Research Awards

Healthcare educators at the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) have expanded their teaching skills to benefit patients’ care through a fruitful collaboration between the Institute of Education’s Professor Helen Bilton and the RBH’s Dr Andrew Jacques.

The University partnership with educators at the hospital has co-created a PGCert Healthcare Education programme. It is open to all healthcare practitioners who teach others, covering a wide range of learning episodes from the ad hoc to structured classroom experiences, using a variety of educational tools including simulation.

Now in its third year, an impact survey shows that mutual understanding is now stronger between the different professionals who’ve completed the course – from anaesthetists to midwives, working across specialisms from oncology to intensive care.

Getting ‘under the bonnet’ of what makes a good educator has been key to its success. First attendees consider what works for them as learners before considering how to change others’ behaviour. They work in multidisciplinary teams, utilising bespoke learning materials funded by the Health Innovation Partnership, including video materials, simulations and case studies, gaining mutual understanding along the way.

This collaboration combines the expertise of teachers, healthcare educators and the online courses team. Their next mission is to improve communication in healthcare, spurred by the conclusion of a recent UK government maternity service review that ‘staff who work together must train together’. New research will look to boost communication via simulations of good and bad practice and conversation-provoking materials to drive change.

In partnership with the Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University of Reading Online Courses Team

Funded by the Health Innovation Partnership

Children whose first language is not English may make less progress than their English-speaking peers but there is limited professional development to support teachers in the practices that address this.

A unique partnership between Professor Naomi Flynn, Indiana University’s Professor Annela Teemant, and Aspire Community Trust schools in Southampton tackled both challenges. With PhD student Aniqa Leena and Reading’s Professor Suzanne Graham, they adapted and tested Teemant’s Enduring Principles of Learning (EPL) approach which encourages teachers to design classroom activities which are talk-rich and culturally sustaining.

After a pilot EPL professional learning project in 2019/20, Flynn observed improved teaching and pupil engagement in Headteacher partner Emma Kerrigan-Draper’s Southampton school of 98% multilinguals. This fostered the four-school 2022 Talk-Rich Teaching Project, where test results showed that where teachers used the UK adaptation of the EPL this boosted multilingual children’s English speaking, listening and reading skills.

Involving schools’ staff as equal partners was critical to the project’s success because schools need professional learning bespoke to their settings. Project outcomes will inform the design of a toolkit for upscaling rollout of school-led, sustainable change for enhancing multilingual children’s educational success. Internationally the project continues as a two-way trans-Atlantic collaboration seeking solutions to shared educational challenges.

In partnership with Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Mount Pleasant Junior School, Southampton and Aspire Community Trust, Southampton

Funded by the Fulbright US/UK Commission and University of Reading Research Fellowship

When catastrophic floods killed 243 people across Europe in July 2021, some politicians and media outlets incorrectly claimed the size of the floods had been impossible to foresee. In fact, the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS), designed by Reading hydrologists, had accurately forecast the disaster and scientists had alerted the authorities, days in advance.

The Water@Reading research team spoke out via media briefings and interviews explaining the science behind flood forecasting, generating hundreds of articles. Professor Hannah Cloke’s description of authorities’ ‘monumental system failure’ to warn people became front page news across Europe. Dr Liz Stephens explained how flood warnings should work, and Dr Jess Neumann described how intense summer rainfall caused the floods. PhD researcher Jeff Da Costa criticised the Luxembourg government’s response and lost his job at an environmental consultancy. His sacking led to questions in parliament and accusations of political interference and undue pressure on scientists.

The team’s expertise is influencing policy in Germany to keep people safe. Cloke twice gave evidence at German parliamentary inquiries assessing the disaster response. Germany now has a national mobile phone alert system for emergencies, an action called for by the Reading team.

Cloke’s ongoing commentary on better communicating forecasts, including in New Scientist, have propelled her to appear on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and to collaborate with the Science Museum on an exhibition, explaining flood forecasting to fresh audiences.

