The 1997 IRSCL New Researcher Grant was awarded to Karen Sands for her work entitled, 'The Imagination and the Imagined Nation: Post-1945 British Children's Fantastic Fiction'. This work became the basis of her doctoral thesis from Cardiff University. It has also resulted in several other publications, including a 2003 article entitled 'The Enemy Without: Post-1945 Animal Fantasy and the Safety of Home Spaces' for the online journal The Looking Glass.