RVC’s £5m funding boost for new research programme

A new doctoral research programme exploring the relationships between animals and humans has been given a funding boost which could be worth up to £5 million.

The Knowing Animals project, a partnership between the RVC and the University of Exeter, has been allocated one of 10 Leverhulme Centenary Doctoral Scholarship grants.

Officials say they want to “transform the way we understand, value and accurately represent animal perspectives” through the initiative, which is due to get underway next year.

Next generation

RVC vice principal Oliver Pybus said: “The award will train the next generation of scholars, with the potential to transform society’s understanding and appreciation of the bonds between animals and people.”

The project will support up to 24 PhD candidates, with six Masters plus PhD studentship places for students from under-represented backgrounds.

Project lead Siobhan Abeyesinghe, the RVC’s head of animal welfare science and ethics, said: “Science is increasingly providing nuanced representations of animals’ lived experiences, demonstrating how little we yet know about their evolved wisdom – the majority of global knowledge.

“What animals know, and how they know, can contribute important information about the world to decisions that benefit all organisms and our shared environments.”

Pressing questions

Joah Madden, an associate professor at the University of Exeter, added: “Our individual and societal attitudes and actions towards domestic, captive and wild animals are fundamental in addressing pressing questions including food system sustainability, biodiversity loss and new disease emergence.

“Understanding the causes and consequences of these attitudes demands a symbiosis between the humanities and social and biological sciences.”

Leverhulme Trust director Anna Vignoles, said: “Doctoral scholars are the bedrock of the academic system and these scholarships provide the opportunity for people to do something exciting at the beginning of their academic career.

“Our focus on interdisciplinarity enables students who are working on related topics to come together and look at an issue from different angles,” Prof Vignoles added.