Research News - 2009

Aberystwyth/Bangor partnership exceeds research target

Wednesday 9 December 2009

The Aber-Bangor Research and Enterprise partnership reaches its research income target two years ahead of schedule.

More information...

Professor Noel Lloyd, Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth (right) and Professor Merfyn Jones, Vice-Chancellor or Bangor University at the signing of the partnership agreement in 2006.
Professor Noel Lloyd, Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth (right) and Professor Merfyn Jones, Vice-Chancellor or Bangor University at the signing of the partnership agreement in 2006.

New climate change initiative

Friday 27 November 2009

Aberystwyth to co-ordinate the Climate Change Consortium of Wales (C3W), a new £4 million centre of excellence announced on Friday 27 November.

More information...

Ice

Children, TV and the web

Thursday 26 November 2009

The use of technology by children between the ages of seven and eleven is the basis of a new joint research project by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies and children's tv producer Boomerang+.

More information...

L to R Angharad Garlick and Dafydd Felix Roberts of Boomerang+, Idris Price of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and Dr Merris Griffiths of Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.
L to R Angharad Garlick and Dafydd Felix Roberts of Boomerang+, Idris Price of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and Dr Merris Griffiths of Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

In search of a greener biofuel


Wednesday 25 November 2009

Innovative project brings together scientists, farmers, fuel manufacturers and distributors to produce greener biofuel.

More information...

Photograph of Dr Joe Gallgher
Dr Joe Gallagher

Queen’s Anniversary Prize

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Aberystwyth University has been awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.

More information...

Photograph of IBERS, Gogerddan
IBERS, Gogerddan

Aberystwyth could lead the world

Tuesday 27 October 2009

One of the world’s leading biologists has said that new developments at Aberystwyth University place it in an ideal position to lead the world in environmental matters.

More information...

Photograph of Professor Steve Jones
Professor Steve Jones

Fuzzy systems award

Monday 28 September 2009

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers rewards a paper that outlines a new ground breaking theory on fuzzy interpolative reasoning.

More information...

Photograph of Professor Qiang Shen
Professor Qiang Shen

Plant DNA barcode agreed

Monday 27 July 2009

An international team of scientists, including researchers at Aberystwyth, has concluded a four–year effort to agree on a standard ‘plant DNA barcode’.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Caroline Ford and Professor Mike Wilkinson
Dr Caroline Ford & Professor Mike Wilkinson

£25m for climate change research

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Scientists at a top UK research institute are to invest £25m in a new international centre aimed at solving problems posed by climate change.

Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) said the funding would take its work to another level.

More information: BBC website

Photograph of IBERS, Gogerddan 
IBERS, Gogerddan

Economic contribution of IBERS

Monday 20 July 2009

Wales’s newest international research institute, the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University, is generating millions for the Welsh and UK economies and is worth billions of pounds for farmers and the environment.

More information...

A photograph of IBERS at Gogerddan
IBERS, Gogerddan

Buttercups reveal age of meadow

Tuesday 23 June 2009

The number of petals on buttercups in a field is as much an indication of a meadow’s age as wrinkles on a face according to a study by IBERS scientist Dr John Warren.

More information...

Photograph of Dr John Warren
Dr John Warren

IBERS Europe launch

Monday 22 June 2009

IBERS present its vision for tackling some of humanity’s most urgent challenges at its European launch in Brussels.

More information...

Photograph of IBERS Gogerddan
IBERS Gogerddan

Living Landscapes

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Living Landscapes, an international conference which is being hosted this week (18-21 June) by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, is set to examine the manifold and diverse relationship between landscape, environment and performance.

More information...


Living Landscapes

Divided by a song

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Great tits in cities respond more strongly to songs of fellow city dwellers than to their country cousins according to research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

More information...

An image of a great tit by Maria Gill
A great tit: Image by Maria Gill

Ryegrass genome

Thursday, 14 May 2009

The Crop Genetics, Genomics and Breeding Division at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences has been awarded £1.6m to develop a physical map of the perennial ryegrass genome.

More information...

Photograph of Dr Ian Armstead
Dr Ian Armstead

Trust-Building in Nuclear Worlds

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Professor Nicholas Wheeler from the Department of International Politics has been awarded £538,013 for a study of the concept of trust-building in relation to nuclear-armed and arming states.