In partnership with the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts and Science Museum

Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

The UK needs bigger, healthier and better-connected hedgerows to help our flagging biodiversity. Humble hedgerows are homes for bats, dormice and pollinating insects as well as crop pest-munching insects like spiders. They can also help prevent flooding, keep soil healthy, cool the air on hot days, mop up pollution and absorb carbon. But over the past 80 years we’ve lost half what we once had.

As part of the Green Recovery Challenge Funded Close the Gap project, Reading ecologists Dr Alice Mauchline, Dr Mike Garratt and the team are educating and enthusing people about hedgerows’ vital importance. They’ve led interactive workshops to understand what different people value about hedgerows and brought together the scientific evidence for hedgerows’ benefits. Education and training materials they’ve created and collated are tailored to different audiences, from town-dwellers to farmers.

This has culminated in Hedge Hub, the go-to online resource for all things hedge, from how to lay them to hedge-related laws. Hedge Hub’s hundreds of resources and papers have had over 20,000 visits from members of the public in its first year.

The Reading team continue to work with key partners including the Tree Council and Hedgelink to reach wider networks. Their free HedgeTalks webinar series has been enjoyed by more than 1,000 people and they helped to launch National Hedgerow Week, now into its third year, which is starting new conversations about hedges everywhere.

In partnership with The Tree Council, Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, Moor Trees, Future Gardeners (Worshipful Company of Gardeners) and Hedgelink

Funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund

Insightful research on how the pandemic affected UK businesses’ uptake of the four-day working week has made Henley Business School the first port of call for journalists seeking expert comment on flexible working.

Dr Rita Fontinha and Professor James T. Walker surveyed 2,000 employees and 500 business leaders in 2019 and 2021 and their in-depth report showed that the pandemic saw a 15% rise in businesses bringing in a four-day work week. The research also showed that the combined savings to UK businesses adopting a four-day work week was almost £104 billion in 2021, or 2.2% of total annual turnover, up from £92 billion before the pandemic.

Fontinha and Walker’s findings have exploded across the global stage, reaching an estimated 82.5 million people across 12 countries through 146 pieces of coverage, including in The Times, The i and BBC online. The research has also featured in high profile business publications on the topic by Forbes, MIT Sloan Management and Microsoft.

Commentary has now turned to action on a national scale: Fontinha is coordinating a Portuguese national trial of the four-day week. This partnership - between the Portuguese government, research institutes and the non-profit 4 Day Week Global - looks set to keep the research in the media spotlight in Portugal and beyond.

In partnership with (on the Portuguese pilot) Four Day Week Global, Birkbeck, University of London and the Portuguese Institute for Work and Employment

Funded by Henley Business School and the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, XXIII Portuguese Government

Trust plays a big part in people choosing healthier, more sustainable foods, research has shown – yet less than half of Europeans say they trust the food system.

Reading Consumer Behaviour expert Dr Anna Macready has developed TrustTracker®: an evidence-based model of what drives consumer trust in the food system. Working with EU knowledge innovation community EIT Food, TrustTracker® has generated over 81,000 surveys and is now part of its Consumer Observatory programme.

Openness and care are the most important qualities when it comes to trust in our food, findings show, and farmers are the supply chain’s most trusted people. Our trust in food has also increased over the past five years, according to annual surveys across 18 European countries and Canada. Macready’s data has been seen by policy-makers and food industry representatives at key conferences and appears in EIT Food’s annual Trust Report, informing its trust-building activities. A successful PR campaign has reached 1.2 million readers.

What is more, the Reading team has advised seven food start-ups on consumer trust and launched a Top 50 Trusted Brands competition in Denmark to engage top brands and understand and boost trust. The OECD commissioned an extension of the annual survey to Canada in 2022, bringing the benefits of better trust in food systems to many more people worldwide.

In partnership with Aarhus University, European Food Information Council, KU Leuven and University of Warsaw

Funded by EIT Food