Research

The Nature Positive Universities Alliance brings higher education institutions together to use their unique power and influence as drivers of positive change.

On Monday 20 June, Oxford Population Health collaborated with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology to deliver a special event to inspire greater interaction between researchers and policy makers.

Grants from the Knowledge Exchange Seed Fund and the Public Engagement in Research Seed Fund enabled researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment to develop a podcast featuring indigenous Arctic peoples, fostering vital knowledge exchange about this fragile area.

The research team made up of scientists from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, used singing experiments to perform the largest ever cultural transmission study on the evolution of music.

Our oceans are a vital source of food and income. How do we protect the marine eco-system, and the livelihoods of the people who depend on them?

A project coordinated by the School of Geography and the Environment, and involving multiple stakeholders in Mongolia, is helping to mitigate the impact of mining on the nomadic pastoralists of Mongolia.

There are two key concerns about coronaviruses that demand better vaccines today. New COVID-19 variants continue to emerge, evade immune protection, and fuel the current pandemic, and the threat of other new and dangerous coronaviruses jumping from animals to humans in the future.

The new research, published today [22 February 2023] in Nature Communications, is the most comprehensive evaluation of the NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app to date.

This comes with a grant which will allow Professor Tasioulas to jointly pursue a research project with Professor Hélène Landemore, Professor of Political Science at Yale University.

Where once facts, evidence and rationality were the path to knowledge, now the logic of feeling, of ‘my truth’ and ‘lived experience’ offers an alternative. Do we know our world through objective facts, or through subjective feelings?

Researchers from the Department of Education have worked with teachers, pupils and exam boards to develop new approaches to teaching practical science in secondary schools.

Researchers at the Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health have developed a life-saving diagnostic test for pre-eclampsia which is now being adopted across the UK and internationally.

Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) are helping to strengthen the governance of emerging technologies through research, public engagement, and the development of new tools and approaches.

Researchers in the Humanities Division have contributed to a wider consultation on reform of the Church of England’s ‘Mission and Pastoral Measure’ – which will help ensure church buildings no longer needed for public worship can be better protected and used.

Researchers at the Blavatnik school of government have established a network to bring together academics and policy makers from both sides of the Atlantic to ensure atrocity prevention policy is better informed by evidence and analysis.

Researchers have analysed multi-modal information sources to understand, and help counter, Russian disinformation in the post-COVID world.

An Oxford Policy Engagement Network Research Fellowship has helped improve the use of ranger-collected data to inform strategies to tackle wildlife poaching in Zimbabwe.

Researchers at the Blavatnik School of Government have captured and shared policy responses to the COVID pandemic.

Penal policy is often driven by public opinion rather than evidence. How do we ensure effective policy, particularly around sensitive issues such as the death penalty?

Opinions about the possible reintroduction of the Eurasian lynx to Scotland are extremely polarised. Some people argue that reintroducing this large wild cat, which disappeared from Scotland hundreds of years ago, could help support biodiversity and promote ecosystem recovery.