Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, writes:

More than 120 people – including researchers and colleagues from professional services – celebrated our progress and achievements in the first year of the University’s refocused Research Vision.

At the event, Research Vision: one year on, we heard from some of our inspiring people and learned how we are working together to better support the delivery of our exceptional research.

I was delighted to share a snapshot of our achievements over the course of the last year, including:

• 18 of our researchers and their teams have been granted £1m-plus awards
• Our BBSRC funding portfolio has moved up to 3^rd in the UK
• Recruitment of 30 Nottingham and Anne McLaren Research Fellows
• The Nottingham Impact Accelerator has awarded £2.5m to 75 projects across the University
• 80 projects have been funded since the launch of the International Collaboration Fund

These and many other achievements, together with information on how we are continually investing in support for researchers, are captured in the brochure, Research Vision: one year on. Please download a copy.

We also heard from two of our remarkable fellows, Dr Frankie Rawson, who won almost £1m from EPSRC to develop new bioelectronic devices that will use electrochemical-based wireless technology to avoid invasive surgery, and Dr Tanya Monaghan, who combines a clinical career in gastroenterology with research into Clostridium difficile infection in urbanised and tribal communities in central India.

Ellen Townsend, Professor of Psychology, gave an insight into how the University’s International Collaboration Fund has supported the creation of an international network of experts working together on suicide prevention for Global Challenges Research Funding (GCRF).

We heard about the new Institute for Policy and Engagement, and welcomed its director, Stephen Meek, who takes up the role in September.

Dr Richard Masterman, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Strategy and Performance, also unveiled Vision, the University’s new research magazine. The magazine is available in print and online – please take a look here.

The event also featured interactive displays showcasing how our investment in digital services is supporting research in innovative and exciting ways. Preparing and serving burgers in the Virtual Reality Corrupt Kitchen (a collaboration between the schools of Politics, Law and Computer Science and facilitated by the Digital Research Team) was particularly popular!

Thank you once again for your remarkable support and achievements, as we look to the year ahead, build on our successes and further empower our researchers in the delivery of world-class discoveries, and research that transforms lives.

I look forward to future initiatives and events where researchers and colleagues from across the University can come together to share ideas, spark collaborations and continue to input into our evolving Research Vision.

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