Vice-Chancellor's Research Culture Prize 2020

BREATH was awarded the 2020 Queen’s University Belfast Vice-Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in Research Culture. BREATH (Border and REgions Airways Training Hub) is a cross-border €7.7m project funded by the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme which is managed by the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB). It is a highly ambitious, collaborative research partnership that is harnessing complementary resources & expertise from the School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, the Smooth Muscle Research Centre, Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) and the Institute of Biomedical and Environmental Health Research, University of the West of Scotland to better understand and alleviate the impact of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Across the partners, BREATH directly funds 8 Post-doctoral research fellows, a research technician, a research assistant and 16 4-year PhD studentships with a further 4 UWS-matched PhD students. Of these 6 PhD students, 3 PDRAs and 1 research technician are within the School of Pharmacy and the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine (WWIEM). Core research areas are focused on epithelial and neuronal cell biology (QUB), smooth muscle physiology (DkIT) and inflammation (UWS) which reflects the pathophysiology of the disease. The Research Culture Prize is open to individuals or groups of staff who have made an outstanding positive contribution to the maintenance and advancement of a creative, collaborative, supportive and inclusive ‘research culture’. BREATH was identified as a group working towards a common purpose within the wider research community (including support staff and research students). The application demonstrated a vibrant and sustainable culture for research that promotes excellence, ambition, collaboration, and inclusivity.Follow BREATH on Twitter: @BREATH_COPDOr check out our website: www.breath-copd.org