Usher celebrates a triple win at 2025 Research Impact Awards

The awards, which recognise and celebrate exceptional efforts in delivering meaningful research engagement and impact, were presented at the Research Impact Festival, capping off a day of hands-on workshops, panel discussions, exhibitions, and networking sessions.

Team Culture Award

Evropi Theodoratou and Ruth McQuillan, co-leads of the UNCOVER group, were awarded the Team Culture Award for their leadership in fostering an inclusive, supportive, and impact-focused research environment.

Formed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNCOVER brings together public health researchers, students, and alumni in a uniquely flat team structure that prioritises equity, shared learning, and meaningful collaboration. Their model offers a powerful example of how team culture can be the foundation for long-term partnerships and high-impact engagement.

Responsible Engagement and Innovation Award

Ingrid Young was recognised with the Responsible Engagement and Innovation Award for her work on inequalities in health, particularly in the context of HIV and sexual and reproductive health.

Through co-produced research with LGBTQ+ communities, migrants, racialised groups, and disabled people, Ingrid’s work exemplifies inclusive and ethical research practice. Her approach addresses systemic barriers to health equity while centring the voices of communities often excluded from policy and healthcare conversations.

Engagement Newcomer Award

Olivia (Livvy) Swann, a paediatric doctor and researcher, received the Engagement Newcomer Award for her impactful work examining the link between housing conditions and respiratory health in children.

Driven by concern for children repeatedly returning to unhealthy homes, Livvy's research explores the complex interaction between energy use, indoor air quality, and child health. By working in close partnership with parent groups, she has developed innovative and restorative ways of engaging families with research that directly affects their lives.

The University’s Impact Festival brings together researchers and professional services staff from across all colleges to celebrate how research at Edinburgh is making a difference locally and globally.

Further information

UNCOVER | Applied Evidence Synthesis | Usher Institute

Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society Research | Usher Institute

Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study | Usher Institute