The aim of the sandpit event was to determine key research needs and identify opportunities for funding applications for cross-disciplinary projects, building on the outcomes of the previous activities. The sandpit was held on Tuesday 25th April 2017, at the Glasgow School of Art. The event was followed by the annual UK Indoor Environments Group conference on ‘Indoor Environments and Health in Buildings’, which is a networking event for a multidisciplinary audience of academics, policy makers and industry experts with an interest in improving indoor environments for health and wellbeing.
Six sandpit sessions were supported in total, following on from the outcomes of the workshop event and discussions during the steering group meeting, held in February 2017. The purpose of the event was to refine proposals for multidisciplinary projects to be submitted as joint funding applications. Participants worked in small groups (<10 people) to brainstorm and refine ideas.
An informal agenda was devised, which covered the following activities:
o Introduction and overview
o Define the scope and the problem
o Ideas generation
o Identify aims and objectives
o Development of project proposal
o Outline of research bid
o Presentation development
At the end of the day, groups were asked to present their project ideas to participants for feedback, and submit a short summary of their research proposal with details of the research question, aims and objectives, and possible next steps. The event brought together 41 participants from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, China, Belgium, Austria, and Denmark.
The sandpit resulted in the development of six project proposals, which are currently being taken forward by the groups and advanced as funding applications.