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Robert Cooper
7th July 2025

Announcing the winners of Images of Research 2025

Posted in: Doing Public Engagement

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A woman with long pink hair holding a certificate with a woman in a blue top. Both are smiling at the camera.

With a record number of entries for the Images of Research 2025 competition, the Judging Panel had a difficult task.  However, after much deliberation, the Public Engagement Unit are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 competition.

Celebrating our research

Back by popular demand, the Images of Research competition returned this year with a new set of brilliant entries that shared some of the University's research and its impact on wider society. The competition winners were announced at the Vice-Chancellor's Engage Awards, hosted by Professor Sarah Hainsworth, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise), on Wednesday, 25 June 2025.

At the event, Sarah highlighted that judging this year's competition was no mean feat due to the quality of the images submitted. Commenting on the submissions, Sarah says:

“Images of Research really challenges our researchers to produce an image and a 150 word description that captures the reason for the research, the methodology and the impact.  The stories told by entries show the broad base of our research and how that research delivers real outcomes.  I am always inspired by the way in which the research is making a difference and the way in which the images powerfully demonstrate our researchers passion and commitment to solving global challenges and changing people’s lives."

Creative and imaginative entries

The 2025 competition invited colleagues to submit an image and a short, plain English description to tell people about their research and its benefits to society.

The winning entries included a range of images that told stories of research around how digital services can reinforce disability for people with dementia, how low cost insulation can save lives in Ukraine, understanding and challenging dangerous menstrual health practices in Nepal and how storytelling and performance can help resist colonial oppression in Nigeria.

Winning Images of Research 2025 entries

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 competition across four different categories...

Digital category

Celebrating research that is creating positive digital futures.

Winner: Digital Disability in Dementia - James Fletcher (School of Management)

A grayscale image looking down a long, large and mostly empty bus station. Transparent text is overlaid across the entire image. It reads: so, what do we want now? 101 or 11. do they go from the same, the same stop? down the bottom there. okay. unless, of course, the 101 might be one of these. it's just the airport and Victoria, these. because that's for the Metrolink? is that why? yeah. they've got bus times on the side of the board. ah. it looks like there's an 11 and a 101. what's that one, there? it's alright, it's moving off now. oh yeah. I couldn't see it right. it might be coming round here. if it's 101 to Manchester, then it'll be good. yeah. it's the 11? is that the 19? Altrincham. on no, that won't do. oh, there's an 11 to Altrincham here. yeah. that'll do. don't know where he's going to stop, or if he already has. might've picked up round the other side. so, it'll be the 101 next. should be. yeah. I can't see that. oh, there's a rubbish bin. I'm just going to go and put this in the bin. okay, so there should be an 11, that should be the next one. yeah. from stand C. where's that? there's E. oh, Cs down there. oh yeah. yeah. that'll do nicely. hopefully that wasn't it, the one that we just saw go. which one? where?. oh, maybe it was.

Health and Wellbeing category

Celebrating research that addresses pressing health and wellbeing issues people are facing.

Winner: Insulating Ukraine to Save Lives - David Coley (Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering)

Photo of one of the charities fitting a PET window in a home in Ukraine.

Partnerships category

Celebrating research that is working in collaboration with people outside academia, including industry, policymakers and civil society and community-based organisations.

Winner: Remote Connections in Nepal - Bridging Understanding - Josie Mcallister (Department of Social & Policy Sciences)

The images show a metal suspension footbridge stretching across a valley. On the other side is a rural, hilly village in the Mid-Western region of Nepal. There are a few buildings and terraced fields with lots of trees. On the bridge is a woman dressed in red, she is holding on to the left side of the bridge and looking out into the distance. The sky is sunny but directly across the bridge there are dark clouds approaching.

Sustainability category

Celebrating research that is finding sustainable solutions to issues facing the planet and people.

Winner: Silenced-Identities: Students' Realities in Colonial Classrooms -  Mercy Martins (Department of Education)

A group of Nigerian secondary school students stand together in their cultural attires with their faces partially or fully covered by their hands. Their body language conveys a sense of silence and concealment. The background is a school setting. The image symbolises the suppression of students’ linguistic and cultural identities due to school policies that ban Indigenous languages and prioritise English. It visually represents the quiet resistance of students in a system that punishes them for speaking their mother tongues.

Highly commended entries

Liquid Nitrogen Cooler Inverted - Yuchen Wang (Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering)

The image is taken by a thermal camera to show the temperature distribution of a power electronic device, with temperature values ranging from low temperature (black/blue areas) to room temperature (yellow/white areas). The cold plate at the bottom, appearing dark due to extreme cooling with liquid nitrogen (-173°C), absorbs heat from the power electronics, which appear in warmer colours.

Adoption Enhances Nature Decommodification - Diletta Acuti (School of Management)

A white and brown goat in the farm is looking at the adopter behind the camera.

Food Access Toolkit: Sparking Change-making Conversations - Leda Blackwood (Department of Psychology

We see three people sitting around a table; just their arms are visible. They are playing a board game. There is a board with a stylised map showing city, town, and other locations, a stand-up image of an older woman, dice, and other game elements that are unclear.

Syrians in Jordan - Work, Discrimination and Dignity - Katharina Lenner (Department of Social & Policy Sciences)

A female Syrian worker posing for the camera during an extra shift in a Jordanian garment factory

UV or not UV? - Kerrianne Harrington (Department of Physics)

A 3D printed lung structure is illuminated with purple light from an optical fibre, which has been threaded into the airways.

Bike Fitting for Performance and Comfort - Eammon O’Neill (Department of Computer Sciences)

A man riding an indoor bike in a lab setting where his performance is being assessed using a range of physiological sensors including oxygen, muscle activation and motion.

Acknowledgements

Congratulations to all the winning and highly commended entries!

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition. All entries are available to view in the Images of Research 2025 Flickr Gallery.

Finally, many thanks also to the Judging Panel:

  • Sarah Hainsworth, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise)
  • Sarah Glozer, School of Management
  • Katie O'Brien, Director 44AD Art Studios
  • Adrian Wyatt, Photographer

Rob Cooper is a Public Engagement Officer at the University of Bath

Posted in: Doing Public Engagement

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