The SoGE Inspiration Fund was conceived in 2017 as an exciting opportunity for seed-corn funding for small projects.

It ran for three years (the last round in Trinity 2019) and was open to all staff. The aim was to encourage small research projects that did not 'fit' the criteria for other funding opportunities. There were no fixed rules about what the research could entail, as long as it was innovative and inspirational.

Interim reports from the last round will be coming soon, and we will be arranging an event at the beginning of Trinity term 2020 to showcase the activities funded in that round.

Latest Projects

Panel discussion at the accessible film screening

Visual Impairments Mobilities Accessible Film Screening
Piment Noir

Amusing Methodologies: An Experimental Lab on Humour, the Environment and Society in Cameroon
Three generations of Sheldonian stone heads

Oxford’s stone-built heritage as a proxy for historic air quality
Climate Change demonstrations

Promoting SoGE’s climate change-related research to new audiences in schools
Participants on a Global Challenges in Transport course

Decolonising knowledge within the neoliberal university: the challenge of teaching sustainable transport
View looking north over Huaraz towards the highest region of the Cordillera Blanca

Anthropogenic responsibility for the retreat of Palcaraju glacier (Cordillera Blanca, Peru) and glacial lake outburst flood risk

Previous Projects

2017-2018

Read reports from October 2018, summarising the following projects funded that year by the Inspiration Fund:

  • a programme of engagement to teach young people in Kwale County, Kenya about water science and management;
  • ‘Head-hunting: the Sheldonian Emperors’;
  • an online tool for participatory mapping of cultural ecosystem services; and
  • establishing the Oxford Heritage Network.

2016-2017

At the end of 2017, Inspiration Award winners were invited to each give a 7-minute talk on their 'innovative' project. From network-building and interdisciplinary collaborations with artists, web-tool and website building, to a public 'head-hunt' and environmental work with school-children, all our Inspiration Award projects proposed work that was totally new and might not normally have found funding by other means. Watch the bitesize videos below to find out more.

1. Introduction // Professor David Thomas
2. Heritage Network Scoping Study // Professor Heather Viles
3. An online tool for participatory mapping of cultural ecosystem services // Alison Smith
4. Global network on financial geography // Professor Dariusz Wójcik
5. Inspiring Kenyan schoolchildren with environmental research // Saskia Nowicki and Nancy Gladstone
6. Development of the Oxford Polar Forum Website // Dr Marc Macias-Fauria
7. Head hunting - the Sheldonian Emperors // Dr Martin Coombes (on behalf of Dr Katrin Wilhelm)
8. The Elephant in the Hedge // Dr Jamie Lorimer