WIREDGOV

ESRC-funded research has been recognised in this year's Queen's Anniversary Prize and THE Awards.

The world-leading social science research undertaken at the University of Essex through the ESRC-funded Institute for Social and Economic Research has received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The Prize is the highest form of national recognition for the work of a UK university and will be officially bestowed on the University at Buckingham Palace in early 2018 by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab at Durham University was also awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize. The Sleep Lab's online Infant Sleep Information Source, which received funding from ESRC, has been accessed more than two million times from countries across the world, and is shared and recommended by parents and health professionals as a reliable evidence-based home of information on normal infant sleep.

Meanwhile, winners of the 2017 THE Awards were announced last week at a ceremony in London.

'Pushing the boundaries', a research initiative led by Dr David James Cantor, won the Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences award. The three-year initiative was supported by an ESRC Future Research Leader grant.

Professor John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde received the Lord Dearing Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his academic career in psephology – the study of elections and voting – and his extensive media and public engagement work, which has been widely credited with making complex political issues accessible to a wide audience. Professor Curtice has been involved with many projects supported by ESRC, and is currently a fellow on the ESRC-funded UK in a Changing Europe initiative.

Many congratulations to all the winners.