Research

This is 15 per cent higher than the application value achieved in the previous academic year (£1.5 billion). We recorded £399.7 million in total research awards, which is 18 per cent lower than the awards value achieved in the prior academic year (£486.9 million). This is primarily due to a change in the methodology for recording awards, which has resulted in last year’s award total (reported as £457 million) increasing to £486.9 million and this year’s award total decreasing by the same amount. This 6 per cent fluctuation is a one off and accounts for the 2024/25 awards figure being approximately 6 per cent lower than the three-year average figure for total awards of £426.4 million. The underpinning data shows a continuing strong performance in research awards.

This awards figure is driven by some significant successes including: £13.5 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to the College of Science and Engineering for a new hub to boost lung infection treatments; £10.4 million from the Legal and General Group PLC to the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine for the Advanced Care Research Centre; £10.2 million from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to College of Science and Engineering for Software Sustainability Institute - Phase 4, as well as a range of other major awards across all three Colleges.

Research highlights

AI to use high-street eye tests to spot dementia risk

Routine eye tests may be able to predict a person’s risk of dementia thanks to a digital tool developed by data scientists and clinical researchers in partnership with high-street opticians.

The project, NeurEYE, led by the University of Edinburgh with support from Glasgow Caledonian University, has collected almost a million eye scans from opticians across Scotland, forming the world’s largest dataset of its kind.

This resource will help develop software, which opticians will be able to use as a predictive or diagnostic tool for conditions such as Alzheimer’s. It will also help triage patients and refer them to secondary health services if signs of brain disease are spotted.

It could also potentially be used as a way to monitor cognitive decline, experts say.

Identifying people at risk of dementia could also accelerate the development of new treatments by pinpointing those who are more likely to benefit from trials and enabling better monitoring of how they respond to treatment.

It could also help individuals and medical professionals modify the risk of developing dementia through lifestyle changes such as physical activity and diet.

Miguel Barbabeu, Professor of Computational Medicine at the University’s Usher Institute and NeurEYE co-lead, said, “In order to develop algorithms that are equitable and unbiased, we need to train them on datasets that are representative of the whole population at risk. This dataset, along with decades-long research at the University of Edinburgh into ethical AI, can bring a step change in early detection of dementia for all.”

Microbes transform plastic waste into paracetamol

Paracetamol production could be revolutionised by the discovery that a common bacterium can turn everyday plastic waste into the painkiller, a study reveals.

The new method leaves virtually no carbon emissions and is more sustainable than the current production of the medicine, researchers say.

Paracetamol is traditionally made from dwindling supplies of fossil fuels including crude oil.

Thousands of tons of fossil fuels are used annually to power the factories that produce the painkiller, alongside other medicines and chemicals Ð making a significant contribution to climate change, experts say.

The breakthrough addresses the urgent need to recycle a widely used plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which ultimately ends up in landfill or polluting oceans.

The strong, lightweight plastic is used for water bottles and food packaging, and creates more than 350 million tons of waste annually, causing serious environmental damage worldwide.

PET recycling is possible, but existing processes create products that continue to contribute to plastic pollution worldwide, researchers say.

A team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Wallace Lab used genetically reprogrammed E. coli, a harmless bacterium, to transform a molecule derived from PET known as terephthalic acid into the active ingredient of paracetamol.

Researchers used a fermentation process, similar to the one used in brewing beer, to accelerate the conversion from industrial PET waste into paracetamol in less than 24 hours.

The new technique was carried out at room temperature and created virtually no carbon emissions, proving that paracetamol can be produced sustainably.

Further development is needed before it can be produced at commercial levels, the team says.

Some 90 per cent of the product made from reacting terephthalic acid with genetically reprogrammed 

E. coli was paracetamol.

Lost score revives sound of music from centuries past

A fragment of ‘lost’ music found in the pages of Scotland’s first full-length printed book is providing clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago.

Scholars from Edinburgh College of Art and KU Leuven in Belgium have been investigating the origins of the musical score Ð which contains only 55 notes Ð to cast new light on music from pre-Reformation Scotland in the early sixteenth century.

Researchers say the tantalising discovery is a rare example of music from Scottish religious institutions 500 years ago, and is the only piece which survives from the northeast of Scotland from this period.

The scholars made the discovery in a copy of The Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, a collection of prayers, hymns, psalms and readings used for daily worship in Scotland, including detailed writings on the lives of Scottish saints. Known as the ‘Glamis copy’ as it was formerly held in Glamis Castle in Angus, it is now in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Despite the musical score having no text, title or attribution, researchers have identified it as a unique musical harmonisation of Cultor Dei, a night-time hymn sung during the season of Lent.

The Aberdeen Breviary came from an initiative by King James IV who issued a Royal Patent to print books containing orders of service in accordance with Scottish religious practices, rather than needing to rely on importing texts from England or Europe.

The researchers say the composition is from the Aberdeenshire region, with probable links to St Mary’s Chapel, Rattray Ð in Scotland’s far northeastern corner Ð and to Aberdeen Cathedral.

The discovery was made as researchers examined numerous handwritten annotations in the margins of the Glamis copy.

Of primary interest to the scholars was a fragment of music Ð spread over two lines, the second of which is approximately half the length of the first Ð on a blank page in a section of the book dedicated to Matins, an early morning service.

The presence of the music was a puzzle for the team. It was not part of the original printed book, yet it was written on a page bound into structure of the book, not slipped in at a later date, which suggests that the writer wanted to keep the music and the book together.

In the absence of any textual annotations on the page it was not clear whether the music was sacred, secular or even for voices at all, the researchers say.

After investigation they deduced it was polyphonic Ð when two or more lines of independent melody are sung or played at the same time. Sources from the time say this technique was common in Scottish religious institutions, however very few examples have survived to the present day.

Looking closer, one of the team members realised that the music was a perfect fit with a Gregorian chant melody, specifically that it was the tenor part from a faburden, a three- or four-voice musical harmonisation, on the hymn Cultor Dei.