Organisation profile

Technology underpins all facets of modern life and evolves at relentless speeds. Over the course of our lifetime, we would have witnessed major breakthroughs that will have a significant impact and reach on society.

We're solving societal problems through practical, affordable and sustainable solutions. A central question drives our research: how do we make technology, engineering and science more relevant to the wellbeing of human beings and the world? We produce impactful research with practical applications through our collaborative partnerships with universities, research bodies and industry leaders.

We're a research leader among post-1992 universities, and we're building on our strong results in the Research Excellence Framework 2014. In the REF 2014, 96% of our physics research outputs were rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, 80% of our maths research impact was rated as having considerable reach and significance, 100% of our computer science and informatics research impact was rated as outstanding or very considerable, and 61% of our research in aeronautical, mechanical, chemical and manufacturing engineering was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

We recently brought together businesses, councils and environmental groups to increase flood protection and sustainable drainage in housing developments through our ProSuDS project - 'Providing Real-world Opportunities for Sustainable Drainage Systems'.

We're also working with businesses, the public sector and other universities to increase solar power generation across England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands through our involvement with the 'Solar Adoption Rise in the 2 Seas' project, or 'SOLARISE'. The goal of this project is a 20% increase in renewable energy consumption by 2020.

Our research areas include:

• Cosmology and astrophysics
• Health informatics
• Operational research and logistics
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Civil engineering
• Computing
• Energy and electronic engineering