Credit / Steve Houldsworth
Writer
The University of Glasgow has been awarded £1m of charity funding to build a new Institute of Health and Wellbeing (IHW) building.
This was awarded by the Wolfson Foundation and will go toward the construction of the new IHW building as part of a £1bn development programme for the university campus.
The construction of the new IHW building is expected to start in the spring of 2019.
The University has said that the new building will help create a “cohesive identity” as staff are currently scattered around 10 sites across Glasgow.
Professor Jill Pell, director of IHW, said: “We are extremely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for this significant award. It demonstrates their support for our ambitions for our new building.
“IHW staff are currently scattered across 10 separate sites in Glasgow and our new building will allow us to create a cohesive identity.
“That will enhance our ability to do inter-disciplinary research, to network creatively, enhance our accommodation for postgraduate students and to engage more effectively with members of the public.”
The IHW aims to improve population health and wellbeing as well as reduce inequalities in health.
The work done by IHW involves concentrating on neglected groups such as socio-economically deprived communities, refugees, the elderly and those with learning disabilities or mental health problems.
Ms Pell said: “We have a proven track record of collaborating with external partners, both academic and non-academic in spite of the physical constraints of our current dispersed, inflexible estate.
“The new IHW building will provide the type of space, not currently available to us, that will transform our ability to undertake such collaborations in terms of scale, efficiency and effectiveness.”
The Wolfson Foundation is an independent charity awarding grants to support and promote excellence in the fields of science and medicine, the arts and humanities, education and health and disability.
Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “The Wolfson Foundation supports international quality research and so we are delighted to be funding such an outstanding population health research centre.
“There could be few better places in the world to create such a facility and the research will play a pivotal role in understanding and combating health inequality – and preventing chronic disease.
“It seems particularly appropriate to be supporting this initiative in Glasgow: the city which gave the Wolfson family refuge from persecution during the 1890s.”
