Oxford Brookes University

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-09

Designed, altered and shaped by architects, planners and other built environment professionals, our 'lived-in' environment underpins our existence and affects the health and wellbeing of all living entities, for good or ill. A focus on the creation of healthy places is an effective route to a healthier people and a healthier planet. Improving the lived-in environment, and the way it is perceived by its users, can in turn positively improve physical wellbeing, social cohesion and enable communities to become more resilient. Despite decades of research giving us clear guidance on what kinds of designs better support health, a theory-practice gap persists, meaning delivering healthy places through design and adaptation is the exception rather than the norm. Our research agenda will focus on the amplified impacts that the decisions made by built environment professionals can have on our collective efforts to reverse the trajectory towards climate breakdown and catastrophic biodiversity loss. In the face of these complex, parallel existential crises we need new ways to confront barriers that built environment professionals experience when attempting to deliver healthier places supporting a healthier planet and healthier lives. Oxford Brookes University (Brookes), Cardiff University (Cardiff)  and Falmouth University (Falmouth), will provide doctoral students the opportunity to address this theory-practice gap while enjoying the full breadth of possible experiences from a Russell Group, a post-92 polytechnic and a Small Specialist Institution. AD[A]PT has the capacity to realise our ambition to harness the potential of humanities and design-based methodologies towards innovative processes to rethink pre-existing tired, rigid ways of working. The AHRC acknowledges that design-based research is a methodological approach of value requiring further strategic investment to foster its development. Compared to other humanities subjects, fewer PhDs are undertaken in the fields of architecture, building and planning, leading to less research being conducted that is of direct relevance to the work of built environment professionals. This is particularly problematic as the built environment accounts for up to 40% of all carbon emissions and the sector is self-reportedly not on track to decarbonise by 2050. Addressing this gap, AD[A]PT will deliver a new generation of interdisciplinary doctoral scholars whose research specifically addresses barriers faced by built environment professionals to: meet targets for the UN’s sustainable development goals, fulfilling the UK government’s pledge towards net zero, and biodiversity net gain towards a healthier planet exceed life, health and fire safety standards in buildings to ensure healthier people create healthy places that nurture, are accessible, inclusive and supportive of a rich diversity of life. A third of the studentships will be Collaborative Doctoral Awards, and our Steering Group enables students to work closely with thirteen key organisations from architecture, planning and urban design [Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Design Commission for Wales (DCfW) and Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)]; heritage [Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments Wales (RCAHMW), Historic England (HE), Cadw]; landscape [Landscape Institute (LI)]; housing (Chartered Institute of Housing - Cymru (CIHC)]; construction and engineering [(Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)]; and the health and charity sectors [(Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) and Circus Eruption (CE)]. Success will be measured by tracking impact pathways, industry-wide changes, and how inclusive, responsible and responsive our recruiting, training and research practices are.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

Context Each year, over 13 million babies worldwide are born preterm, facing increased risks of developmental challenges, particularly in language skills. In the womb, hearing begins around 25 weeks of gestation. However, the mother's body—including amniotic fluid, maternal tissues, and the abdominal wall—naturally filters sound, softening higher frequencies. As a result, foetuses primarily perceive the rhythm and melody of speech, known as prosody, while finer details like individual speech sounds (phonemes) remain unclear. This early auditory exposure plays a crucial role in shaping language perception after birth. Research suggests that hearing the rhythm and melody of speech in utero lays the foundation for key language-learning abilities—a process known as prenatal prosodic bootstrapping—, such as recognizing words, breaking speech into meaningful parts, and developing early communication skills. When babies are born prematurely—before 37 weeks—they miss out on some or most of this critical period of prenatal auditory experience. Our research has shown that preterm infants exhibit specific delays in acquiring prosody compared to full-term infants, which may contribute to later language difficulties. The Challenge Beyond missing the natural prenatal sound environment, preterm infants also face additional challenges in the Neonatal Care Unit (NCU). Instead of the familiar rhythmic patterns of speech and maternal body sounds—such as their mother’s heartbeat and breathing—they would hear in the womb, they are exposed to medical sounds—beeping monitors, mechanical noises, and sudden alarms. At the same time, they lack the rich, natural speech input essential for early language development. This disruption in auditory experience may contribute to the language delays observed in preterm infants. Since language is essential for literacy, learning, and social development, these early delays can have lasting effects on academic achievement and well-being well into adulthood. Understanding and addressing these challenges is crucial for supporting the language development of preterm infants and improving long-term outcomes. Aims and objectives This project seeks to address these challenges by creating a personalized, womb-like acoustic environment for preterm infants in NCUs. The goal is to investigate whether exposure to a womb-like acoustic environment including recordings of their parents, can improve language development in preterm infants. The project will compare the language development of preterm infants exposed to this womb-simulated environment with those in standard neonatal care and full-term infants. The objectives of this project are to: ·         Design and implement a womb-like acoustic environment in the NCU using parental voice recordings and simulated sounds from the womb (WP1-&-WP2). ·         Evaluate its effects on language development, including prosody, vocabulary acquisition, and cognitive development, comparing preterm infants exposed to the womb-like environment with those receiving standard care and full-term infants across their first year of life (WP3). ·         Raise awareness of the challenges preterm infants face regarding auditory and language development through art installations and public engagement initiatives (WP4).   