The University is celebrating the first anniversary of our Research Vision, one of the most concentrated and comprehensive research programmes in our history, which refocuses our mission of delivering exceptional research that transforms lives in our community, the UK and across the world.

Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, said: “In the last year we have seen significant successes. We are on course to recruit the first 30 astonishing people towards our unprecedented target of 100 Research Fellows; we have received significant awards and accolades, and seen an increase in our research funding.

“It is significant and heartening that our new Fellows cite the University’s reputation for enabling cross-disciplinary research, together with world-class facilities, as key factors in their applications.”

Our six Beacons of Excellence, unveiled alongside our Research Vision at the Royal Society in London on 22 June 2017, have also made significant progress, making appointments, winning external grants and developing new partnerships, all helping to raise our reputation for delivering world-class research and attracting exceptional people.

Watch: Our Research Vision: one year on

The beacons are one of the Research Vision’s eight areas of focus, the others being:

• People: world-class researchers and Nottingham fellows
• World-class physical and digital environment
• Industrial collaboration and commercialisation
• Research Excellence Framework (REF)
• Transdisciplinary research capabilities in our Research Priority Areas (RPAs)
• The Institute for Policy and Engagement
• International collaboration

You can read about such successes in the brochure Our Research Vision: one year on.

We are also celebrating the best of our world-leading research in Vision, the University’s new research and knowledge exchange magazine. The inaugural issue’s highlights include a £4.4m award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to tackle hidden hunger in Malawi and Ethiopia. The international impact of this GeoNutrition project has been recognised by Professor Martin Broadley’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Innovator of the Year award.

Dame Jessica added: “I continue to be excited by the opportunities that lie ahead for research here at Nottingham, as we build upon the foundations of the past and look firmly to the future. A future made possible by your continued support and dedication to extraordinary research. Thank you.”

For more on Our Research Vision: one year on, read Dame Jessica’s blog in Research Exchange