FUNDING & RESEARCH INCOME
UKRI/AHRC - CHOICE PROJECT
In 2022, I secured UKRI funding (as Co-PI with School of Psychology, UU) for the scheme: Building Community Research Consortia to Address Health Disparities'. The project, led by Prof. Gerard Leavey is entitled ‘Challenging Health Outcomes/Integrating Care Environments: A Community Consortium To Tackle Health Disparities For People Living with Mental Illness’. So far, activities have included co-organising Photovoice workshops and co-publishing a protocol on severe mental health in Northern Ireland, and physical health outcomes. From 2024-27, I will serve as co-PI on Phase 3 funding for this project, which attracted a £2 million funding grant.
AHRC IMPACT ACCELERATION
In 2022, I received AHRC Impact Acceleration (Rapid Impact) funding for the project 'Engaging Local Communities with Medical History in Northern Ireland', related to the Epidemic Belfast project. So far, this has involved working with partners (including National Museums Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland War Memorial and Royal Victoria Medical Library) to produce exhibitions (online and physical) relating to regional medical collections.
Additionally, I secured funding for a project entitled 'Feeding Children? Food Poverty across Ireland: Historical, Current and Future Perspectives'. This event brought together humanities and practice-based practitioners working on Irish food problems, past and present.
DEPARTMENT FOR THE ECONOMY (DfE) RESEARCH RECOVERY FUND
In 2021, and again in 2022, I was awarded Department of Economy Research Recovery Funding. This supported a digital humanities initiative entitled Epidemic Belfast.
TURING SCHEME
In 2022, I secured funding, with PhD researcher Rebecca Watterson, to visit University of Gronigen as part of the global mobility-focused Turing scheme.
DISTINGUISHED RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
In 2020, I was awarded the Ulster University Distinguished Research Fellowship. The Distinguished Research Awards recognise the outstanding contribution of Ulster staff members.
WELLCOME TRUST
In 2013, I was awarded a Wellcome Trust fellowship award in medical humanities to pursue research on a project entitled ‘Ethics and Hunger Strike Management in the British Isles, 1909-81' (at the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, Ulster University). This three-year fellowship incorporated a range of academic and public engagement activities including a book entitled A History of Force Feeding: Prisons, Hunger Strikes and Medical Ethics, 1909-74, suffragette evenings aimed at the public, an interdisciplinary symposium and a museum exhibition at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin. I have also been awarded a number of small grants from Wellcome to support conferences and public engagement activities.
IRISH RESEARCH COUNCIL
In 2010, I secured Irish Research Council postdoctoral funding to undertake research on how and why the Irish diet changed so dramatically between the Famine and independence. The award resulted in a monograph entitled Reforming Food in Post-Famine Ireland: Medicine, Science and Improvement, c.1845-1922. In 2016, the Irish Research Council provided further funding (with Dr Laura McAtackney (Aarhus University) and Dr Ciara Breathnach) to support a high-profile museum exhibition on hunger strike history to open at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, in 2017.
EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION
In 2008, I was awarded a networking grant by the European Science Foundation on the ‘Drugs History’ project. This resulted in exchange visits to universities in Paris and Oslo.
BARDHAN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH TRUST
In 2006, the Bardhan Education and Research Trust provided PhD scholarship funding at the University of Manchester to support a project entitled ‘A History of Peptic Ulcer Epidemiology’. It formed the basis of A Modern History of the Stomach: Gastric Illness, Medicine and British Society, 1800-1950.