London Metropolitan University has achieved a remarkable transformation under Professor Lynn Dobbs' leadership. It has solidified its financial health and academic excellence with a 50% growth in income, an operating surplus of £8.4 million, and high student satisfaction rates as shown in the National Student Survey.

Our impactful research, recognised by the 2021 REF, and initiatives like the London Met Lab and the Centre for Equity & Inclusion, demonstrate our commitment to social justice and community engagement. Our strategic investments and international partnerships further highlight our dedication to creating a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable educational environment.

London Met is proud to be one of the most diverse universities in the UK, reflecting the vibrant metropolitan community we serve. Finally, our multi-award winning Real London campaign has made waves across the sector and helped change perceptions of the University.

In 2022/23, Ulster University truly began to realise our full potential, demonstrating the transformative power of higher education locally, nationally and globally. From completing one of the largest higher education capital projects in Europe and hosting the sitting President of the United States of America, to leading the commemorations of a historic political agreement and launching a unique leadership programme that will develop the change-makers of tomorrow, Ulster University was on the world stage. What makes these achievements all the more remarkable is that there was no compromise or diminution of our outstanding teaching, research and student experience, to which we are unshakeably committed.

Ulster University’s results and awards reflect the dedication of our staff to doing the right thing for our students, ensuring they have the most rewarding learning experience possible, and demonstrating the power of our people, our place and our partnerships.

Diversity defines our city and is at the heart of who we are as a university. In our Citizens of Change Strategy 2022, we set out a vision to be the University for inclusion and, in an exceptional year, Leicester has made good on this promise strengthening our community, our city and the world as a result. Our super-diversity is a strength that underpins our teaching and research and is core to our mission, values and purpose.

Our recruitment strategy was strategic and demand for places was high with student intake rising by 26%. As a result, the University of Leicester is now more diverse and inclusive than almost all Russell Group universities: 40% of our students are from disadvantaged areas and 63% are from minority ethnic backgrounds. 40% of our students are from Asian backgrounds and 16% are from black backgrounds.

Stirling’s Strategic Plan 2016-2023 aimed to address societal needs through interdisciplinary research, high-quality teaching and global knowledge sharing. Despite sector challenges, the University achieved significant milestones, including surpassing its income goal by increasing revenue to £169.7m in 2022/23. This growth stemmed from optimising unregulated student recruitment, international partnerships, research and business engagement. Research income alone rose by 54.2% from the 2014/15 baseline.

Stirling expanded its unregulated student population by 91% against the 2014/15 baseline, achieving high overall satisfaction scores in the ISB (2022). The student experience was further enhanced by the £23m Campus Central redevelopment, recognised with a 2023 RIAS award. Sporting excellence was also exemplified, with students excelling in the Tokyo Olympics and Birmingham Commonwealth Games. In tandem, significant activity was undertaken in 2022/23 to develop a new Strategic Plan towards 2030, focusing on People, Place and Purpose, and ensuring Stirling's future as a force for good.

When the University of Sunderland refreshed its five-year strategy in 2019, it led with the bold purpose to be a life-changing institution. It was underpinned by three ambitions: to be student-focused, professions-facing and society-shaping. By 2023/24, the University had achieved success in raising academic outcomes and acting as a catalyst for regeneration in the city.

Its focus on students is illustrated by its 24-hour-a-day mental health support. Through its professions-facing ambition, the curriculum is rooted in the economic and social priorities of the region, with 55% of its first – and diverse – cohort of medical students working in local NHS roles. Its society-shaping influence has grown too, through leading film and media programmes, which gave the University a central role in bringing a £450m film studios’ investment to Sunderland. As the University’s strategy illustrates, purpose drives people; and people with purpose drive performance.

The University of Surrey excels across research, teaching and student experience, guided by our ambitious strategy, "Forward thinking. And doing". External rankings and awards rated us highly across student satisfaction (4th in the UK in the National Student Survey), research excellence (19th for research output quality) and graduate outcomes (3rd in the South and 12th in the UK for highly skilled employment). We also won awards and plaudits for our widening access programmes.

