Supporting local communities through Covid-19
The University had a role to play in vital research and knowledge exchange, as well as providing resources, volunteering and funding throughout the pandemic to support our local communities to respond to the pandemic.
Since March 2020, every aspect of life has in some way been impacted by Covid-19. The University’s contributions to the pandemic response have been wide-ranging: our researchers led work on disease susceptibility, treatments and the effectiveness of vaccines. On a local level, our students and staff have been responding too: mitigating digital exclusion, improving food supply chains, responding to challenges in the arts sector and much more.
Here are some examples from the last year of our contributions to the fight against Covid-19 in our communities, that link directly with commitments in our Community Plan 2020-25.
As well as the example below, you can find the full range of University contributions to Covid-19 related medical research, treatments and awareness on our dedicated webpages.
Emergency Covid-19 Community Grants
When Covid-19 hit, the University’s Community Team adapted the regular grants scheme to facilitate ‘quick-release’ micro-grants of up to £500 to community organisations who were adapting their work to respond to community need in the face of the pandemic. Money was released as quickly as possible and more than £8,000 to 17 organisations was awarded to organisations working on emergency food delivery, digital inclusion as well as emotional and practical support for vulnerable members of society. Some of the organisations have received further funding in 2021, including West Lothian Financial Inclusion and Dr Bell’s Family Centre.
We also awarded grants of up to £5,000 through our main Grant Scheme to a total of five organisations focusing on responding to Covid-19. See the full list of projects that were funded through the main grant scheme.
Lothian Lockdown research project
A group of University of Edinburgh researchers from the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences have ran a project to record life in lockdown by collecting video diaries. The Lothian Lockdown project collected video diaries from anyone living in Edinburgh and the Lothians. These videos focused on how life has changed during the coronavirus pandemic, feelings about the lockdown, or some smaller aspect of the current situation.
Collecting testimonies from all ages and encouraging people to share their unique experiences helped the researchers to understand and explore both the short- and long-term effects of the current situation on the community.
Find out more about Lothian Lockdown
Our Health
Students from the University of Edinburgh have used their skills and access to research to help local community groups better understand Covid-19 research. Our Health, led by Dr Helen Szoor-McElhinney, is a community-university programme that invites real world research questions from local community groups, and empowers students to collaborate with community partners to answer them.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the research questions investigated by the Our Health team have pivoted towards Covid-19. Community partners wanted evidence-based information about the disease so that they could explore with students how this new information could be used to understand and better manage their own health during the pandemic. The students could draw on the research, much of it produced by the University itself, to share timely and specific evidence with partners.
Thistle Foundation and University collaboration
Academics at the University of Edinburgh teamed up with the Thistle Foundation, a Scottish charity supporting people with long-term health conditions and disabilities to answer questions from their service users on Covid-19.
People were invited to submit questions they had about coronavirus and the Covid-19 vaccine to local scientists Dr Thomas Christie Williams, Paediatrician and Clinical Lecturer and Dr Samantha Griffiths, Senior Research Fellow, Infection Medicine from the University of Edinburgh.
Find out more, download the Q&A booklet, and watch videos
How this contributes to our Community Plan
Commitment 3: Grow our Community Grants Scheme and develop links with a more diverse group of organisations.
Commitment 13: Facilitate knowledge exchange between the University and local communities, including community groups.
Find out more
Visit the University's dedicated webpages on our contributions to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic