Research at Sussex

Friday 27 June 2025

Welcome back to Research at Sussex, a fortnightly round-up of the latest research news, insights and discoveries at the University of Sussex.

As a Sussex member of staff, you are receiving this newsletter directly to your inbox. It is also open to anyone outside the University, so feel free to share it with friends, colleagues, or collaborators who might be interested in keeping up with our latest research highlights. They can subscribe here.

In this edition:

• Learn how Sussex is helping shape UK research policy

• Discover which Sussex academic received a top climate politics honour

• Celebrate 100 years of Mrs Dalloway with a unique campus exhibition and event

• Find out how our labs are becoming greener and more efficient

ResearchPlus: a new collaborative of research-focused universities

Students walking along a wide path on the University of Sussex campus, heading toward Falmer House on a sunny day, with trees and green space on either side.

Earlier this week (Thursday 26 June), it was announced that ten leading research-focused universities - including the University of Sussex - have formed a new strategic partnership.

'ResearchPlus' is a collaborative whose primary aim is to enhance the strength of the UK’s research and innovation base to serve the common good.

Alongside Sussex, founding members include Brunel, City St George’s, Keele, Royal Holloway, SOAS, Essex, Hull, Ulster, and the Open University.

Professor Sasha Roseneil, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sussex, said:

“ResearchPlus is an exciting new proposition that will bring universities renowned for excellence in research, teaching and positive societal impact together.

“We are diverse. Some partners are large highly research-intensive and broad-discipline universities, like Sussex, others are more specialised institutions with distinctive capabilities. But we are united by a commitment to collaborate to support a common purpose – driving economic growth, prosperity, and societal wellbeing for the benefit of the cities and regions in which we are located and for the wider world.”

Over the next few months, ResearchPlus will develop a programme of policy engagement and institutional cooperation, with a formal parliamentary launch planned for the autumn.

Welcoming the initiative, Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world, making ResearchPlus an exciting opportunity to bring that top talent together to solve challenges and unlock new innovations that improve lives across our country.”

Read the collective’s manifesto on the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) blog.

Global honour for Sussex academic and work on climate politics

Peter Newell (right) receiving his award at the 2025 BISA conference in Belfast. He stands smiling with two other people in front of a BISA 50th anniversary banner that reads “Engaging the International Studies community.”

International Relations expert Professor Peter Newell has received the 2025 Distinguished Contribution Prize from the British International Studies Association (BISA). The prize recognises his impact and his long-standing commitment to environmental justice.

Awarded at the BISA annual conference in Belfast, on 19 June 2025, the honour reflects Professor Newell’s pioneering role in shaping the subfield of environmental political economy and his leadership in linking academic research with real-world change.

Based in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, Peter has spent over three decades exploring the politics of climate change and energy transitions.

His work has influenced global debates on sustainability, and he has collaborated with numerous civil society organisations to put ideas into action – including contributing to the development of the global campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“I am deeply honoured and delighted to receive this distinguished award which recognises the growing centrality of environmental issues in global politics and the critical importance of scholar activism in seeking to address them,” says Professor Newell.

The BISA committee commended his “myriad contributions” to both scholarship and policy, adding that his research had contributed to tackling the root causes of climate change while mentoring and inspiring others across academia and beyond.

Find out more about BISA and its annual awards.

Celebrating Virginia Woolf: A conference of one’s own

Lifelike figure of Virginia Woolf seated in an open wooden wardrobe, with books displayed in a nearby glass case. Part of the Pressing Matters exhibition at the University of Sussex Library.

An annual international conference celebrating the work of one of the 20th century’s most iconic writers, Virginia Woolf, takes place at the University of Sussex, from 5-8 July 2025.

The conference, co-hosted with King's College London, also celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication of Mrs Dalloway, Woolf’s celebrated modernist novel.

The University has a long-established connection with the writer. Her Sussex home, Monk’s House in Rodmell, was once owned by the University, and many of her original manuscripts, letters and documents are kept in the University’s Special Collections archives at The Keep.

Dr Helen Tyson, Co-Director of the Centre for Modernist Studies at Sussex and co-director of the conference, said: “We are delighted to be welcoming over 350 scholars, writers and artists from across the world. This year’s conference focusses on Woolf as a subversive critic of her own society, and as a writer who speaks to our own present moment.”

Amongst other events, the conference features a performance of an adaptation of Between the Acts, relocated to an immigration removal centre in 2039, adapted by Eleanor Lybeck, directed by Jen Heyes, and sponsored by Refugee Tales.

To coincide with the conference, Dr Helen Tyson and Dr Hope Wolf have curated an exhibition currently on display in the University of Sussex Library, Pressing Matters: Printing with Virginia Woolf, featuring contemporary artworks that engage with Woolf’s work.

How are we making our labs greener?

Becki Cook smiling in front of a branded backdrop for the Herschel Programme for Women in Technical Leadership and the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy.

By Becki Cook

We are a research-intensive university with a lot of complex work going on behind the scenes – but that can come at an environmental cost.

Research and teaching laboratories can be very resource and energy intensive so we need to do more to make them more sustainable places to work and study.

We're taking small steps that all add up to something more significant: in December, we signed up to the The Wellcome Trust’s Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

This was a catalyst to take action to address our energy use, products and materials, and shift to more sustainable practices. And for the last few years, we’ve been making sure our labs in the School of Life Sciences adhere to the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), an independent standard which enables science laboratories to improve their sustainability and efficiency.

I’m part of a team that supports the running of the undergraduate Chemistry practical sessions: we prepare the chemicals and equipment before students arrive and are on hand during sessions, as well as doing a million ad hoc tasks behind the scenes.

We're the first lab at Sussex to be going for our silver LEAF accreditation, building on our success at gaining bronze. We all have a responsibility to change, or at the very least acknowledge, the carbon footprint that labs have: you need to think about how much energy an autoclave uses to get up to 130°C and sterilise everything that's in there.

We wanted to make things as efficient as possible and reduce waste: in biology, single-use plastics have become the default option to help keep experiments sterile, for example. And in chemistry, we produce a lot of chemical waste which has its own environmental impact: you can't just put everything down the sink. So, a big part of our job is making sure we reduce the amount of waste, send it to the right place and that students are doing the same.

Becki Cook is a teaching technician in the School of Life Sciences.

Sussex in the media

Dr Jo Wilding featured in The Guardian and Law Gazette, highlighting Sussex-led research showing that legal advice dramatically improves outcomes for Windrush cases. BBC News also reported on the appointment of the UK’s first Windrush Commissioner, following Sussex academics’ calls for independent oversight and legal reform.

Meanwhile, Professor Winfried Hensinger was interviewed on BBC Radio 4, discussing how Sussex’s world record discovery for sensing electric fields could transform defence, healthcare, and communications. The breakthrough also attracted widespread attention across national and regional media, including ITV Meridian, BBC Radio Sussex, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 5 Live, and specialist outlet Quantum Insider, as well as being syndicated across multiple BBC local radio stations.

Finally, in energy policy coverage, Madeleine Pauker featured in The Conversation and BusinessGreen, and Dr Paul Dorfman appeared in the Sunday Mail – both calling for a shift from nuclear to faster, fairer green alternatives.

We hope you have enjoyed this edition of Research at Sussex. We would love for you to share it with your friends, colleagues, and collaborators – so please feel free to forward it on.

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