Aim
The Bristol Centre for Grief Research and Engagement brings together researchers from across the University of Bristol. It aims to produce timely and innovative research, in collaboration with grieving people, charities, professionals, and the wider community.
Leadership
The Centre is co-directed by Prof Lucy Selman (Professor of Palliative and End of Life Care, Bristol Medical School) and Dr Lesel Dawson (Associate Professor in Literature and Culture). It brings together programmes of research, scholarship and civic engagement at the University.
Focus
Our projects include research on:
- equity, widening access and underserved communities;
- children and young people; disenfranchised grief;
- the therapeutic role of creativity in grief;
- community-based/public health approaches to bereavement support (including the role of creativity, culture and community assets in ‘grief literacy’ and widening access to support); and
- co-produced/community-led research (including building research capacity in communities).
You can find out more about our Members’ research via their webpages.

Current and recent projects
- Coastal Community & Creative Health (AHRC, 2024-2027)
- Equitable Bereavement Care for All (NIHR, 2023-2025)
- Children’s Attitude to Grief Scale Validation Study (Winston’s Wish, 2023-2025)
- My Grief My Way – Development of an Online ACT intervention (Marie Curie, 2022-2024)
- Creative Interventions for Grief: Storytelling and Singing (UoB, 2023-2024)
- Grief Education in Schools (AHRC; ESRC 2022-2024)
- Good Grief Connects (National Lottery Community Fund, 2022-2024)
- Weston-super-Mare Community Network for Health Inequities (AHRC, 2022-2023)
- Development of the Grief Support Guide (ESRC IAA, 2022-2023)
- Bereavement during the COVID-19 Pandemic (ESRC, 2020-2023)
- Grief after Baby Loss (Research England, 2021-2022; 2023)
- Creative Grieving (Brigstow Institute, 2020-2021)
- Embodied Grief in Film (Brigstow Institute, 2018)