Potential Applications and Benefits: This project could significantly improve developmental outcomes for preterm infants by providing an enriched auditory environment that mimics prenatal speech exposure, fostering early language acquisition and reducing delays. This approach could inform neonatal care practices, with womb-like sound environments becoming a standard feature in NCUs to support language and cognitive development. Additionally, public engagement efforts will raise awareness of both the challenges preterm infants face and the crucial role of prenatal language exposure in early development.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-01

The YouthMove15 project aims to foster child-friendly 15-minute cities by critically repositioning them to reflect the unique needs, experiences, and rhythms of children and young people (CYP). The transdisciplinary consortium of 26 partners will use a mixed-methods methodology to diagnose the “desire-opportunity” gap in CYP’s mobility and social activities through surveys, spatial mapping, and mobile methods. It will integrate CYP’s voices by adapting, developing and testing innovative digital, narrative-based and playful methods; reposition schools and underused urban spaces as hubs for youth activity through co-creation; and develop interactive educational resources with a strong focus on inclusivity for underrepresented communities in Brussels, Budapest Groningen, Lisbon, and Oxford. It will transfer knowledge via key outputs such as the YouthMove15 Toolkit, an international youth video competition, a school ambassador programme and the Young People’s Manifesto for the 15-minute City.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Captagon is an illegal amphetamine-type substance that is popular in the Middle East. Syria has become a major production hub where national and foreign militia groups are heavily involved in the trafficking of captagon. Significant captagon trade routes cross the southern Syrian border with Jordan on their way to the Arabian Peninsula and, due to the influx of captagon, Jordan is transforming from a drug transit to a drug consumer country. Simultaneously, Jordan is a long-term host of a large-scale refugee population, including over 700,000 Syrians. Despite limited evidence, there is a popular perception that associates refugees, particularly Syrians, with drug use and trade. The Jordanian state's approach is to view captagon as a security threat to the state, society and region. This two-year interdisciplinary project uses mixed methods (a chemical analysis using innovative techniques, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions) to examine how the framing of captagon as a security threat impacts on refugees and vulnerable host communities (populations experiencing legal and socio-economic vulnerability) in Jordan. The project is truly collaborative: it builds on the project leads' previous externally-funded research collaborations on substance abuse in the Middle East. In addition, it establishes new partnerships with organisations working on drug use and on refugees in Jordan. Knowledge and expertise will be shared across cultures through the close collaboration with the Jordanian-based advisory board and the Jordanian civil society project partners. The project addresses three research questions focusing on the intersection between captagon and vulnerable populations in Jordan: 'What are the profile, drivers and effects of captagon use amongst refugee and vulnerable Jordanian populations?' 'What support and treatment services are available to refugees and vulnerable Jordanian communities who use captagon, and what are the challenges in the access to and provision of this support? 'How do refugees and vulnerable populations in Jordan access captagon?' The study involves 120 semi-structured interviews with captagon users; key informants and community members in four study locations (Amman, Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa) across Jordan. One focus group discussion with key informants and community members in each location will help to translate results into impact. A chemical analysis of confiscated captagon tablets will expose the drug's composition and this will inform more targeted treatment practices. The project will have considerable scientific and societal impact: beneficiaries include national/international policymakers in humanitarian and public health spaces, civil society (particularly drug treatment providers in Jordan) and vulnerable communities (particularly, refugees and drug users in socio-economically deprived areas). The project will recommend how to effectively protect and support these vulnerable groups in Jordan at two workshops with policymakers and civil society. An 'Addiction is a Disease, not a Crime' poster and social media campaign will raise public awareness and reduce stigma surrounding substance use treatment. A briefing note will support the development of drug use treatment protocols in Jordan. The creation of new software to enable rapid analysis of captagon tablets will enable more targeted treatment options. Chemists will benefit from open access (under special license) to the chemical analysis data. A policy note will provide guidance for national and international policymakers on addressing captagon's growing geopolitical impact. The project will generate new open access data (in the form of interview transcripts, focus group discussion transcripts) and interview protocols valuable to social science researchers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Transformative action, at pace and scale, is required to deliver a net zero building stock in the UK by 2050. This will be enormously challenging and is made even more difficult within the context of a changing climate. In summer 2022, the UK experienced unprecedented 40°C temperatures and five heat periods, associated with 3,271 deaths in England and Wales. A future with more intense and frequent heatwaves, that often co-occur with other weather extremes, poses a severe threat to public health. By the mid-2030s, 90% of the UK's housing stock may be susceptible to overheating. Despite this, UK Building Regulations currently do not require buildings to address future overheating risks driven by a warming climate. While Net Zero measures such as improvements in building thermal performance can reduce heating demand, there is risk of summertime overheating if suitable adaptation measures are not incorporated. Vulnerable populations (e.g., persons with chronic conditions and disabilities, older people, pregnant women, preschool children) and those in insecure housing, confined environments or experiencing homelessness all face a heightened risk during hot spells. Challenge the project addresses The UK urgently needs to deliver vital climate, health and equity actions which affect homes of different tenures and multifunctional residential environments, including care settings, hospitals and prisons. The need for effective delivery that achieves net zero, maximises co-benefits and minimises unintended consequences for vulnerable communities in these settings is the overarching challenge that the Hub will address. Our hub is designed to address the 'Extreme weather' challenge area, interpreted here as heat extremes and co-occurring events (flooding, drought, wildfires, air quality).