Having signed our collaboration agreement in September, we are launching the Collaborative in the academic space to encourage those with relevant research interests and experience to get involved in our projects.

As a Collaborative, we are lucky to have partners with a wide range of skill sets and research interests. This is so important when formulating and delivering projects - we want to have a varied portfolio that can improve many different aspects of children’s well-being.

With the help of our Scottish academic lead, Professor Gillean McCluskey, we hosted a networking lunch for academics at the University of Edinburgh. The goal of this meeting was to establish connections with academics across a variety of subject fields, and to introduce the Collaborative and our current projects in the domains of nutrition, population, poverty and HIV.

The event was a great opportunity for us to launch at the University of Edinburgh, and it was encouraging to hear enthusiastic discussions about potential links to current research or ideas for new project areas.

Following an introductory presentation from Gillean, groups got together over lunch to discuss their own areas of interest and how they could contribute to the Collaborative. The opportunity for multi-disciplinary collaboration became very apparent - with academic interest across the schools of GeoSciences, Informatics, Education and more! With children’s well-being at our core, every project will require a combination of expertise from those in the humanities, arts and social sciences as well as those with data science and technical experience.

A productive session was had by all, and we look forward to furthering our academic involvement in the future.