BPI Relaunches Research Clusters to Tackle Poverty-Related Issues

26 April 2023

Five internal interdisciplinary Research Clusters launched by the BPI will tackle poverty from multiple angles

The Bristol Poverty Institute (BPI) is excited to announce we will be re-launching five internal interdisciplinary Research Clusters across five thematic areas. The themes include Child Health and Development, Education and Inequalities, Livelihoods and Debt, Food and Nutrition, and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement. Each thematic Research Cluster will bring together experts from across the university to develop a peer-to-peer network where members can identify and explore synergies, share expertise and advice, and pursue opportunities for collaborative working.

The BPI had put the initiative on hold during the pandemic as we felt the Clusters would benefit from in-person engagement and the opportunity to mingle and have free-flowing conversations. Now that more people are regularly back on campus, the BPI is planning an informal in-person event for each Cluster before the end of the summer term to give members a chance to meet and explore different perspectives, approaches, and areas of interest relevant to each Cluster theme.

Each Cluster has a dedicated SharePoint group which internal members of the university can join, and will then be added to the Cluster mailing list. Or alternatively, members of the university can email the BPI team to indicate which Cluster(s) they would like to be added to. The Research Clusters will each have at least one Cluster Lead who will act as a point of liaison between the Cluster and the BPI team and will also help to drive forward activity within the Clusters. The Clusters' activities could include journal clubs, brown bag lunches, seminars, brainstorming sessions in response to funding opportunities, film screenings, and mock presentations to gather feedback before conferences. Online engagement through sharing resources and information through the SharePoint group and/or Teams Chat is also expected.

Considerations of poverty dimensions will underpin all Cluster activity. However, the university also welcomes participants who are not currently working directly on poverty-focused projects, as a key purpose of these Clusters is to bring together researchers working in relevant fields and to expand the community of the University of Bristol researchers engaged with poverty-relevant issues. The BPI team is excited to finally get these Research Clusters off the ground and see how they grow and develop over time.

Further information

You can access the individual Research Clusters via the following links (accessible to University of Bristol staff only):

Child Health and Development, bringing together researchers interested in how issues related to poverty can intersect with child health and child development from both medical and social perspectives.
Education and Inequalities, bringing together researchers interested in the intersections between education (at different levels and scales), poverty, and inequalities.
Food and Nutrition, bringing together researchers interested in the intersections between food systems, diet and nutrition, health, well-being, and poverty.
Livelihoods and Debt, bringing together researchers interested in the intersections between livelihoods, personal finance, debt, and poverty.
Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, bringing together researchers interested in the concept of poverty as multidimensional, and methods for measuring, analysing, and tackling it.