Following the successful launch of our Early Career Researcher Reviewer Prize last year, we are thrilled to introduce you to this year’s winners! Read on to find out about their research interests and plans for using the prize money. We’ve also caught up with last year’s winners, too!

In a nutshell

The prize was created to provide ECRs with more opportunities for review experience, with the added potential to win prize money to help fund their ecological journey.

To be eligible to enter the prize draw, applicants had to:

• Have completed two reviews for Journal of Applied Ecology in the last calendar year.
• Be less than 5 years post- Ph.D. or -D.Phil. experience (excluding career breaks).
• Be the named reviewer listed in the system.

Prize winners were then selected according to the following process:

• Two winners were randomly and anonymously selected from the applicants.
• The Senior Editor team assessed the winner’s completed reviews to ensure that they met expected standards of rigour.

The 2025 winners

The two winners were awarded £500 each to either attend international conferences, fund additional research, or further their ecological education or training. You can learn more about their research interests and future plans below.

Asun Rodríguez

What are your research interests and expertise?

© Asun Rodríguez

I am a restoration ecologist exploring how forest ecosystems recover after anthropogenic impacts. I am currently leading a network of researchers worldwide investigating the long-term recovery trajectories of crucial biotic interactions in post-agricultural forests. My ultimate goal is to contribute to restoration science and practice, so that restoration actions overcome their current limitations to get completely recovered ecosystems, resilient to global change.

How do you feel about winning the prize?

I am super grateful to be awarded with this great prize promoting ECR peer review contributions. I am really looking forward to using these funds to attend the 15th European Conference on Ecological Restoration, together with my coming baby!

Matteo Anderle

What are your research interests and expertise?

I am a post-doctoral researcher at Eurac Research, specializing in biodiversity monitoring and bioacoustics. Since 2019 I have been responsible for bird monitoring within a long-term biodiversity monitoring in South Tyrol (Italy), using direct and passive acoustic monitoring techniques. I am also involved as bird ringer in a project aimed at monitoring bird migration and wintering populations within the Alps. Having recently won a grant, I lead the granted project intitled “SOUNDSCAPES FOR ALL: An integrated framework for the analysis of acoustic environments for humans and non-human species in mountain environments” in collaboration with the university of Trento and the University Collage of London. Finally, I am coordinating a national passive acoustic monitoring within 22 national parks.

Bird survey © Eurac Research, Martin Jaider

How do you feel about winning the prize?

I am grateful to have won the prize, it will partially cover the travel to the Conference of Italian Ornithology and some bird ringing equipment.

Catching up with the 2024 winners

Below, we’ve revisited our winners from last year to hear how winning the prize has impacted them!

Maureen Page

What did you spend the prize money on?

Fieldwork © Maureen Page

I used the money to fund travel and equipment repair for a field experiment I conducted last summer. In short, we set up twelve replicated flower plantings in 20 ft x 20 ft field cages and introduced a single bumblebee microcolony to each cage. Half of the cages also contained honeybee microcolonies, allowing us to investigate the impact of honeybee competition on bumblebee foraging and reproduction. The experiment was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, and I learned many useful “low-tech” and “high-tech” skills!

If you could encourage more ECRs to conduct reviews, what would you say?

I enjoy getting a “sneak peek” of exciting new research in the field of applied ecology. From the perspective of an early career researcher, I also find it helpful to see how papers are pitched for different journals — which can be especially useful if one hopes to publish in those same journals in the future!

Fieldwork © Maureen Page

Brielle Thompson

What did you spend the prize money on?

I actually ended up using the prize award for two purposes! First, to buy several decision analysis textbooks to help prepare for teaching three workshops and teaching a graduate level class on Structured Decision Making. Secondly, I used the funds to help support my travel to a conference in Missouri, the Missouri Natural Resources Conference, where I presented my research and taught a half-day workshop on Structured Decision Making.

Brielle presenting at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference © Brielle Thompson

If you could encourage more ECRs to conduct reviews, what would you say?

Being a part of the review process as an early career researcher not only allows me to contribute to the peer-review process, but also provides an opportunity to stay informed on cutting-edge research while honing my writing voice and manuscript organization skills through the evaluation of others’ work.

Interested in getting involved and reviewing with Journal of Applied Ecology? Contact Lydia via [email protected] with your name, email address and expertise.