More information...

Photograph of Professor Nicholas Wheeler
Professor Nicholas Wheeler


Duelling Dictionaries?

Tuesday 28 April 2009

The Anglo Norman Dictionary at Aberystwyth and the Dictionnaire de l’ancien français at Heidelberg University to collaborate on a study of an Anglo Norman text about the First Crusade.

More information...

A photograph of Professor David Trotter
Professor David Trotter

Ice shelf study

Wednesday 8 April 2009

Dr Bryn Hubbard from the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences recently spent four weeks on an ice shelf in eastern Antarctica studying marine ice.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Bryn Hubbard with an ice core
Dr Bryn Hubbard with an ice core


First science discovery for robot

Thursday 2 April 2009


Adam, a robot scientist developed at the Department of Computer Science, is the first machine of its kind to have independently discovered new scientific knowledge.

More information...

A photograph of Professor Ross King with Adam in the background
Professor Ross King with Adam in the background


Historical seals

Wednesday 18 March 2009


Historian Professor Phillipp Schofield is leading a £490,000 study of over 5,000 seals relating to Wales.

More information...

A photograph of one of the seals held at the National Library which dates back to 1199
One of the seals held at the National Library which dates back to 1199.


Environmental benefits of low input farming

Wednesday 4 March, 2009

IBERS awarded €226,000 as part of a €3m European project to measure the environmental benefits that derive from farms in Less Favoured Areas.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Peter Dennis
Dr Peter Dennis


Literary award shortlist

Monday 2 March 2009

Dr Sarah Prescott, a senior lecturer at the Department of English, has been named as one of an all-women shortlist of Welsh writers chosen to compete for one of Wales’s top literary prizes.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Sarah Prescott
Dr Sarah Prescott


New director

Friday 27 February 2009

Dr Catrin Fflur Huws has been appointed Director of the Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs. Dr Huws succeeds Ann Sherlock, whose work has been so important in establishing this important and innovative body, the only one of its kind.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Catrin Fflur Huws
Dr Catrin Fflur Huws


Research online

Friday 20 February 2009


The Welsh Repository Network, which has been developed to put published research from all Welsh universities on-line, has been launched.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Andrew Prescott (UWLampeter) with Dr Mike Hopkins and Stuart Lewis from Aberystwyth University.
L to R; Dr Andrew Prescott (UWLampeter) with Dr Mike Hopkins and Stuart Lewis from Aberystwyth University.


Rural regions in a global era

Monday 2 February 2009

The Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences is leading a pan-European 1.5m euro project on the effects of globalisation on rural communities.

More information...

A photograph of Professor Michael Woods
Professor Michael Woods


Green fuel

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Scientists at IBERS are set to play a major role in a £27m UK initiative to develop clean, green and sustainable fuels.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Iain Donnison with Miscanthus in the background
Dr Iain Donnison with Miscanthus in the background

The Cambrian Muses

News from the Department of English and Creative Writing

Congratulations to Sarah Prescott on receiving a prestigious British Academy Research Development Award. The award, for one year, enables Sarah to further develop her fascinating and innovative research into pre-1800 Anglophone literature of Wales.  Her forthcoming book, Seventeenth and Eighteen Century Women Writers from Wales: The Cambrian Muses, will be published in the University of Wales Press 'Gender Studies in Wales' series.
Photograph of Dr Sarah Prescott
Dr Sarah Prescott


International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST) 2009 Conference

News from the Department of History and Welsh History
and Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies

The Centre for Media History and Departments of History and Welsh History, and Theatre, Film and Television Studies are pleased to be hosting the XXIII biennial conference of the International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST), The Conference, on the theme Social Fears and Moral Panics, will be held at Aberystwyth University from Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th July 2009.

More information...

Aberystwyth University and iamhist logos


Former Student’s Research Praised by Top Journal

News from the Department of Sport and Exercise Science

An exercise test developed in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science has been used in research that has received recognition by one of the top physiology journal, Experimental Physiology.  The “3 minute all-out test” was developed and validated in Aberystwyth by Dr Anni Vanhatalo, Dr Mark Burnley and Professor Jo Doust as part of Anni’s PhD, which she successful defended in 2007.

More information...

A photograph of Dr Anni Vanhatalo
Dr Anni Vanhatalo