Southampton researcher to receive prestigious national fellowship
A social scientist from the University of Southampton has been awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship.
Dr Sarah Neal was one of just 45 to win the award nationally, out of a total of more than 900 applicants.
The British Academy will provide Sarah with funding of £216,643. The organisation grants postdoctoral fellowships to outstanding early career researchers, to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment.
Sarah’s research interests centre around maternal and child health in low income enviroments, and the Academy will fund research on early adolescent childbearing in girls aged 12 -15 developing counties.
"I’m so pleased to received this award," says Sarah. "The funding will allow me to develop our understanding about early adolescent motherhood, which will hopefully help to raise awareness among policymakers about this much-neglected issue."
Originally a nurse, Sarah went on to study social policy and social research at the universities of Bristol and Bath, before completing her PhD in Southampton in 2009.
She has previously worked on the Atlas of Birth Maternal Health Advocacy Project, a far-reaching collaborative initiative with the universities of Aberdeen and Southampton and the White Ribbon Alliance, which mapped the global challenges and solutions to maternal mortality.