval Liturgy, c. 500 - c. 1500AD: Text and Performance. Thenetwork will bring togetherinternational scholars fromhistory, musicology, theology,English literature, theatre studies,art and architectural history tobreak down the barriers whichcurrently exist to the inter-disciplinary study of thesemedieval liturgical rites. Theresearch findings will bepublished in an edited book andon an interactive website.

A new project seeks to makeCornwall’s telecommunicationshistory more visible. DrRichard Noakes from theDepartment of History (CornwallCampus) has been awarded anAHRC Museums Archives andLibraries Research Grant of£288,537 for a project entitled‘Connecting Cornwall:Telecommunications, Locality andWork in West Britain 1870-1918.’ At its core is a major newexhibition for the PorthcurnoTelegraph Museum. The workstarted in February and runs until October 2010.

An AHRC Science and HeritageResearch Cluster of £24,206goes to Dr Linda Hurcombefrom the School of Geography,Archaeology and EarthResources. The overall aim of the cluster is to develop animproved understanding of thepotential for virtual handling ofarchaeological textiles, leading toone or more major researchproposals to develop andimplement these techniques andis a twelve month project.

Dr Mark Wilson, School ofSport and Health Sciences, hasbeen awarded funding throughthe Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC) andResearch Grants Council, HongKong, to conduct a two-yearproject with Professor RichardMasters at the University ofHong Kong. The project isentitled ‘Gaze strategies oflaparoscopy surgeons:Observational learning, implicitknowledge and performance indemanding conditions’.

The Business School’sProfessor John Maloney hasbeen awarded £35,817 from theLeverhulme Trust to investigatevoting behaviour, party strategyand economic voting. ProfessorMaloney will try to shed somelight on the highly topical issue ofwhether recession affects theway that the electorate andpolitical parties behave.

Professor AndrewHattersley from the PeninsulaMedical School (PMS) is part of aEuropean consortium which hasbeen awarded a total grant of€3M by the EuropeanCommission for a collaborativeeffort resulting in thedevelopment of diabetesdiagnostics. The PMS proportionof the grant equates to€575,000.

A Marie Curie Initial TrainingNetwork on ElectoralDemocracy is being coordinatedby Professor SusanBanducci, Head of Politics. Thenetwork, funded by the EU's 7thFramework Programme, bringstogether 14 partners from bothhigher education and industry and will hire 18 researchers toundertake research and researchtraining on elections, electoralbehavior, media and politicalparties. The network, to start in October 2009, will run for four years.

Dr David Roesner from theDepartment of Drama has wonan AHRC Research Workshopsgrant of £10,338 to look into theprocesses of devising composedtheatre. The workshop seriesaims to bring togetherpractitioners and scholars thatwork in this particular field ofcontemporary experimentalmusic-theatre.

Dr Keith Hyams from theDepartment of Politics has wonan AHRC Research Grant of£129,278. The project aims topromote the use of the researchin real-world policy makingdecisions. The project will lead toacademic articles and articles forpublications with more generalreaderships such as TheEconomist and The NewStatesman. The team will alsohold annual workshops and alarge final-year conferenceinvolving participants fromacademia and beyond, includingpolicy makers, think tanks andcivil-society organisations. Theproject ends in September 2011.

Dr Sharon Dixon from theSchool of Sport and HealthSciences has been awardedfunding of £225,000 from theEPSRC to undertake a projectentitled ‘Understanding tractionfor sports shoe and surfacecombinations.’

Research Briefs

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