2023 Research Output Prize winners announced

The winners of the University of Reading’s Research Output Prize 2023, which recognises and celebrates the excellent research work of Early Career Researchers (ECRs), have been announced.

The winners reflect the breadth and depth of research from across all four Research Themes, and include work on the effects of air pollutants on pollinators, the carbon stored in different kinds of soil, the philosophy behind forming beliefs, and the most efficient methods for learning a second language.

The prizes will be awarded at the 2023 Research Awards event on Tuesday 13 June.

Winners

Agriculture, Food & Health

Winner: James Ryalls for his paper as first author in Environmental Pollution, ‘Anthropogenic air pollutants reduce insect-mediated pollination services’.

Declines in the numbers and diversity of insects that pollinate our food crops and wild plants are currently considered to be the result of agricultural intensification and climate change – however, a new hypothesis suggests that air pollution could also be a contributing factor.

Research from James Ryalls, Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, demonstrated that increases in the concentration of air pollutants such as diesel exhaust and ozone result in severe reductions in visits from insects to flowers, and consequently, a reduction in successful pollination.

Environment

Winner: Sarah Duddigan for her article as first author in Scientific Reports, ‘Effects of application of horticultural soil amendments on decomposition, quantity, stabilisation and quality of soil carbon’.

Soil fertility is integral in helping plants grow. However, there are big differences in the amount of carbon stored between compost types. Sarah Duddigan, Department of Sustainable Land Management, alongside colleagues from the University and the Royal Horticultural Society, has been identifying the quality and turnover of soil to assess carbon levels and question the practice of compost application as a means of increasing soil carbon in the long term. The results of the work will inform horticultural practices in the future.

Heritage & Creativity

Winner: Jumbly Grindrod for his article in Episteme, ‘Justification: Insights from Corpora’.

How do we allow ourselves to form beliefs, and how much reason do we need to justify this? Jumbly Grindrod, Department of Philosophy, uses digital humanities methods by analysing a large body of common language to investigate the extent to which “justify” is used to talk about thoughts and beliefs. His work presents a new challenge to the philosophical problem of justification.

Prosperity & Resilience

Winner: Anthony Zhang for his study published in Language Teaching Research, ‘How does repetition affect vocabulary learning through listening to the teacher’s explicit instruction?’.

Vocabulary knowledge is essential for second language learning, yet it is unclear whether increasing the number of times learners encounter words leads to better learning. Anthony Zhang, Institute of Education, used 98 high-school learners of English to examine how vocabulary learning was affected by listening to repeated words. His work will help second language learners in the classroom to accelerate their learning, and also enhance the study of second language learning

Runner up for Prosperity & Resilience: Yang Liu (Business Informatics Systems & Accounting) for ‘Corporate commitment to climate change: The effect of eco-innovation and climate governance’.

Runner up for Prosperity & Resilience: Loua Khalil (Leadership Organisations & Behaviour) for ‘Public leadership to foster peacebuilding in violently divided societies’.