The RMA Practice Research Prize for 2025 is awarded to Sara Salloum (University of Newcastle) for her thesis ‘Female lute accomplishment and performance practices in early seventeenth-century England’ (University of Durham). The panel commended this rich and insightful work which drew on detailed performance-based practice research and recognised its potential for wider impact through further dissemination in the future. The research findings were original and engaging – of particular interest is the experiential work on how the clothes worn by female lute players shaped movement and influenced performance choices.