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More information on research at Reading

Environment research at Reading


The Environment research theme brings together the University of Reading’s world-leading strengths in research relating to the environment. It encourages strong research interactions, reach and impact among eight research divisions and between 200 academics across the University.

Our primary aim is to better understand and address the challenges of environmental change. 

The challenge:

The evolution of the Earth is a story of environmental change. Change that, over the past few million years, has stimulated human creativity and is being increasingly shaped by human influence. 

Population growth, climate change, globalisation and technological advances are placing unprecedented pressures on the environment and the ecosystem services it provides, such as safe food, clean water and air, flood mitigation, disease prevention, spiritual wellbeing and raw materials. 

Reducing these pressures and sustaining these ecosystem services demands a rigorous understanding of the complex systems underpinning these services, which itself entails bringing together research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Research Divisions


  • Weather
  • Climate
  • Ecology & Evolution
  • Chemical Sciences
  • Built Environment
  • Environmental Science
  • Maths & Statistics
  • Earth Observation & Space
met thames barrierDiagram showing direction of flowResearch into oil boring

Our research

The Environment theme brings together research strengths across weather, climate, ecology, evolution, built environment, remote sensing, space, chemistry, soils, hydrology, maths, data assimilation and statistics. There are strong links with the University's other four research themes, helping to explore interactions of environment, food, human-health and society. 

To meet these challenges we engage with the very best, nationally and internationally. That includes researchers, and with those that exert great influence on the use of environment-related research, whether governments, industry, third-sector or individuals; so that working with us offers new opportunities to better achieve their objectives, helping to translate our research into adoptable and adopted solutions.

Research Highlights

Weather and crops: A system for estimating rainfall is directly benefiting the lives of 250 million people across Africa. TAMSAT (Tropical Application of Meteorology using Satellite data and ground-based observations) provides early warning of potential food shortage crises by integrating data sources to better identify weather patterns likely to result in low crop yields.

Fitness to survive: Evolutionary biologists have discovered how vastly different species can co-exist on Earth. Regardless of their size, all organisms - from blue whales to bacteria - transmit roughly equal amounts of energy to the next generation.

Self-healing plastic: Reading chemists have developed a polymer that can ‘heal’ itself within minutes at human body temperature. 


Upcoming events

See our calendar to find out more about upcoming research events.

  • Upcoming Environment research events
  • All University of Reading research events
Two gentlemen looking at a solar panel

Working Together

We collaborate with the very best researchers and users of research, nationally and internationally. These partnerships better enable us to play a critical role in tackling environmental challenges and provide solutions that are both adoptable and adopted.

We work closely with organisations such as:

  • Natural Environment Research Council centres:
    • National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
    • National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)
    • Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH)
    • British Geological Survey (BGS)
    • British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
    • National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
  • UK Meteorological Office – including through the Met Office Academic Partnership
  • European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
  • Loddon Catchment Partnership
  • UK Government Departments, BEIS, Defra, DfID and their agencies
  • Businesses such as Syngenta, Bayer, National Grid
  • International space agencies
The skeleton of a male Indian elephant on display in the Cole Museum

University Institutes, Centres, Clusters and facilities

We carry out environmental research focused on finding solutions to real world problems. To help us achieve that aim we have several focused centres of research and facilities, including:

Institute for Environmental Analytics – translating environmental research into commercially-relevant solutions.

Walker Institute – using interdisciplinary approaches centred around weather and climate to provide the evidence base for policy-advice and action in urban and rural Africa and South Asia.

Soil Research Centre - tackling the decline in soil health and quality.

Centre for Past Climate Change – quantifying historical climate change and seeking to understand the co-evolution of human society and environment.

Data Assimilation Research Centre – theory and applications in all areas of the geosciences.

Water@Reading  – providing flood, drought and water-quality monitoring, forecasting and early-warning systems, in the UK and abroad

Land Surface Processes@Reading

Chemical Analysis Facility – in-house analytical instrumentation, and advice on access to external facilities, such as beamlines.

Cole Museum of Zoology

Agrimetrics – The world's first Big Data Centre of Excellence for the whole agri-food industry.

Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (TSBE) -  bringing together academic and industry partners for applied research in built environment and energy.

Postgraduate students sitting on the grass

Postgraduate Research Opportunities

Want to join some of the world's leading environmental researchers, with a fully-funded PhD research studentship at the University of Reading? We have PhD positions available starting in September 2018. 

For information on postgraduate research opportunities within the Environment Theme, please visit our research division pages or the Graduate School's website.

Scenario Doctoral Training Programme

Mathematics of Planet Earth Centre for Doctoral Training

Quantitative and Modelling Skills in Ecology and Evolution (QMEE)

Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience (SHEAR)

Latest news

  • Study discovers why global warming will accelerate as CO2 levels rise 
  • Cooking fats in the atmosphere may affect climate more than previously thought
  • New forecast model provides earliest ever awareness of floods and droughts globally
  • Climate change already affecting global health according to international tracker

Contact us

Dr Phil Newton 

Research Dean, Environment 

Email: research@reading.ac.uk

Working with your organisation

Your organisation can benefit from our work through the University's innovation front door.

Email: frontdoor@reading.ac.uk

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