Dr. Anja Kathrin Ruess awarded University of Oxford Prize for Best Research Proposal

Dr. Anja Kathrin Ruess has been awarded the inaugural Prize for Best Research Proposal at the Oxford Winter Neuroethics School (OWNS), hosted by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

The prize recognizes an outstanding proposal among an international cohort of early-career researchers working at the intersection of neuroscience, ethics, and society. The OWNS program brought together participants from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and career stages, fostering intensive exchange on key questions in contemporary neuroethics.

Dr. Ruess’s proposal, EARS – Environments, Acoustics, and Resilience in Urban Soundscapes, outlines a research project exploring how urban sound environments shape mental health and everyday experience. Bringing together perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS), urban research, and neuroethics, the proposed work aims to develop more inclusive and ethically grounded approaches to urban soundscaping. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing discussions on how urban infrastructures can be designed in ways that take mental health seriously as a collective and socially embedded concern.

The prize will support initial exploratory research, enabling Dr. Ruess to further develop the empirical and conceptual foundations of the proposed project in preparation for a larger grant proposal.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary ethos of the STS Department, the OWNS program provided a space for critical and collaborative engagement across fields. The diversity and quality of the projects, as well as the openness of the discussions, were central to the experience.