Protecting and restoring our rivers and wetlands is a complex job. That’s why we are committed to ensuring that every action we take – from managing the land around the river and planning specific restoration work, to saving endangered species and monitoring impact – is guided by the best available science.
This ensures our projects are effective, sustainable, and deliver the greatest possible benefit for our rivers and wetlands and the wildlife that depend on them.
We actively engage with research and academic institutions, including the University of East Anglia and University College London, to ensure our conservation methods stay cutting-edge.
Our key goals are to:
· Maximise our impact - by generating robust, scientific evidence from our projects to influence policy, secure funding and share expertise.
· Drive new research – by building strong partnerships with universities through hosting student research projects (BSc,MSc and PhD), collaborating on Doctoral Training Programmes (DTPs), and developing joint research funding bids that involve our work.
· Share knowledge – by ensuring that research findings are clearly shared both within our charity and with the wider conservation community.
Examples of our research and innovation work include:
Cooper,R.J., Hawkins, E., Locke, J., Thomas, T. & Tosney, J.J. (2020). Assessing the environmental and economic efficacy of two integrated constructed wetlands at mitigating eutrophication risk from sewage effluent. Water and Environment Journal 34(4).
Cooper, R. J., Cabrales, S., Freeman, E., Holroyd, E., Wyatt, J., & Tosney, J. (2025). Eurasian beaver (Castor Fiber) reintroduction: A nutrient mitigation solution for lowland chalk streams? Wetlands, 45(1),1-14.
Pearce, R.H., Sayer, C.D., Chadwick, M.A., Harvey, G.L., Burningham, H., Tosney, J.J. & Auwerx, J. (2025). Bringing back the burbot (Lota lota L.): Assessing instream and floodplain habitat availability to support the reintroduction of a nationally extinct fish. River Research and Applications.
Pearce, R.H., Sayer, C.D., Chadwick, M.A., Perrow, M., Worthington, T., Harvey, G. &Tosney, J.J. (2024). Bringing the burbot back to English rivers. British Wildlife 36 (1).
Tosney, J.J. (2013). Short duration reservoir release impacts on impounded upland rivers. Doctoral thesis. Durham University.
van Biervliet, O., McInnes, R.J., Lewis-Phillips, J., Tosney, J.J. (2020). Can an integrated constructed wetland in Norfolk reduce nutrient concentrations and promote insitu bird species richness? Wetlands 40(5) 967 - 981.
Warren, R. J., Cooper, R. J., Mayes, A. G., Nolte, S., Hiscock, K. M., & Tosney, J. (2024). Sewage derived microplastic and anthropogenic fibre retention by integrated constructed wetlands. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 235(6), 361.
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