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Alcohol consumption among mid-life women aged 40-65 is a growing concern in the UK, with one in five now drinking at levels that increase health harms. There is an urgent need to address alcohol-related harms in this demographic, particularly given the government's goal of extending healthy life expectancy. Building upon previous research by the applicants, this project aims to develop a novel intervention called SPACES (Storytelling Promoting Alcohol Choice, Empowerment, and Sharing) to support alcohol reduction in mid-life women consuming over 14 units per week. Despite mid-life women increasingly drinking above the low risk guidance of 14 units per week, there is limited research on the motives for drinking and not drinking in this group.  While 14 units is considered low risk, alcohol-related health issues, such as breast cancer and liver disease, can occur even at low consumption levels in women. Societal stigma and fear of judgement often hinder women from seeking support for alcohol issues. There may be a perception that only people stereotyped as alcoholics or at ‘rock bottom’ need or deserve help. The SPACES intervention aims to address these challenges by integrating storytelling techniques with behaviour change strategies tailored to mid-life women. The Women’s Health Strategy highlights the need for tailored interventions specifically for women. Storytelling is seen as a powerful means of communication that resonates with this demographic, offering a non-judgemental and relatable approach to addressing alcohol consumption. The project follows a structured approach, consisting of five work packages: refining the intervention logic model, developing storytelling approaches, prototyping the intervention, evaluating its acceptability, and disseminating findings widely. Each phase involves collaboration with a public advisory group and recruitment via project partners that the applicants have previously successfully worked with. In WP 1, while refining the logic model we will explore how SPACES can mitigate health inequalities  and address barriers to intervention uptake. Stakeholder workshops will assess the acceptability, practicability, and effectiveness of intervention options, with a focus on equity and inclusivity. One particular focus will be on the possible use of substitution with no and low alcohol products, which is a government priority for high risk drinkers, but may widen health inequalities. In WP2, storytelling approaches be co-created in workshops to generate engaging and relatable narratives that can deliver behaviour change techniques. These stories will be informed by the lived experiences of mid-life women, ensuring they resonate with the target audience. In WP3, the public advisory group will be involved in prototyping the intervention through co-creating a website and printed materials based on the developed stories. In WP4, these prototypes will be tested for visual appeal and engagement to maximize their effectiveness. This will be achieved by assessing intervention acceptability in think-aloud interviews with women in the target population. In WP5, our dissemination and impact activities will ensure the findings reach a wide audience, including policymakers, healthcare providers, and the public. This will be achieved through webinars, academic and non-academic publications, and presentations. Overall, it is hoped the SPACES intervention represents a promising approach to addressing alcohol-related harms in mid-life women by combining storytelling with behaviour change techniques in a tailored and inclusive manner. Future work will assess if it is able to foster positive changes in alcohol consumption behaviours among mid-life women.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Efforts are needed to enhance health and well-being amongst trans youth. A shortage of high-quality lived experience informed outcome data impedes effective action in healthcare, education and wider society to safeguard trans youth well-being. Many past approaches to research on trans youth have been culturally incompetent, causing harm and leading to disengagement and distrust of data-oriented activities. Culturally competent approaches, co-developed with trans communities, are critical to enhancing the current evidence-base, and improving policy and practice to better support trans youth. This project is rooted in accountability to trans communities and specifically to trans youth. It is developed building upon a partnership with the Trans Learning Partnership, a UK based trans led coalition of 4 of the leading civil society organisations supporting trans communities. It seeks to co-define culturally competent approaches to measuring trans youth health and well-being, learning from best practices globally, embedding the project in case studies of current practice nationally, and drawing from primary mixed method research with trans communities. The project explores what constitutes culturally competent approaches to outcome measurement of trans youth health and well-being. It aligns with growing interest in Patient Reported Outcome Measurements, and research bringing lived experience into development of institutional policy and practice. It provides methodological innovations in terms of ethical and impactful research with and accountability to marginalised youth populations. The project will result in the articulation and uptake into practice of culturally competent outcome measures, across sectors and disciplines including healthcare, education and community well-being. Application of culturally competent approaches will enhance trans youth trust in service providers, enhance trans youth engagement in research, and will enable the collection of short and longitudinal outcome data that meets the needs of trans youth, enabling enhanced evidence-based policy and practice.