We launched our Institute for Sustainability in 2022-23, and new Institute for People-Centred AI secured £25m in external funding. Our School of Medicine launched in 2022-23, and has just been awarded the most new public-funded places for any UK medical school. We want to continue to excel across all these areas. We launched our first global fundraising campaign, and achieved many milestones towards a £60m target, which will help us to keep transforming lives into the future.

Kirstie Simpson; Aida Javorskiene; Jane Pearson; Eleanor Lewis; Mike Brownsell; PARE (Practice Assessment Record and Evaluation) team

Chester Business School’s commitment to connecting with the outside world to prepare the School, its people and its students for the future has delivered significant benefits and impact during 2022/23. The School’s work on the crucial industrial decarbonisation agenda has been recognised and has influenced policy nationally via a forward-looking skills study. In addition, the development of an innovative online tool supporting the country’s healthcare workforce has benefitted more than 160,000 professionals. In addition to these activities, the School has continued its work with the local business community and budding entrepreneurs.

These efforts have resulted in excellent institutional Knowledge Exchange Framework outcomes and evidence of impacts across our local and wider economies. Working with key current and future employment sectors has re-purposed Chester Business School’s vision and focus on low-carbon business futures, responsible enterprise and employer connections; through these activities, the School has cemented its role as a catalyst for progress.

In 2022-23, ESCP Business School was ranked third in Europe by the Financial Times. Our London Campus welcomed over 1,600 students representing 73 nationalities. Faculty saw a remarkable 20% growth in world-leading impactful research articles (CABS 4*) and a 13% increase in research outputs.

ESCP London integrated sustainability modules and projects across all programmes, collaborating with Climate Fresk, Camden Climate Alliance, Climate Essentials, Better Futures+, Sulitest TASK, and launching custom training with AXA Climate School to train 100% of students and staff. The School launched a staff-student ESG Committee and invested in reusable eco cups, nearly eliminating single-use container waste on campus.

ESCP restructured its full-time MBA for increased flexibility. The School's Careers department transformed to provide students with extended access to services in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, regardless of their teaching campus. The Entrepreneurship Festival united the community through a dynamic week of events across five countries.

Business Schools and universities can seem unattainable and irrelevant to under-represented groups. Small businesses with the potential to grow are often not aware of the resources and encouragement available to them to develop. In a region of complex deprivation, Liverpool Business School brought together expertise, engaged-research and clinical practice in four major initiatives to raise skills and performance, making the school “low-walled” and accessible.

In 2022-23, our extraordinary staff took bold approaches to fulfil our mission to Shape a Better Future. The Liverpool Business Clinic had its best year ever, providing over £1 million worth of consultancy to businesses, simultaneously enhancing the skills and careers of students. "Liverpool City Region Enhance" and "Enterprise Hub Skills" delivered tailored learning and development for 228 SMEs in the community and onsite to encourage connection. Our small business digital-transformation, social and environmental management knowledge transfer partnerships were recognised as Outstanding and Very Good by Innovate UK.

The 2022/23 academic year was hugely successful for Sunderland Business School, with multiple outstanding achievements in a time of great change. We successfully transformed our undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, resulting in our students receiving an education and experience that powerfully bridges theory and commercial insights.

A Research Centre for Business and Management was established, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration through three innovative research clusters. A Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership worth £190,000 was also secured. An Accreditations Manager was appointed to enhance relationships and further integrate professional bodies, partly leading to the successful awarding of the Small Business Charter accreditation. We further developed our community-oriented Marketing Hub, won the Greggs Marketing Challenge, and developed a unique Faculty Academic Support Lead role, which has positively impacted student retention and academic success.

Collectively, this demonstrates Sunderland Business School’s unparalleled dedication to student experience, academic excellence, innovation and social responsibility while highlighting our resilience and adaptability.

Strathclyde Business School (SBS) is distinguished by its innovative education, impactful research and robust industry partnerships. In the 2022/23 academic year, SBS launched the Global Practitioners initiative, embedding industry expertise into MBA and specialist master's programmes, significantly enhancing practical learning. The school's research on fair work practices influenced policies in Scotland’s construction and hospitality sectors, leading to tangible improvements for businesses.

