Wind turbines in the Seychelles – picture: IEA

Researchers working across national borders feature prominently in the latest group of University of Reading academics to be awarded research funding.

In total, £12.5 million of funds were awarded during the third quarter of 2017-18, to 80 projects across all five research themes at Reading: Environment, Food, Health, Heritage & Creativity and Prosperity & Resilience.

Professor Steve Mithen, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, said: “Good research is increasingly an international undertaking, and I am encouraged to see Reading researchers involved in so many new projects that cross national borders.

“Reading is a global university. While our principle off-shore activities in Malaysia, China and South Africa are teaching-focussed, this list of new projects illustrates the global reach and significance of our research. We must continue to strengthen our international links around the world if we are to stay influential and relevant in the years ahead.”

Among those winning funding between February and April 2018 are:

• Ros Cornforth, from the Walker Institute, who has won £213,000 from the UK Department for International Development, for a project to help people in several African countries be better prepared for the disruption caused by climate change.
• Al Edwards, from Pharmacy, who has been awarded £50,000 from the British Council to help develop a system that could use smartphones to help diagnose dengue, a potentially fatal tropical disease, in Thailand and worldwide.
• The Institute for Environmental Analytics, who has been awarded almost £3 million from the UK Space Agency for the second phase of a project using data from earth observation satellites to help small island developing states develop renewable energy.
• Jon Gibbins, from Biological Sciences, who has won £540,000 of Marie Curie funding from the European Horizon 2020 scheme, to explore ways to prevent strokes and heart attacks by targeting adhesion receptors in blood clot-forming platelets.
• Chris Reynolds, in Agriculture, who has secured £390,000 of EU funding from Horizon 2020 for a project to encourage research and innovation in the European cattle sector.
• Flora Samuel, in Architecture, who will be mapping social assets, urban greenery and the connections between them in rapidly changing cities in the Philippines, thanks to a £120,000 award from the British Council.
• Steven Woolnough and Thorwald Stein, from Meteorology, who have been awarded £1.3 million of Global Challenges Research Funds from NERC for a project to boost scientific weather information and forecasting techniques in Africa.

Visit www.reading.ac.uk/research for more about the University of Reading’s research.