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An Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation engagement project has been highly commended in the MVLS Engagement Awards 2021.

The annual awards, supported by the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund, celebrate the diverse public engagement taking place within the college and seek to recognise and reward individuals and teams who successfully engage the public. 

From an impressive range of nominations, eight projects were highlighted as engagement with research that is well-designed, creative, reactive, and implemented to make a positive contribution to public communities and research.

Among those was a team nomination for the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Parasitology's Parasites: Battle for Survival, an immersive exhibition held at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS).

The WCIP collaborated with the NMS along with parasitology departments at the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh to develop content that would engage visitors.

A parallel educational programme was developed with the NMS Team and WCIP researchers helped to deliver it, and the exhibition welcomed almost 40,000 visitors before it was cut short due to COVID restrictions. 

Award winners were announced by Head of College Professor Iain McInnes on Friday 28 January 2022 with the WCIP project involving Hannah Bialic, Vickie Curtis, Mike Barrett, Andy Waters and Annette MacLeod highly commended.

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Also shortlisted was an individual nomination for the Centre for Virus Research's Dr Ed Hutchinson and his Virus Snowflakes, a low-cost, papercraft educational resource, freely available as a pdf, explaining virus structure by repurposing traditional paper snowflake designs.

A piece of paper is folded on itself, cut along a template, and when unfolded produces a complex 2D projection of a virus particle.

A pilot version of the resource was produced to coincide with Christmas 2019 (now used throughout the year). An extended version in 2020 had 17 designs, including a set of designs showing SARS-CoV-2, the vaccines against it, and the reasons why they are effective. Promoted across social media, it has received a positive reception and great international reach.

The other nominees were:

  • Brain Fog and Vaccines - Primary Care Research and Development, IHW
  • Breaking a lifetime of disadvantage by enhancing engagement of ethnic minorities in health research - ICAMS
  • CONUNDRUM - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, IHW
  • Creative Insights - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, IHW
  • Equally Safe At School - TEAM Nomination MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, IHW
  • Covid booklets for learning disabilities - Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory, IHW

First published: 10 February 2022

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