The University of Portsmouth was one of a limited number of organisations chosen to showcase its work at The Physiological Society's 150th anniversary event at the Houses of Parliament this week (20 October)
Its exhibit traced how laboratory findings on cold shock led to the RNLI's "Float to Live" campaign and the "Find Your Float" campaign with the National Water Safety Forum (NWSF)
The showcase comes as Portsmouth scientists back calls for a UK minister responsible for drowning prevention, after 202 accidental drowning deaths in the UK in 2025 and 8,000 years of life lost every year.
Life-saving water safety research from the University of Portsmouth was on show in the Houses of Parliament this week, as part of The Physiological Society (TPS)'s celebrations marking 150 years since its founding.
The charitable organisation is the largest network of physiologists in Europe and brings together scientists globally to promote and support those within the sector.
A Physiology Showcase , Celebrating 150 years of the Physiological Society leading discovery science, was hosted by Chair of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee Sam Carling MP on Tuesday (20 October), and featured decades of life-saving work from the University's Extreme Environments and Occupational Performance Research Group.
The exhibit, Drowning Prevention: From Lab to Lifesaving, follows a single thread of research from laboratory studies of physiology to public health interventions at beaches, rivers and swimming pools around the world.
From cold shock to "Float to Live"
Portsmouth's work began with a simple but critical finding. For most people who fall unexpectedly into cold water, the greatest immediate danger is not hypothermia (a fall in deep body temperature) but the uncontrollable gasping and hyperventilation of "cold shock" caused by the rapid fall in skin temperature. Professor Mike Tipton and Dr Frank Golden named the response in the 1980s, and the University team has spent over 40 years studying it.
That evidence led to the advice to "float first" - to resist the urge to swim hard and instead float on your back and let the cold shock response pass. Researchers then tested floating at swimming pools and in realistic open-water conditions, showing that people with little water experience could "Float to Live".
The research now underpins the RNLI's "Float to Live" campaign , which won gold at the 2026 International Safety Media Awards . It has also been adopted internationally, including by Australia's Float to Survive campaign, as well as campaigns in Ireland and New Zealand and it also featured at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in 2023 and 2025.
Everybody can float
The showcase also featured the National Water Safety Forum (NWSF)'s World Drowning Prevention Day campaign Find Your Float , which is supported by Portsmouth research. The NWSF is also co-chaired by Profossor Tipton from the University.
It encourages as many people as possible to learn the science-backed self-rescue technique of floating. MPs were invited to "tell us how you float" to highlight that everyone floats differently and practising the skill is important.
The research is made possible by the Extreme Environments Laboratories , which can recreate conditions from polar cold to jungle heat and mountain altitude. Partners include the Ministry of Defence, RoSPA, the RNLI and Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin even used the labs to acclimatise for their roles in the film Everest.
In 2023, the EEL was awarded the Excellence in Physiology Award by The Physiological Society, making the institute the first to be given this prestigious award.
Dr Clare Eglin , Lead for the Extreme Environments and Occupational Performance Research Group, said: "Physiology is the science of how the body works, and in the water that knowledge can be the difference between life and death. Our labs let us recreate the shock of falling into cold water safely, measure exactly what happens to breathing and the heart, and then test what people can realistically do about it.
"Being in Parliament for The Physiological Society's 150th anniversary is a chance to show how physiology moves from the lab into advice that saves lives."
A Minister for Water Safety
The showcase comes at a pivotal moment for water safety policy. Figures from the Water Incident Database (WAID) show at least 202 accidental drowning deaths in the UK in 2025 - 150 in England, 39 in Scotland, 12 in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.
Because many of those who drown are young, this equates to around 8,000 years of life lost each year.
A new UK Drowning Prevention Strategy was launched in July, and water safety is now part of statutory relationships, sex and health education guidance from September 2026. But at UK level, responsibility for drowning prevention remains split across several government departments, unlike in Scotland and Wales, which each have a named minister.
Last month, Southampton Itchen MP Darren Paffey, Chair of the APPG for Water Safety Education, visited the EEL with campaigner Vanessa Abbess, whose son Joe drowned off Bournemouth beach in 2023.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has since pledged action and promised to keep working with the National Water Safety Forum on its Drowning Prevention Strategy, after receiving a letter from Vanessa and other bereaved families.
On the left is Professor Mike Tipton from the University of Portsmouth and President of The Physiological Society. Credit: Alex Orrow.
Professor Mike Tipton, President of The Physiological Society and co-founder of the Extreme Environments and Occupational Performance Research Group, said: "Forty years ago, we were trying to understand why fit, healthy people were dying within minutes of entering cold water. Today that science sits behind national public health campaigns and advice used around the world. That is the journey we want MPs to see.
"But research alone can't bring the number of drownings down. We need a minister who is accountable for drowning prevention, and we need the Water Incident Database funded beyond January 2027. Without those data, we won't know how, where or when people drown, and we will be trying to prevent deaths blind."
