Mr Taylor Butler-Eldridge (He/Him)

Taylor works as an interdisciplinary social researcher in the Digital Research group at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and he holds an honorary research position at the University of Exeter (Human Geography). He is also part of the RGS Health & Wellbeing Research Group and he leads the AHRC-IAA funded Outdoor Swimming Research Forum. 

His research focuses on environmental health, pollution, human well-being, social equity, and creative communications. He completed his ESRC-SWDTP funded PhD in Human Geography at the University of Exeter in 2025, where he examined the socio-cultural relationships between outdoor swimming and environmental health at Windermere. His PhD project (www.swimdermere.com) used an immersive wet ethnographic approach, swim-along interviews with multiple swimmers, and co-created outputs and events with invested communities. Taylor's PhD was supervised by Prof Stewart Barr, Dr Jennifer Lea, Prof John Wylie, and Prof Jo Little - and his thesis was examined by Dr Sarah Bell and Dr Kate Moles.

With a background in digital design, outdoor learning, and qualitative research, Taylor is committed to improving access to social and environmental research for non-expert communities through creative and engaging approaches. His focus on values, knowledges, and practices often draws on concepts of relationality.

Grants:

• AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding (2026) - Outdoor Swimming Research Forum 2026.
• ESRC SWDTP Collaboration funding (2024) - Outdoor Swimming Research Forum 2024.
• ESRC SWDTP Placement (2024) - Freshwater Biological Association.
• ESRC SWDTP Impact funding (2024) - Windermere Science Evening: Dips, Depths, and Directions.
• ESRC SWDTP Impact funding (2023) - Swimming with Care at Windermere with artist Bethan Thorsby.
• ESRC SWDTP PhD funding (2021-2024).

Awards:

• The Dean’s Commendation for PGR Academic Citizenship (2024).
• Student Dissertation Award at the Institute of Outdoor Learning’s (IOL) Outdoor Learning Awards (2019).
• The University of Cumbria’s (UoC) Department of Science, Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies Prize for Highest Dissertation Mark (2019).
• UCSU Volunteer of the Year (2019).
• (Nominated): RGS History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group Undergrad Dissertation Award (2019).