SBS achieved a milestone with a £20 million endowment, the largest ever for a Scottish business school, which has led to the launch of the Stephen Young Institute for International Business in 2023. The Fraser of Allander Institute continued to lead in economic analysis, impacting public policy and business strategies. SBS also supported over 200 SME companies through its executive education programmes. These accomplishments highlight SBS's commitment to "useful learning" and societal impact.

York Business School (YBS) at York St John University drives collaborations between academia, industry, local government and community stakeholders in Yorkshire. In three key areas of law, tourism and hospitality, YBS harnessed the power of partnerships to drive innovation, tackle societal challenges and facilitate knowledge exchange for social and economic benefit.

Its Law Clinic addresses catastrophic gaps in legal aid with a team of 84 students and six supervisors who provide free legal assistance to residents and businesses who cannot afford legal services. YBS researched the economic and social impact of York’s tourism attractions and established the York Tourism Advisory Board to develop a new tourism strategy. With participation from over 60 organisations, the strategy resulted in a Local Visitor Economy Partnership for York and North Yorkshire. Finally, YBS co-created a unique Junior Board initiative to address skills gaps and raise the profile of the hospitality sector.

The Vision Loss Expert Group is an international collaboration of more than 100 ophthalmologists and optometrists worldwide (in institutions in every world region) that provides essential data on vision impairment and blindness. This work culminated in 2022-23 with evidence required for the World Health Organization to commend, for the first time, the inclusion of a vision-related metric in the WHO Universal Health Coverage indicators.

The collaboration’s outputs have been the foundation for WHO’s first "World Report on Vision", the "Global Burden of Disease" study and many scientific papers with high impact. Working with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (the overarching alliance for the global eye sector worldwide), the collaboration created Vision Atlas, an online tool (atlas.iapb.org) that provides users with data on vision impairment for all countries and regions by year and sex. This is used by governments and NGOs to support eyecare programmes that address health inequities.

During 2022-23, Bath Spa University (BSU) collaborated with 10 Ukrainian universities, a leading radio station in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Students and the Ministry of Education and Science to support and sustain Ukraine’s economic and social capacity during a time of war.

Through multiple partnerships and projects led by BSU and funded by Erasmus and Research England, we worked together with colleagues across Ukraine to improve educational standards, pedagogical innovation, student attainment, graduate outcomes and student resilience. We also helped to strengthen Ukraine’s democratic structures through reforms in journalism education, increased public media literacy, enhanced research and innovation capacity, and shipments of specialist technological equipment.

Despite the impact of the invasion, all the funded projects were able to complete successfully, including in-person meetings, workshops and conferences, and several were highly commended by evaluators. BSU continues to provide solidarity and support for its Ukrainian colleagues.

YouTube is accessed by 2 billion users each month, with over 49 million in the UK. It is the second-largest search engine in the world with viewers turning to the channel for mental health and well-being needs. As part of tackling misinformation, King’s Health Partners, King’s College London and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust entered into a joint partnership with YouTube to connect viewers with trusted clinical advice from experts and signpost ways to get the right support.

It was the first time in the UK that YouTube joined forces with a university and its partner NHS trusts, with the intention of balancing the amount of "influencer-led" content with reliable information from experts.

REDRESS is a collaborative project that brings people affected by severe stigmatising skin diseases (SSSD), their families and communities, together with research partners and Ministry of Health (MOH) implementation partners in programme activities and decision-making processes using a person-centred approach. We ensure meaningful co-production through employing participatory action research in research design, as well as development, implementation and evaluation of interventions aimed at strengthening health systems to care for those affected by SSSDs.

People with lived experience of SSSDs and those working within the community-level health system in Liberia, have been an integral part of the research team as "co-researchers" engaged throughout the whole research process, from data collection and intervention design, to evaluation and analysis. With their unique insight, they have shaped the research process, interventions and impacts.

Impact continues beyond REDRESS with inclusion of learning in key MOH strategy and programming, in programming for other West and Central African countries, and in global guidance documents.

The Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Design (AiDLab) is a commercial Research & Development Centre and the first platform to focus on the integration of Artificial Intelligence with design. It brings together the Royal College of Art’s (RCA) world-leading art and design research and Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s (PolyU) best-in-class STEM innovations to drive positive impact on both industry and society. Located at the Hong Kong Science Park, AiDLab has established a new creative cluster of AI in design.

Since its inception, AiDLab has employed more than 100 researchers to collaborate on 22 art- and design-led artificial intelligence research projects. This has been a phenomenal learning opportunity for the 77 early career researchers and 42 postgraduate students involved. Through the AiDLab collaboration, the RCA and PolyU have collectively achieved 91 publications, 29 patent applications, nine licensing agreements and established two start-ups with a third currently in progress.

The University of Leeds and the University of Pretoria have developed a collaborative research partnership formed around expertise in food security and climate-smart agriculture which has evolved into a strategic relationship to enhance research capabilities and empower institutions in the Global South.

Building on mutual strengths to address food security and climate-smart agriculture in the Global South, they have collaborated on mapping the African Food System, strengthened African researchers' capacities, and evaluated food system changes in Southern Africa. Building on the partnership, they have trained students through the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) project and expanded into Data Science and AI research. The impact includes empowering fellows, influencing policy and improving weather forecasting for climate-informed agriculture. This partnership redefines strategic equitable collaboration, recognising groundbreaking research beyond the global stage.

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s global health learning and expertise has been coupled with the knowledge and insights of local Primary Care Networks, community champions and other advocates to create a highly effective, multidisciplinary, community-based public health intervention model. In the model, Community Innovation Teams are established and empowered to develop data-driven solutions to improve health service access and quality, and/or encourage positive health behaviours and uptake of preventative medicine. The model has already helped address Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in targeted communities in Liverpool and is now being used to tackle low cancer screening and MMR vaccine uptake.

This award-winning project has revolutionised how public health initiatives are delivered in the city. The integrated approach is highly flexible and adaptable to different contexts and health issues, and provides valuable knowledge exchange opportunities. Most importantly, it produces life-changing health outcomes for underserved communities.

Dr Rajiv Prabhakar, Senior Lecturer in Personal Finance at The Open University (OU), used OU teaching materials to create an outstanding knowledge-exchange on the lack of recognition for the gender pension gap. Dr Prabhakar’s research makes huge steps towards addressing gender inequalities in retirement, which outstrip inequalities in pay.

Having won a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship at the House of Commons Library through a national competition, Dr Prabhakar wrote a briefing paper that records that there was no official definition of the gender pension gap. This work created a new research area within Parliament and contributed to an important national debate about the gender pension gap.

The Verbatim Formula was developed to rethink the ways in which we listen to young people in the UK care system by placing them at the centre of the research process. It is a collaborative method that involves policymakers, artists, social workers, foster carers and, most of all, those who have spent time in the care system. Young people in care, and older people who have experienced being in care, are brought to centre stage to have their voices heard.

Since the beginning of the project, the number of young people in care in the UK has risen. There are insufficient foster carers to provide support, and young people who have experienced care have repeatedly asked for more trust and empathy in the way that adults care for them. The Verbatim Formula asks: "How can we change things for the better through listening?"

Sugarcrete® is an ultra-low-carbon bio-based material that upcycles sugarcane waste into construction products. Our initiative developed Sugarcrete® as an open-access technology with one aim: replacing 1.5 billion bricks made in countries like India with a cheaper, carbon-neutral alternative. Our knowledge exchange model has been developed as "open source" but is bespoke to each partner – with the option of providing research packages or production machinery/training or Sugarcrete® blocks as needed.

The first partnership in 2023 was with Chemical Systems Technologies in India. We developed cost-effective hydraulic presses to supply brick manufacturing capabilities to rural communities, developing a pilot school building which is due to be completed in 2024.

There are currently 18 signatory partners globally, developing a range of Sugarcrete® applications ranging from entrepreneurs requiring block manufacturing (the India model), to NGOs such as Besafe in Cabo Verde creating alternatives to the environmentally catastrophic dredging of sand for concrete.

