Staff and students from the School of Science Biology, Environmental Science, Geography and Wildlife Conservation degree programmes, coordinated by Stephanie Greshon, the Environmental Science Course Leader, have achieved further success for their research project on habitat quality parameters and sand properties on sand lizard breeding sites in Dorset.

Building on their success at the International Awards Ceremony in Brussels in October, they were also the winners of the National Award in the research stream at the awards ceremony at Middleton Hall, Staffordshire, and have added prize money of £5000 to the previous award of 10,000 euros.

Stewart Jones, national sustainability manager at Hanson UK, said: “The judges felt that the Bath Spa University project was robust, transferable and delivered biodiversity value to the quarry and to science.”

The findings of this research will be applicable to restoration of biodiversity in sand quarries and is also relevant to wider management of heathlands for biodiversity, in particular rare reptiles. The prize money will be dedicated to offering short term casual research assistant posts and internships to Biology and Environmental Science students to both enhance their employability in the environmental sector and also to add to the knowledge base in biodiversity and environmental sciences.

Watch the interview from the International Ceremony in Brussels last month here.

For more information on the Quarry Life Award can be found here or visit Hanson’s sustainability webpages for further details about Hanson UK’s approach to biodiversity and sustainability.