Current Research Programme
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Research Area 1:
Animal Cognition and Behaviour
Exploring evolutionary & developmental drivers of cognition & behaviour within & between-species in a) corvids, primates & children, including on executive function, behavioural flexibility, individual differences, social learning, with research questions like how social context and culture influences self-control in children and other animals to e.g. to inform applications in learning & teaching environments;
b) wild blue & great tits, including urbanisation & anthropogenic effects on behaviour to investigate consequences of human-driven environmental changes.
Collaborators include: Prof Nicky Clayton (Cambridge University); Prof Thomas Bugnyar (Vienna University); Prof Alex Taylor (ICREA); Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin (National University of Singapore); Prof Lucy Cheke (Cambridge University); Dr Julia Mackenzie (Anglia Ruskin University); Dr Çağlar Akçay (Anglia Ruskin University).
Impact: PhD co-supervision completion - Dr Ning Ding (2018-2022), 35 publications, keynote conference presentations, positive media engagement, £80,000 funds awarded.
Research Area 2:
Big-Team Open Science
Through Big-Team Open Science networks, working to increase accessibility, transparency, inclusivity and representation in science, to change the narrative from competition to collaboration, and to address broad evolutionary questions.
I co-founded and co-lead the “ManyBirds Project” (www.themanybirds.com; @themanybirds.bsky.social) - a large-scale collaborative approach to avian cognition and behaviour research. With 129 collaborators over 24 countries, we tested the ecological drivers of neophobia (responses to novelty) across the avian clade in 136 species, 25 orders and 1400+ subjects (ManyBirds, Miller et al, 2025, PLOS BIOLOGY).
I am also a Co-Investigator on the CONNECT Partnership (https://connect-btss.github.io/), and a collaborator on the ManyManys Consortium (https://manymanys.github.io), inc focus on the evolution of cognitive flexibility across taxa from humans to fish.
Collaborators include: ManyBirds Leadership Team (pictured below) - Dr Megan Lambert (Veterinary Medicine University Vienna); Dr Vedrana Šlipogor (University of South Bohemia); Prof Claudia Mettke-Hofmann (Liverpool John Moores University); Dr Kai Caspar (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf); Dr Jimena Lois-Milevicich (University of Buenos Aires); Prof Carl Soulsbury (Lincoln University). ManyBirds - 129 collaborators from 77 institutions over 24 countries worldwide.
CONNECT - 10 major BTS networks worldwide, Project Directors are Prof Kiley Hamlin (University of British Columbia), Prof Krista Byers-Heinlein (Condordia University) and Prof Melanie Soderstrom (University of Manitoba).
ManyManys - 40+ international collaborators including at Harvard, Princeton & British Columbia Universities, Project Leads are Dr Nico Alessandroni (Concordia University) and Dr Laurent Prétôt (Pittsburg State Univerity).
Funding as PI (2027-2032): ERC funded research on "Avian Minds: Investigating the Evolution of Executive Function".
Impact: 8 publications, conference presentations, £1.25 million funding funds secured (as PI) and CAD $2.5 million Canadian Partnership grant co-application awarded (as Co-A), Equality, Diversity and Inclusion working group member for CONNECT Partnership. Nature Feature (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01727-x)
Research Area 3:
Conservation and Welfare
Conservation: Testing conservation relevant cognition & behaviour, linking with fitness-related measures, applying outcomes to improve conservation success, including enhancing reintroduction efforts and guidelines (e.g. pre-release training, individual suitability) and measuring real-world impacts (e.g. survival, reproduction) during reintroduction of: little studied, Critically Endangered Bali myna (UK, Indonesia) and red-billed chough (UK). Research questions inc understanding the role of individual cognitive variation in reintroduction biology.
Welfare: With industry partner, utilising cognition & behaviour research to improve farm animal welfare by informing policy on decision-making process and funding prioritisations for welfare improvements (Rethink Priorities, USA).
Collaborators include: Prof Alex Thornton (Exeter University); Prof Stuart Marsden (Manchester Metropolitan University); Liz Corry (Wildwood Trust); Dr Malcolm Nicoll (Institute for Zoology, Zoological Society of London); Dr Malcolm Burgess (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds); Wildwood Trust (Kent); Paradise Park (Cornwall); Friends of the National Park Foundation (Bali); Rothschild Foundation (UK);
Dr Bob Fischer (Rethink Priorities).
Funding as PI (2026-2034):
Royal Society funded research on "Understanding the role of individual cognitive variation in reintroduction biology".
Impact: 4 publications, 2 books, positive media engagement, £1.75 million funding (as PI) and £120,000 funds (as PI & Co-PI), member of UN Environment Programme Convention of Migratory Species Expert Working Group on Animal Culture and Social Complexity, member of IUCN Task Force on Conservation of Animal Culture, and primary supervision of NERC funded PhD student Sophie Ridgway (from Oct 2025).
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My Background
