THE University of Stirling is set to contribute to three Covid-19 related studies.

Academics from the Faculty of Social Sciences will be contributing to the understanding of, and the response to, the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts.

Dr Richard Simmons has secured £476,113 to launch a 15-month project, titled Optimising Procurement Outcomes for Covid-19 and Beyond: Lessons from the Crisis, with support from colleagues at the Universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Northumbria.

The expert academic team will provide a detailed analysis of local authority procurement practice and performance, marking out critical success factors and points of failure across the whole system, while considering variations in local authorities with different characteristics.

At the same time, Professor Fiona Copland will the principal investigator of the Supporting separated migrant children to thrive during Covid-19 study.

The project has been awarded £192,000 to examine how the pandemic has impacted on young people’s connectivity to networks and services.

And Professor of social statistics, Alasdair Rutherford, is part of a UK-wide team who will explore the volunteering response in each of the UK’s four nations during COVID-19.

Professor Copland, who is also the faculty’s associate dean for research, said: “Stirling’s social scientists are well-equipped to explore the wider impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and their insights will have a big impact not only in Scotland, but across the world.

 

“The faculty’s success in securing this funding is further acknowledgement that our experts are at the forefront of their fields.”