RESEARCHERS from the University of Southampton have been given nearly £1million to study loneliness.

A team will trial a new web tool called Genie, which helps people map their social networks and find activities they like to do.

It comes after recent figures showed that around 40 per cent of residents in Southampton feel lonely - and just months after the Daily Echo helped local charity Communicare boost its team of befriending volunteers by 90 per cent.

Now the team is looking for Southampton residents to help with their research.

Genie helps users map their social network and then shows them where they can do those activities.

The researchers from Southampton will work with others in Bristol and Liverpool and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

In total, £976,000 is being invested by the NIHR over three years to carry out the work.

Professor Anne Rogers, director of NIHR’s collaboration for leadership in applied health research and care in Wessex, said: “This is an exciting time.

“This new research project will explore the effectiveness of using the mapping of networks and connecting, as a tool to overcome isolation.”

Three quarters of the people taking part in the research will come from the south of England and the other quarter from the Liverpool area.

The study will be officially launched on June 14 at the Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton.