Seven University of St Andrews researchers have been awarded funding through the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Spring 2026 Research Awards Programme, supporting projects ranging from sustainable land ownership and disability studies to cancer research and international cultural heritage collaborations. The Awards form part of a Scotland-wide investment of more than £661,000 in innovative research projects.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Research Awards Programme supports Scotland's research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating innovative research and fostering international collaboration. In the latest funding round, researchers from the University of St Andrews secured awards across the Small Research Grants and Research Collaboration Grants schemes.
St Andrews recipients
Small Research Grants
- Dr Jake Greenfield, School of Chemistry - Photoswitchable imines: Now in water.
- Dr Kat Hunfeld, School of Geography and Sustainable Development - For land held in common: Sustainable futures through community land buyouts.
- Professor Julia Prest, School of Modern Languages - Dance and disability: Exclusion, imitation and inclusion in the early modern period and today.
Research Collaboration Grants
- Dr Alessandro Boussalem, School of International Relations, with collaborator Dr Alice Butler-Warke (University of Reading) -"This is what community looks like": Building solidarities against the far right in Dundee.
- Professor Daniel Clayton, School of Geography and Sustainable Development, with collaborator Professor Federico Ferretti (Università di Bologna) - Anticolonial geographical imaginations and networks: Rethinking the discipline through 'worldmaking'.
- Dr Lisa McDonald, School of Art History, with collaborators Professor Sue Farran (Newcastle University) and Professor Stuart Jeffrey (Glasgow School of Art) - Connecting ancestral owners with dispersed material culture: Nemah itseh (decorated barkcloth) from Erromango, Vanuatu.
- Dr Victor H. Villar, School of Medicine - Uncovering ISG15-driven metabolic reprogramming in synovial sarcoma and liposarcoma for therapeutic and biomarker development.
The Awards highlight the breadth and impact of research being undertaken at St Andrews, supporting projects that address global challenges, strengthen international partnerships and deliver benefits for communities in Scotland and around the world.
Category Research
