Ten science researchers that work at Norwich Research Park have been named in the prestigious annual Highly Cited Researchers list for 2025. The Clarivate Web of Science Group list, now in its twelfth year, has recognised the world’s 6,868 most influential researchers. The list represents those researchers ranked in the top 1% by citations in their specific fields of expertise. They come from more than 1,300 institutions in 60 countries and regions.
Being highly cited in a particular research field is earned by delivering high quality research throughout the length of a researcher’s career.
The UK has, once again, the third largest amount of citations with 570 listed, accounting for 8% of the total list. Having ten researchers from Norwich Research Park on this list is a measure of the exceptional impact that scientists based here are making globally.
The ten researchers named on the list and their areas of specialism are:
Plant and animal science
- Prof Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre, investigates biosynthesis of plant natural products. Her discovery that the biosynthetic pathways to these products are organised in clusters in plant genomes has opened up a brand new field of discovery with medical and commercial applications.
- Prof Jonathan Jones, The Sainsbury Laboratory, studies how plants resist disease and how pathogens evade or suppress the detection and resistance mechanisms of their plant hosts.
- Professor Cyril Zipfel, The Sainsbury Laboratory/University of Zurich, studies the molecular basis of plant innate immunity with the aim of deciphering signalling events that link the perception of pathogen-associated molecules to the establishment of immunity.
Cross-field
- Prof Cathie Martin, John Innes Centre, whose research focuses on improving human diet and health, emphasising biofortification, using plant metabolic engineering to enhance food nutrition.
- Dr Falk Hildebrand, a group leader at both the Quadram Institute and Earlham Institute, is developing metagenomic tools to track bacterial strains at high resolutions, predict their genomic capabilities and explore associations to diseases.
- Dr Ruben Garrido-Oter, Earlham Institute, explores the inner workings of microbial communities, especially those that associate with photosynthetic organisms, such as land plants and terrestrial microalgae.
- Prof Corinne Le Quéré, Royal Society Research Professor, University of East Anglia (UEA) studies the interactions between climate change and the carbon cycle.
- Prof Robert Nicholls, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UEA, researches long-term coastal engineering and management, particularly issues of coastal impacts and adaptation to climate change.
- Prof David Livermore, UEA, specialises in the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic resistance and its relationship to antibiotic prescribing
- Dr Jun-Hwa Cheah, UEA, specialises in digital and technology marketing, consumer behaviour, data analytics and statistical modelling.
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, said, “We are delighted that once again Norwich Research Park has been recognised as being amongst the most influential centres for science-based research. Recognition like this provides hard evidence of the great scientific minds we have working in important disciplines such as agri-food, health-nutrition and the environment. We also have one of the
largest clusters of microbiologists in the world working across our campus at the world-leading research institutes, university, university hospital and 50 companies.
“Award-winning science is an important component for the future of Norwich Research Park as we look to develop and build our campus and drive forward our enterprise strategy, attracting inward investment and new businesses to the Park. The presence of so many Norwich Research Park-based scientists on this latest list of highly cited researchers is testimony to their global reputations and ground-breaking discoveries.”
