Major funding secured for early career research

Six emerging researchers have been awarded fellowships by The Leverhulme Trust to develop their research ambitions at the University of Reading, winning funding that totals over £580,000.

The three-year Early Career Fellowships support researchers with proven credentials who have not yet held permanent academic positions, providing them with the opportunity to undertake a major piece of publishable work.

The winning projects span a range of disciplines, covering topics from ancient empires and publishing cartels to climate prediction and plant diversity.

“Winning six Early Career Fellowships is a fantastic achievement that demonstrates the University of Reading's commitment to nurturing exceptional early career talent,” said Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation.

“These fellowships show that Reading provides an ideal environment for emerging researchers to develop their innovative ideas and grow into the research leaders of tomorrow.

“The breadth and quality of projects funded this year reflect the strength of our research community across disciplines, and I am excited to see what our new fellows will achieve.”

Xiaocen Shen – Department of Meteorology

Dr Shen will address climate science's major challenge of forecasting weather weeks to months ahead through her project “Bridge artificial intelligence and physics to nourish the predictability desert.”

The research will combine AI models with expert knowledge to better capture how the climate system behaves, with potential applications for agriculture, energy and disaster preparedness.

Jamie Thompson – Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

As part of the project “The evolutionary origins of morphological diversity in plants”, Dr Thompson will use cutting-edge statistical methods to uncover why Earth's 370,000 plant species vary so dramatically in size and shape, from tiny aquatic plants to towering Sequoia trees.

The research will reveal the true evolutionary forces behind key plant traits like height and seed mass, potentially redefining how scientists understand plant diversity.

Cédrik Michel – Department of Classics

Dr Michel’s project “Shaping empires: Self and other in the Late Roman and Sasanian Empires (c.225-650 CE)” will examine how the Roman and Sasanian Empires – known as "the two eyes of the world" – understood identity and otherness during Late Antiquity.

The research aims to reveal how concepts of otherness shaped imperial ideologies and cross-cultural interactions, with particular focus on the previously unexplored Sasanian perspective.

Hyei Jin Kim – Henley Business School

Dr Kim's project “Empire of publishers: Literary book trade under the Traditional Market Agreement” will investigate a largely forgotten publishing cartel where British and American publishers controlled global distribution of English-language books after World War II.

The research will uncover how this monopoly created a new publishing empire that governed the trade of postcolonial fiction and crushed competition from Commonwealth countries.

Anna Molnár – Henley Business School

Dr Molnár's project “The business of piety: How medieval nuns mastered the art of credit” will examine how convents became major lenders in Central Europe's credit markets between 1350-1500.

The research will explore why female religious institutions, rather than male monasteries, emerged as key financial players and how their lending helped urban economies recover from the Black Death and other disasters of the fourteenth century.

Jakob Hauter – Department of Politics & International Relations

As part of the project “Why Russia goes to war: Systematizing causes of escalation in Ukraine and beyond”, Dr Hauter will examine when and why Russia used military violence or refrained from doing so since Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999.

The research will help predict under what conditions Russia might start future conflicts and also make theoretical and methodological contributions to inform further research on the causes of war.