In 2022-23, Wilberforce House Museum, working in collaborative partnership with the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull, delivered a unique multi-award-winning Community Engagement programme. We took a brave and creative approach to deliver a new community engagement strategy that engaged under-represented communities in temporary and permanent exhibition development. Tackling power, privilege and racism, we collaborated with people from Africa, or those of African-American, Caribbean or African descent, creating two co-produced temporary exhibitions and a co-produced permanent gallery.

The ultimate aim was to create an Advisory Panel that would guide the work of the museum. This was successfully achieved but what made this project transformational was how participants moved beyond the parameters of the project creating their own independent heritage projects. The museum and university went from limited engagement with the black community to a thriving black heritage community that is driving positive change around racism.

Around 30% of the world’s drinking water is lost from pipelines before it ever reaches taps. The University of the West of Scotland (UWS) worked with FIDO Tech to develop game-changing artificial intelligence that accurately detects the exact location of water leaks in underground pipes.

This internationally impactful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project represents an industry first and is revolutionising existing practices. It is preventing billions of litres of water being lost from pipeline networks globally, tackling climate change and addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 6, 9, 11 and 17.

Deployed worldwide, the technology is having tangible impact. One example includes helping to secure the water supply – and lifting the severe water restrictions for the first time in 20 years – on Murray Island, Australia. This exemplar project is helping to create a world without water scarcity.

Ishani Chandrasekara is nominated for groundbreaking work in transforming outcomes for accounting students coming mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has collaborated with PricewaterhouseCoopers to create the Flying Start Programme: 76% of programme students were eligible for Free School Meals, 67% are first-in-family to attend university and 87% identify as BAME.

The impact of this programme is wide-ranging, with Dr Chandrasekara negotiating 90 fully funded placements, and securing bursaries worth £360,000. The Flying Start Programme has a 100% continuation rate, a significantly higher rate than comparable courses. Student outcomes are outstanding, with alumni securing prestigious roles globally, transforming their life prospects.

Dr Chandrasekara’s determination to enhance social mobility has been recognised with 10 awards over the past five years, most recently winning Employability in the Curriculum Champion from Queen Mary’s Students’ Union. Her work is central to Queen Mary's institutional commitment to transforming the professions and shaping inclusive labour markets.

Suha Jaradat has revolutionised academic practices through her innovative teaching and leadership in curriculum development. By pioneering the UK's first work-based learning Graduate Apprenticeship (GA) programme in Architectural Technology, she has bridged the gap between academia and industry. This programme has enhanced employability and attracted a diverse student body, with over 30% female students. Additionally, her organisation of exceptional international study trips has broadened students' global perspectives and industry connections. Both students and employers have described these trips to Dubai, Egypt, China and Ghana as "life-changing and career-defining".

Further enhancing her impact, Dr Jaradat's efforts in accrediting the Architectural Technology programmes by professional bodies such as CABE, CIAT and CIOB have made the Architectural Technology programme the largest recruiter in the UK. Her commitment to promoting diversity in construction has inspired many previously marginalised people to pursue careers in this field, solidifying her influence on both academia and industry.

Vikki McCall teaches on the postgraduate Housing Studies programme at the University of Stirling, the longest and largest programme of its kind in the UK. She has played a central role in forging and enhancing links with employers, the accrediting body and other key stakeholders.

Her outstanding contributions to innovative teaching include developing co-produced "serious game" methodologies that bring together students, employers, the public and wider industry professionals. These are new and creative learning tools, designed to develop systems thinking and key paradigm shifts around future-proofing housing.

Professor McCall’s students describe her as "phenomenal", "enthusiastic" and "passionate" and she is one of very few teachers to consistently win multiple internal, student-led teaching awards. Professor McCall contributes to the promotion of academic quality and standards in social policy and housing studies at a UK level, and is dedicated to developing inclusive teaching materials.

