The Research Environment

Within the University

One of the University of Glasgow 's primary assets is the potential of for cross-disciplinary research, and in particular the close ties between the Faculties of Biomedical and Life Sciences (FBLS) and Veterinary Medicine (FVM).  FBLS is comprised of 8 research themes that include Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Integrative & Systems Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, Neuroscience & Molecular Pharmacology, and Parasitology.  The Boyd Orr Centre currently contains faculty from 3 of these themes, and draws its primary strengths from the Comparative Epidemiology Group within the Vet faculty and the Theoretical Ecology Group within Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.   Research within the Vet Faculty is divided between Population and Animal Health, Comparative Pathobiology, and Infection and Immunity, and the Boyd Orr Centre contains faculty from two of these groupings.  The Faculty of Information and Mathematical Science (FIMS) includes the Divisions of Mathematics and Statistics; we work particularly with the Mathematical Biology group.

In addition to cross faculty links, we work closely with a number of other research centres within the University.  These include the Glasgow Centre for International Development (through which we work to increase graduate student enrolment from developing countries, and initiate capacity building activities; the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology (with whom we co-supervise students), the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, and the Centre for Mathematics Applied to the Life Sciences.

Outside of the University of Glasgow

Members of the Centre are involved in a large number of research collaborations with other institutions.  We have strong research links with the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen (Simon Thirgood is an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, and a member of the Centre, and through the co-supervision of students), and the University of Aberdeen (through a joint research project with Steve Redpath).  The group is centrally involved with the SEERAD Centre of Excellence: Epidemiology, Population Health & Infectious Disease Control (EPIC), and collaborates closely with the Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright on research into Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (with whom we hold a number of joint grants and co-supervise students).  Through the cross-appointment of Dominic Mellor we maintain close links with activities with Health Protection Scotland.

International Research

The Centre has a strong international research program led principally by Sarah Cleaveland and Heather Ferguson who work primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Tanzania and Kenya in particular.  Through these research activities we maintain strong links with the Ifakara Health Institute, Sokoine University in Mwanza, and the Serengeti National Park .  Additional projects are carried out in collaboration with WildCru ( University of Oxford ), the Frankfurt Zoological Society.