Biodiversity and Health Workshop

Following an online event last year to establish connections and opportunities, colleagues from NHM (Alexa Varah, Adriana De Palma, and Isobel Strudwick) and UoR (Becks Spake) held a workshop at the museum to bring together researchers from a variety of backgrounds – including ecology, data science, computer science/AI, medical sciences, archaeology and arts – to explore and generate research ideas around the intersection of biodiversity and human health. This workshop was supported by Partnership Seed-Funding.

The workshop saw active participation from colleagues from both organisations, plus researchers from Exeter and Bristol Universities. Attendees engaged in group activities including idea generation around research questions, formal and informal networking sessions to facilitate collaboration among people with different research expertise, and tours of the Beetles Collection and the NHM gardens.

Following the event, a Teams channel has been created for collaboration and opportunity-sharing, and researchers are in discussion about next steps to refine research questions and develop methodologies. Three project ideas have been established for further development, and colleagues have identified proposals for PhD student placements.

Seed-Funding is available to support the development of collaborative projects to be undertaken by researchers at the University of Reading and the Natural History Museum.