Strathclyde is involved in 15 ‘exceptional’ research projects awarded funding by a prestigious programme.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Research Awards Programme supports Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research and promoting international collaboration.
In this latest round, more than £856,000 will fund innovative research across a range of academic fields, with lead investigators representing 17 Scottish universities and research institutes. Collaborators include international organisations in the USA, Australia, Italy, Malawi, Germany, Finland and Iraq.
Report cards
Strathclyde is leading and involved in one hosted visit and 15 of the 92 projects, ranging from how government policies can be linked to protest and riots and improving the safety of offshore wind turbines, to the impact of school report cards.
One project, led by Dr Laura Miller, will develop advanced mathematical and computational tools to improve understanding of bacterial corneal ulcers – serious eye infections that can rapidly threaten sight.
Dr Yashar Javadi from Electronic & Electrical Engineering is leading a project with partner Institution Leibniz University Hannover to improve the safety of offshore wind turbines by developing better inspection techniques for the large bolts used in turbine foundations. Large structures in Germany will be tested using portable ultrasonic equipment, and a robotic system developed at Strathclyde.
The Report Card Project: Memory, Materiality, and Measurement in British Schooling, led by Professor Yvette Taylor from the Strathclyde Institute of Education, explores the emotional, material and archival lives of school report cards to offer new insights into how these documents shape lives.
Dr Gary Uzonyi from Government & Public Policy will examine how policies, such as inadequate housing, poor infrastructure and underinvestment in education and health, can increase the likelihood of protests and riots in Asian and European cities following climate events such as fires or flooding.
RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE, said: “The RSE’s Research Awards Programme plays a crucial role in supporting and strengthening Scotland’s vibrant research community. I am confident that the recipients of these prestigious RSE awards will advance knowledge and deliver meaningful benefits for Scottish society.”
The full list of Strathclyde Recipients of Autumn 2025 RSE Research Awards:
Small Grants
Dr Julia Coyoli: The merit project: A new dataset on civil service examinations.
Dr Lorenzo Crippa, with Dr James Bowden, and Dr Annalisa Riccardi, all University of Strathclyde: Cross-disciplinary verification of self-disclosed corporate emissions.
Dr Linxiang Ma: The evolution of corporate political connections in the UK: 1880-2024.
Dr Kimia Witte: When space shapes cancer.
Research Collaboration Grants
Dr Niko Hauzenberger with Dr Gioele Figus, University of Strathclyde and Dr Tamás Krisztin, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis: How to keep the economy dancing when the music stops: System-integrated policymaking in times of global disruptions.
Dr Laura Miller with Professor Apala Majumdar, University of Manchester, Professor Neela Nataraj, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and Professor Saumya Bajpai, Indian Institute of Technology Goa; Finite element methods for PDE-based models of bacterial corneal ulcers and associated novel liquid crystal-based treatments.
Professor Yvette Taylor with collaborators Dr Maddie Breeze, University of Stirling and Dr Cristina Costa, Durham University: The report card project: Memory, materiality, and measurement in British schooling.
Dr Natalia Telepneva with collaborator Dr Alexander Hill, University of Calgary
A socialist way of war? Soviet bloc military aid and Africa’s cold war conflicts.
Personal Research Fellowships
Dr Louise Brangan From tragedy to transformation: Ann Lovett’s death and the seeds of social change in 1984 Ireland.
RSE International Bilateral Visits Associate Professor Ya-Hui Hung, National Changhua University, Taiwan visiting Dr Jane Essex, University of Strathclyde.
International Joint Projects
Dr David Nelson with Professor Shaoguang Zhang, Tsinghua University, China: Enabling a sustainable chemical economy by activating strong bonds in biomass.
Professor Kate Wall with Professor Ulrika Bergmark, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden: Teachers as researchers: Exploring models of university school research partnership to develop models of effective practice.
Dr Zhiming Yuan, University of Strathclyde, with collaborator Professor Shiu-Wu Chau, National Taiwan University, Taiwan: Survivability of floating offshore solar farms under extreme weather conditions.
Scotland-Asia Partnerships Higher Education Research (SAPHIRE) Fund – Supported by Scottish Government
Dr Gary Uzonyi with colleagues in South Korea: Climate change, urban violence, and city resilience.
Dr Daria Luchinskaya with colleagues in Japan: Sustainable university cities: The civic role of higher education in Glasgow and Osaka.
Scotland-Lower Saxony Research and Innovation Scheme
Dr Yashar Javadi with collaborator Professor Elyas Ghafoori, Leibniz University Hannover: Dual-mode robotic phased array ultrasonic testing for wind-turbine bolts – collaborative verification and data integration.