RSE Research Awards strengthen Scotland’s research future with £661K funding boost

We are pleased to announce that 61 exceptional research projects were selected at the spring 2026 Research Awards open call.

Over £661,000 will fund innovative research across a range of academic fields, enabling projects such as a study of environmental conditions and disturbance at hedgehog hibernation sites, recording stakeholders’ attitudes towards free and VAT-free sunscreen in a warmer Scotland, and mapping poverty and health inequalities in Scotland’s communities and how we can address the knowledge-to-action gap.

In this round, lead investigators represent 14 of the Scottish universities and research institutes; however, the reach of these awards extends beyond Scotland, with collaborators representing 22 institutions in total, including international organisations in Spain, Nigeria, Italy, Chile, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa and Canada.

The RSE’s Research Awards Programme opens in spring and autumn each year and aims to support Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research in Scotland, and promoting international collaboration.

RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE, commented,

“The RSE’s Research Awards continue to be a cornerstone of Scotland’s thriving research community. I am confident that the recipients of these distinguished awards will push the boundaries of knowledge and create meaningful benefits for people across Scotland and beyond. On behalf of the Society, I extend warm congratulations to these exceptional researchers and their international collaborators, and I look forward to seeing the impact of their work.”

The RSE is deeply grateful for the continued support of the Scottish Funding Council, as well as the valued contributions from the RSE Scotland Foundation and the Caledonian Research Fund.

Recipients of Spring 2026 RSE Research Awards:

Small Research Grants

• Dr Jessica Arnull, University of Edinburgh
  Seabird-mediated nutrient connectivity across coral–seagrass systems in the Maldives
• Dr Abdelaziz Beqqali, University of Edinburgh
  Establishing OOPS in thin murine heart tissue slices to enable direct analysis of cardiac RNA-binding proteins
• Dr Gianluca Destro, University of Edinburgh, with collaborator Professor Adriana Tavares, University of Edinburgh
  Liposome‑enhanced SPECT imaging of PARP‑1 in triple‑negative breast cancer using technetium‑99m
• Professor Georgios Gerasimou, University of Glasgow
  On the consistency between scoring and augmented ranking methods for eliciting preference intensities: An experimental study
  
