The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards recognise the achievements and celebrate success across the University of Oxford, from academics and researchers to professional, technical and support staff.
Dr Anjali Shah from the Botnar Institute won the Research Culture Award for her work on Improving Research Culture in NDORMS, Oxford, and in the UK. On receiving the award, she said “I was delighted to have been short-listed and now absolutely thrilled to have won the Research Culture award. I wasn’t expecting to win given how much work is being done at Oxford to improve our culture. This award is a tribute to hundreds of people and particularly research staff in SITU, NDORMS, Oxford, and in the UK who have supported my journey and who believe that our research culture can improve.”
“Oxford conducts excellent research and parts of Oxford, such as in NDORMS, have an excellent research environment. But I believe in continuous improvement! The award will spur me on with improving research culture and sharing good practice across our diverse and wonderful institution!”
From the Kennedy Institute, the Histology Team (Ida Parisi, Rhiannon Cook and Oyindamola Ajisegiri) won the Community Partnership Award for Supporting young people from African families in accessing science capital. On their win, Histology Lab Manager Ida Parisi said “Working with the community group African Families in the UK for the last two years has been such an amazing journey. Winning the VC Community Partnership Award 2024 has shown how powerful this project is in successfully building bridges between Oxford University scientists and the city community groups.”
Three other NDORMS teams were nominated for awards. Associate Professor Sara Khalid was Highly Commended for her work in commitment to equality and diversity in data science. Kennedy DPhil student, Ruth Nanjala, and the Africa Oxford Initiative were nominated for increasing African student representation in Oxford’s postgraduate studies.
Associate Professor Sara Khalid and DPhil student Ruth Nanjala
The HR Service Review team were nominated for Cross-Departmental Collaborative Partnership Undertaking HR Service Review.
The HR Service Review Team
The Africa Oxford Initiative (of which Ruth Nanjala from the Kennedy Institute is part) won the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Contribution.
On the success of the NDORMS teams, Head of Department Jonathan Rees said “It’s wonderful to see some of the work that goes into making NDORMS a brilliant place to work being recognised by the Vice-Chancellor. Congratulations to Anjali for sharing all her important work on research culture locally and nationally, and to the Histology Team at the Kennedy who have shown the importance of taking our work into the community and inspiring people to get into science. To all our nominees and our brilliant advocates in the dept - well done everyone!”