Influence

For more than 35 years, Dr Bilton’s passion for children learning through outdoor exploration has defined her career. Teachers, schools, parents and policy makers have all benefited from Dr Bilton’s many research papers, books and projects, which demonstrate the centrality of the outdoor environment for young children, particularly in terms of their physical, social and linguistic development.

Books such as Playing Outside and Outdoor Learning in the Early Years have sold in their thousands, and have become essential reading for Key Stage 1 practitioners as well as trainee teachers and their tutors. Bilton has had an impact on outdoor learning projects as far afield as Canada and Portugal, while closer to home she is currently working with Reading Borough Council to help its staff enhance the outdoor development of children’s spoken language skills.

Crashes in property markets were isolated as a major cause and Professor Neil Crosby and Reading’s Real Estate and Planning Department are having a major impact on policy and practice, working with the Bank of England (BoE) and the UK property industry in developing property valuation techniques that aid the financial stability agenda. This work is attracting attention from outside the UK and Professor Crosby is also working with RICS Europe and TeGOVA in developing guidance on implementing new models of valuation.

The work has an important objective: to stop a major downturn in property markets causing a potential collapse of the banking system, because of over-lending in boom markets secured on real estate. By working closely with the BoE and the commercial property industry, Professor Crosby is developing new methods and models to enable lending policies to react against the cycle of boom and bust.

Professor Crosby’s work has been promoted within the BoE via a consultancy contract and within industry by working on the Cross Industry Group working party on Long term Valuations. He has delivered papers and keynote speeches, promoting engagement by a multitude of stakeholders, in the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe and Australia. He is also the main author of the Cross Industry report on Long Term Valuations and his work with the BoE is published in the periodic BoE Financial Stability Report, commencing in December 2015.

Upon its completion, the UK and other central banks will have mechanisms for the accurate assessment of cyclical real estate markets, lenders will have better tools for assessing individual property loans and valuers will be able to provide a longer-term valuation perspective. The wider beneficiaries are the borrowers and the taxpayers: borrowers will be less likely to be provided with inappropriate, unsustainable loans, while taxpayers will avoid having to bail out failing banks unable to survive the impact of any future property downturns.

One million children in the UK are estimated to have an undetected eye condition, and most of these are due to focusing and eye alignment problems such as squint and “lazy eye”. Although poor vision can have profound consequences on learning and development, how focusing, common eye problems, learning and development interact are very poorly understood.

Professor Horwood’s work on ocular accommodation and convergence, undertaken since 2006, aims to explain these complex processes. She sits on national and international committees, advisory and lobbying groups, and engages with media such as ITV, BBC radio and the local press. She has delivered keynote lectures around the world and won major international prizes, most recently being the first woman to win the Bielschowsky Lecturer International Strabismological Association (ISA) Congress, Washington award for “a strabismologist who has made outstanding contributions to the science”. Most importantly, practising clinicians have benefitted, thanks to a series of retinoscopy courses in the UK and Ireland that began in 2016 and are continuing this year. These “research into practice” courses are showing how Reading’s research can help clinical orthoptists understand and manage their patients differently.

Under the remit of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP), along with Dr Wendy Matthews, Roger Matthews works on the ground in Iraq, enhancing skills in heritage protection among Iraqi antiquities staff. Their world-leading research into early agriculture and ancient village life in the Fertile Crescent has led to local and global public engagement, with plans underway to redevelop the Iraq Prehistory Gallery in Slemani Museum, the only fully functioning museum of its kind in Iraq. There are also plans for a site visitor centre at Bestansur, which was recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List following its nomination by the Iraq government. The importance of Bestansur is due to its elaborate architecture, and artefacts that attest networks of more than 1500km, and its early date – the earliest village in Iraqi Kurdistan at 7700 BC.

As President of RASHID International, a multinational group of academics, professionals and individuals set up to promote and protect Iraq’s heritage, Roger Matthews is involved in high-level engagement with officials in the Iraq government, internationally and at the United Nations, and liaises often with the global media. In this role he is co-organising major workshops and conferences, as well as contributing knowledge and expertise to the UN Human Rights Council in particular with regard to cultural rights in Iraq.

He has also worked with military planners to address threats to Iraqi sites and co-authored a UN report on the destruction of Mosul’s heritage.

Professor Potts co-chaired a team of 77 internationally-recognised experts to produce an 800-page landmark report aimed at scientists and technical advisors, as well as a Summary for Policy Makers, which was adopted by 126 IPBES signatory countries. The report’s policy recommendations – to improve risk assessments for pesticides, increase pollinator habitat protection and better manage commercial pollinators – were adopted by all 196 signatory countries to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Professor Potts’ combined IPBES and CBD activities have benefitted policy makers, industry leaders and UK growers and suppliers, who are adopting new practices to protect pollinators. The public’s understanding was enhanced via a number of events, including a flagship event at Kew Gardens that attracted 6,000 visitors. And the work continues: Professor Potts will chair an update in 2018, and is working with the UN to develop a peerdriven process whereby the global community of experts can put forward new evidence as it becomes available.