• Dr Jake Greenfield, University of St Andrews
  Photoswitchable imines: Now in water
• Dr Clare Hamilton, Moredun Research Institute, with collaborator Dr David Smith, Moredun Research Institute
  Understanding intestinal invasion by toxoplasma gondii
• Dr Johannes Heim, University of Aberdeen, with collaborator Professor Martina Wiltschko, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
  SELFLings: Development of self-talk in children
• Dr Rebecca Hewer, University of Edinburgh, with collaborator Dr Ben Collier, University of Edinburgh
  The feminist policy project
• Dr Davina Hill, University of Glasgow
  Environmental conditions and disturbance at hedgehog hibernation sites
• Dr Kat Hunfeld, University of St Andrews
  For land held in common: Sustainable futures through community land buyouts
• Dr Diarmaid Kelliher, University of Glasgow
  An angry silence? Social ostracism, boycotts and unofficial discipline in the postwar British workplace
• Dr Neil Kirk, Abertay University
  AI voices and the illusion of truth
• Dr Jung Woo Lee, University of Edinburgh
  The politics of sport mega-events in a multipolar world
• Dr Siobhan Magee, University of Edinburgh
  ‘UV citizenship’: Understanding stakeholders’ attitudes towards free and VAT-free sunscreen in a warmer and warmer Scotland
• Dr Rhiannon McGlade, University of Strathclyde
  In visible ink: Visual print media and women in Spain (1968–1993)
• Dr Andrew McLean, University of Edinburgh
  Competition law and the left
• Dr Katharine Mitchell, University of Strathclyde
  Before the credits: Feminist genealogies and the making of Italian women film pioneers, 1914-22
• Dr Ryan Morris, University of Edinburgh
  Environmental drivers of spirochete aggregation
• Professor Miratul Muqit, University of Dundee, with collaborator Dr Odetta Antico, University of Dundee
  Establishing pulsed SILAM to assess protein turnover dysregulation in a PINK1-deficient mouse model of Parkinson’s disease
• Professor Gordon Noble, University of Aberdeen, with collaborator Professor Kate Britton, University of Aberdeen
  Tracing livestock mobility and provisioning networks in early medieval Dál Riata: A multi-isotope analysis
• Dr Constantina Papadopoulou, University of the West of Scotland
  Supporting wellbeing after low-grade brain tumours: Understanding survivorship needs
• Professor Julia Prest, University of St Andrews
  Dance and disability: Exclusion, imitation and inclusion in the early modern period and today
• Dr Michael Rapport, University of Glasgow
  The spatial French Revolution: The transformation of buildings and spaces in revolutionary Paris
• Professor Patrizia Riganti, University of Glasgow
  Heritage matters: Embedding cultural heritage value in Scotland’s National Performance Framework
• Dr David Roxburgh, University of Strathclyde, with collaborators Dr Malika Pedley, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France and Lorna Anderson, Queen Margaret University
  MultIPLE: Multilingual and multicultural Initial Professional Learning for Educators
• Dr Blair Saunders, University of Dundee
  Is vaping rewriting the science of quitting? Goal structures in smoking and e-cigarette cessation
• Dr Christine Sylvester, University of Strathclyde, with collaborator Dr Heinz Brandenburg, University of Strathclyde
  Adversarial politics after devolution: Computational analysis of parliamentary debate in Westminster and Holyrood
• Dr Karolina Watroba, University of Edinburgh
  Afterlives of empires: Imagining alternative cultural genealogies in Germany, Poland, Japan, and Korea, 1920s-2020s
• Dr Catherine Wilson, University of Glasgow
  Characterising the clinical, immunological and virological features of chronic infection in people with immunosuppression
• Dr Rhona Winnington, University of the West of Scotland, with collaborator Dr Sandra Lucas, University of the West of Scotland
  Scoping the landscape of contemporary palliative care in Scotland: A modified VOICES survey
• Dr Philippa Woodcock, University of the Highlands and Islands
  They wept together: Investigating miscarriage, taboo and support in early modern Scotland
• Dr Tao Zhang, University of Glasgow, with collaborator Dr Alexander Croke, University of Glasgow
  Exploration of flight physics for aerial firefighting in urban environments

