Grant cements first stage of Alliance’s joint successes

The joint research is an initiative under the Adelaide-Nottingham Alliance – a global strategic partnership that commenced in November 2022 and formalises decades of collaboration in research and education between the two universities.

The $2.02m (over £1m) award, including $946,000 (£500,000) from Diabetes UK, will support pioneering neuroimaging techniques to identify how sweet sensing is communicated from the tongue and gut to the brain in people with, and without, type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.

These findings will inform the development of new personalised dietary and drug treatments for people living with a range of diabetic disease.

The University of Adelaide’s Professor Amanda Page and Dr Sally Eldeghaidy from the University of Nottingham will present an update on this research at a joint symposium to mark the second year of the Adelaide-Nottingham Alliance.

The symposium will also feature researchers and PhD students working across the Alliance’s leading areas of collaborative research, including Plants for Space. Researchers from the University of Nottingham are playing a key role in the University of Adelaide-led Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, which aims to create on-demand, zero-waste, high-efficiency plants and plant products to feed astronauts on future space missions while applying this science to sustainable solutions on Earth. 

As well as the funding award for diabetes research, other success of the Adelaide-Nottingham Alliance include:

• 29 enrolments in the Alliance’s Jointly-Conferred PhD program, with 10 graduates
• Collaborated on seven externally funded research projects, attracting more than $50m/£26.3m in funding
• $187,718 / £96,387 seed funding to explore and kick-start new collaborations in research and education.

“Our alliance with Nottingham is one of the most significant between two universities in the UK and Australia. We each have a global reputation and a shared passion for innovation, and for training the research leaders and change-makers of tomorrow,” said Professor Peter Høj AC, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Adelaide.

“By encouraging collaboration between our researchers, we deepen the impact and reach of our discoveries, and by giving our students the opportunity to spend significant time in Adelaide or Nottingham we enrich their studies and encourage them to develop a global mindset.”

Professor Høj will be attending the symposium, along with the University of Nottingham’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shearer West CBE.

“Professor Høj and I are both excited by the potential of our universities’ strategic global partnership, which has grown out of decades of friendship and collaboration between Adelaide and Nottingham,” said Professor West.

“We will hear researchers from Adelaide and Nottingham talk about their collaborations on exciting projects, and how by sharing our world-leading expertise in food, sustainability, and health research, we will have even greater impact on these global challenges.”

The Adelaide-Nottingham Alliance Vice-Chancellor’s Symposium will take place at the University of Nottingham’s University Park campus on 13 May 2024.