Queen Margaret University awarded over £92k in Covid-19 research funding

The funding has been awarded by the Scottish Government.

Queen Margaret University has been allocated over £92,000 in funding from the Scottish Government for research related to Covid-19.

The money has been awarded to two separate research groups led by at the university who submitted research bids.

Dr Alison Strang, a Senior Research Fellow at the University’s Institute for Global Health and Development, and Dr Olivia Sagan, Head of the Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education, have been awarded £64,098 for their research into the impact of lockdown restrictions on loneliness in asylum seekers and refugees.

Queen Margaret University

Dr Cathy Bulley, from the Physiotherapy department of the university, will lead a team of researchers from several Health Sciences disciplines in work on supporting recovery from illness experienced in isolation due to a pandemic. The team will receive £28,326.

The two projects are among 55 rapid research projects from 15 Scottish universities which have received government funding. Almost £5 million has been allocated to research into increasing understanding of Covid-19, screening potential treatments, and supporting clinical trials.

Dr Strang said: “We’re delighted to receive this funding from the Scottish Government.

“Our work will focus on the neglected case of refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom face this pandemic with the added challenges of a new place, an unfamiliar language, and very few connections with local people and systems.

“We will explore the relationships between isolation, loneliness and ‘comfort with solitude’ among refugees in Scotland.”

Dr Bulley’s research will be conducted with fellow Queen Margaret University colleagues Professor Jan Dewing, Professor Brendan McCormack, Dr Lisa Salisbury, Dr Vaibhav Tyagi, Dr Olivia Sagan, Ruth Magowan and Dr David Banks.

Dr Bulley said: “I’m thrilled that we are receiving this funding towards the costs of our research.

“Enormous numbers of people worldwide are experiencing social isolation during illness at home, or without family support in hospital.

“We need to investigate the impacts of this so that we can recommend interventions and services that are likely to be needed, and optimise access to these.”