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APEX Awards 2025

Ten researchers have been awarded funding for innovative, curiosity-driven, interdisciplinary research projects in the 2025 round of the APEX Awards.

The awards will provide up to £200,000 for established independent researchers to collaborate with partners from different disciplines across the sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities. The grants are jointly awarded by the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, and funded generously by the Leverhulme Trust.

The 2026 round of the APEX Awards opened on 24 June 2025 and closes on 9 September 2025 at 15:00 (BST). Up to £200,000 is available to fund staff costs for the lead applicant, the co-applicant, and associated research costs representing no more than 25% of the total award value. These can include consumables, equipment, and collaborative travel. Additionally, applicants have the option to request funds (up to £10,000) to support public engagement activities relating to their APEX proposal, inclusive of the maximum award value.

The APEX Awards have funded 59 interdisciplinary research projects across the UK since launching in 2017. Researchers supported through this grant have used the funding to address complex challenges where solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research.

The 2025 APEX Awards awardees are:

Please note: Awards are arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.

Dr Kevin Briggs

'How do cold-climate periglacial conditions from the Ice Age affect infrastructure construction in the 21st Century?'

University of Southampton

Dr Michelle Farrell

'Bog biographies – combining high spatial and chronological resolution ecological modelling for understanding societal and cultural resilience'

Coventry University

Professor Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas

'Diagnostic Discard: Exploration of material values in the point-of-care diagnostic sector'

Herriot-Watt University

Dr Sam Kirkham

'Interpretable acoustic-articulatory relations in speech production'

Lancaster University

Dr Marina Lostal

'Navigating Riverine War Reparations: The Case of the Cauca River'

University of Essex

Dr Adam Spiers

'Co-Design of Digital Accessibility Interfaces for Visually Impaired People in Higher Education'

Imperial College London

Professor Zengbo Wang

'Listen to the Cell Breathe: Investigating Viral Infection in Real-Time with Nano-Vibration Detection and Super-Resolution Imaging'

Bangor University

Professor Aengus Ward

'PPROTEX: Philological and Proteomic Analysis of Texts from the Reign of Alfonso X'

University of Birmingham

Dr Hannah Whitby

'FOOD-INSIDE: Food Output OptimiseD - Innovation in Nutrient Sensing for InDoor Environments'

University of Liverpool

Dr Anna Wilson

'Remnants and revenants: marine litter, coastal ghosts and socioenvironmental literacies'

University of Glasgow

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