Visit of the Colt Foundation

The Colt Foundation is a charitable organisation founded in 1978 which funds high quality research in environmental and occupational health with a particular interest in projects that are likely to inform policy and working practices and thereby improve the health and wellbeing of workers and the wider population.

Three exemplar presentations demonstrated University of York research at the interface of health and work. HYMS Professor of Psychiatry and Health Data Science, Paul Tiffin talked about “emotional labour”  – that is maintaining professional composure while engaging in emotionally-draining activity – as an occupational hazard, and how, if not properly managed, it can lead to burn-out. He is developing an intervention to help staff in youth mental health crisis teams learn skills that can mitigate emotional labour. Professor Sarah West from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) described some of SEI York's work on air quality, health and wellbeing in cities, and a University of York Sparks project ensuring equity in digital health interventions. Lastly, HYMS Professor Simon Gilbody recounted his research into loneliness in the workplace, defined as a mismatch between interactions that we have and those that we want. His talk mentioned the negative impact of presenteeism and people continuing to work unproductively when they are experiencing mental ill health. He shared the finding that managers and people from demographic minority groups are disproportionately affected by loneliness in the workplace. 

After these presentations, Mrs Heydon spoke about the areas of research supported by the Foundation and the various available funding schemes, including project grants and three types of fellowships: PhD, early career and advanced post-doctorate. She then held one-to-one meetings with researchers and encouraged any colleague from the University of York interested in the Colt Foundation to communicate with her directly and email her a one-page summary of their proposed project or fellowship.

We thank the Colt Foundation and Mrs Heydon for meeting us and look forward to engaging further over the coming years.