RSE Healthy Planet, Healthy People Community-Led Awards

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Established in 1783 and registered in Scotland as an educational charity, the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) seeks to address the global challenges facing humanity through research and enlightenment in a number of academic disciplines.

RSE’s Healthy Planet, Healthy People Community-Led Awards seek to support community-focused defined research projects that promote the health of individuals through fostering healthy environments and communities, and enabling access to healthy foods. For the purposes of this opportunity, ‘community’ is defined as a group of people who share an identity-forming narrative, and ‘research’ is defined ​as the creation of new knowledge​,​ ​​or the use of existing knowledge​,​ to help build practical solutions to targeted challenges.​​ The scheme is being delivered in partnership with the Williamson Trust.

Funding will be provided to support new and existing projects. Awards can be held in any discipline, however, must be oriented towards one of the following three topics: climate, nature and food.

Projects should fall broadly under three types:

• People: Projects may identify neglected voices on particular topics and conduct research on this topic guided by these voices, taking a people-centred approach (eg establishing a citizens’ assembly to develop a practical strategy to support healthy eating and improve health). Projects will imagine and create a process that puts people, their narratives and their needs at the core. Underserved communities and participants who do not routinely have the opportunity to participate in these types of projects are particularly encouraged.
• Problem: Projects may address and identify issues through data collection and analysis (eg improve nutrition for older people by assessing what they eat, its nutritional value, where it is consumed, and where and how it is obtained; follow on funding could be sought to develop practical and culturally sensitive interventions to improve the nutrition of at risk groups).
• Practice: Projects may propose novel practical solutions to an established problem (eg a practical, long-term plan to address biodiversity loss developed in conjunction with local stakeholders; follow on funding could be sought to implement the plan).

The impact of the project should be Scottish based, although it may be transferable to other communities.