Research Collaboration Grants

• Dr Alessandro Boussalem, University of St Andrews, with collaborator Dr Alice Butler-Warke, University of Reading
  “This is what community looks like”: Building solidarities against the far right in Dundee
• Professor Daniel Clayton, University of St Andrews, with collaborator Professor Federico Ferretti, Università di Bologna, Italy
  Anticolonial geographical imaginations and networks: Rethinking the discipline through ‘worldmaking’
• Dr Deval Desai, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Dr Gail Lythgoe, University of Edinburgh and Professor Maria Fletcher, University of Glasgow
  Scottish decolonising law network
• Dr Sarah Greenwood, University of Stirling, with collaborator Dr Alejandro Venegas-Gonzalez, Universidad de O Higgins, Chile
  Tree growth resilience to an extreme drought event in Chile–is a change of state approaching?
• Dr Laura Guy, Glasgow School of Art, with collaborators Dr Fiona Anderson, Newcastle University and Dr Cole Collins, Glasgow School of Art
  Preserving queer photography: Making and maintaining community-led infrastructures of care
• Professor Moira Hulme, University of the West of Scotland, with collaborators Professor Gary Beauchamp, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Professor Catherine Furlong, Dublin City University
  Sustaining teaching: A cross-national research collaboration on teacher wellbeing
• Professor Sarah Johnsen, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Dr Olivia Swann, University of Edinburgh and Dr Carey Lunan, University of Edinburgh
  Poverty and health inequalities in Scotland’s communities: Closing the knowledge to action gap
• Professor Duncan MacLeod, Glasgow School of Art, with collaborator Dr Frances Wilkins, University of Aberdeen and Mrs Floraidh Forrest, Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches
  The carrying stream: Activating Scotland’s sound archives through creative transmission
• Dr John McCallum, University of Edinburgh
  Centring emotions in Scottish history
• Dr Lisa McDonald, University of St Andrews, with collaborators Professor Sue Farran, Newcastle University and Professor Stuart Jeffrey, Glasgow School of Art
  Connecting ancestral owners with dispersed material culture: Nemah itseh (decorated barkcloth) from Erromango, Vanuatu
• Dr Pedro Mendonca, Heriot-Watt University, with collaborator Dr Pille Strauss, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  The impact of algorithmic management on managers: A collaborative study between Scotland and Sweden (MANAGE-AI)
• Professor Fabio Nudelman, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Professor Claire Donnelly, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Dr Johannes Ihli, Experiments Division, ALBA Synchrotron, Spain
  In search of a unifying microstructural motive among brachiopod shells
• Dr Admire Nyamwanza, Queen Margaret University, with collaborator Dr Katelyn Johnson, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
  Bridging the implementation gap: A Scotland-South Africa partnership for health-centred governance of nature-based solutions
• Professor Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow, with collaborator Dr Aleksandra Glos, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile
  Co-creating hope with refugee children
• Dr Carolina Recart, University of Strathclyde, with collaborators Dr Samuele Colombo, University of Strathclyde and Professor Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
  Occupants in the loop: A biometric-informed system for real-time occupant-centred building performance
• Professor Dan Swanton, University of Edinburgh, with collaborators Professor Lesley Batty, University of Birmingham and Professor Emeritus Derek France, University of Chester
  Co-creating a manifesto for fieldwork: Building a more sustainable, inclusive and equitable future for fieldwork education
• Dr Sergiy Sylantyev, University of Aberdeen, with collaborator Dr Olga Kopach, City St. George’s University of London
  Investigating the PIEZO1 channel function across brain neuronal types in health and in pathological models
• Dr J. Kelechi Ugwuanyi, University of Glasgow, with collaborators Dr George Agbo, University of Edinburgh and Professor Tochukwu Omenma, University of Nigeria, Nigeria
  Decolonial heritage otherwise: Engaging Igbo cultural heritage in Scotland
• Dr Ellen Vanderhoven, University of Glasgow, with Dr Johannes Schmees, University of Derby
  Youth voice and representation in Scottish apprenticeships
• Dr Victor H. Villar, University of St Andrews
  Uncovering ISG15-driven metabolic reprogramming in synovial sarcoma and liposarcoma for therapeutic and biomarker development

Personal Research Fellowships

• Professor Stephen Bogle, University of Glasgow
  Rights and reparation: The structure of Scots delict
• Dr Daniela Castro-Camilo, University of Glasgow
  SEED: Spatial modelling of extreme counts for environmental and ecological data
• Dr Andreas Hackl, University of Edinburgh
  Digital lifelines: The promise and peril of remote work for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
• Dr David Nelson, University of Strathclyde
  Low valent nickel complexes as tools to explore catalytic reaction mechanisms
• Dr Michiel Poesen, University of Aberdeen
  Artificial Intelligence and private international law in the EU and UK
• Dr Sally Tuckett, University of Glasgow
  Climate and cloth in Scotland’s historical and contemporary contexts

RSE International Bilateral Visits (Stream 1)

• Professor Andrew Baker, University of Edinburgh, visiting Professor Judith Sluimer, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
  Enhancer-mediated targeting of adventitial fibroblasts in vein graft atherosclerosis
• Professor Alison Brown, University of Aberdeen, visiting Dr Cara Krmpotich, University of Toronto, Canada
  Family reunions: Digital engagement and diplomacy between Scotland and the Great Lakes of Turtle Island
• Dr Gwenne McIntosh, University of Stirling, visiting Mr Simon Githui, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), Kenya
  Developing anti-stigma strategies for young people in Kenya: A co-production initiative