Alex MacLaren harnesses her industry experience as a Chartered Architect to empower global changemakers for climate action and positive impact. She champions multidisciplinary, challenge-based learning that truly makes a difference to learners, colleagues and the wider community, designing resonant experiences that transform participants’ agency, from school pupils to CEOs. This varies from large-scale climate action learning experiences online, to hands-on construction of solar-powered net-zero buildings, all with an international student cohort and global reach.

MacLaren believes that inspiring teaching arises from a shared commitment to act to tackle global challenges. She designs unique, authentic learning experiences, grown from the urgent mandate of the climate emergency, her drive to catalyse innovation, and a fundamental belief in the power of collaboration. While student evaluations of her work are exceptional, the real marker of success for MacLaren is the changed behaviours and tangible progress in climate action that have resulted from her efforts.

Jenny Moffett, an educationalist based at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is a keen advocate for inclusive learning environments and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She co-developed a digital educational escape room with RCSI students to address a critical lack of uncertainty management training in medical education. She engaged medical students in a design-thinking process that facilitated deep understanding of clinical students’ experiences, creating an online “maker space” that established psychological safety and equity between staff and students.

The team developed the "The Hidden Hospital”, a spooky, immersive puzzle game that supports learning around complexity, ambiguity and unpredictability, transcending learners’ demographic, socio-cultural and neurodiverse differences. Research shows that game-players developed multiple insights about managing uncertainty, and 94% would recommend the educational escape room to others. Dr Moffett's work has received multiple awards and is the basis for her upcoming PhD thesis defence in September 2024.

During a period of time when higher education poses uncertainties for both staff and students, Danijela Serbic has developed innovative approaches and opportunities to enhance the career development of students and the staff who educate them. Through her teaching and coordination of the psychology final-year research project, she has embedded employability through the 3R model she developed: Recognise, Reflect, Relate.

Dr Serbic established and leads the group THESIS: Teaching in Higher Education: Supporting and Inspiring Students. This pedagogic group has a multifaceted approach to supporting the career development of education-focused academic staff, and in turn supporting the academic development, employability and well-being of students.

THESIS provides infrastructure and support in developing pedagogic research and translating these findings into educational practice, along with providing opportunities for students to co-produce events to support student employability and well-being.

During his 15 years at Winchester, Lim Keong Teoh, Senior lecturer in Accounting and Tax in the Faculty of Business and Digital Technologies, has dedicated himself to engaging students through innovative teaching methods, and leveraging educational technologies to transform the learning environment. Committed to finding new solutions to address emerging pedagogical issues, Teoh utilises tools at the forefront of teaching innovation. He embraces new technologies as they emerge, most recently utilising AI tools to guide his students to create multimedia presentations.

Teoh actively promotes student employability through practical real-world learning and commercial awareness. This strong focus on employability is reflected in Winchester’s Top 10 ranking in the UK​ for graduates in employment or further study (HESA Graduate Outcomes data 2023). His exceptional dedication to his students has been recognised by numerous awards during his 20-year academic career and, in 2022, he was recognised with a Teaching Fellowship for his outstanding impact on student outcomes and teaching in higher education.

Tim Young is an experienced medical doctor, educator and neurologist. He particularly values student evaluation of his teaching, having worked with students on projects leading to shared publications. In 2022, he obtained a PG Certificate in Medical Education with distinction from the University of Cambridge, using skills learned to create the education video "Why Bother About Headaches?" for the International Headache Society.

Professor Young is passionate about supporting struggling students, sharing his own story of initially failing medical school but later graduating top in medicine, and playing a lead role in developing his institute’s first student-focused survey. He has been awarded a UCL Faculty EDI award and UCL Provost Education Award. Since 2022, he has provided free medical lectures for students affected by war. He developed his institute's first undergraduate course in 2022, which has received excellent feedback. Professor Young has also partnered with AdvanceHE, contributing to proposed changes for the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2023.

De Montfort University (DMU) has shown exceptional environmental leadership since launching its Empowering University strategy. Sustainability is a core theme, informing learning, knowledge creation, empowerment and partnerships. Appointing a Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sustainability in 2021 marked a significant step forward. Partnering with the United Nations (UN), DMU is the sole UK university serving as a global academic hub for SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions.

The university's initiatives include taking students to the UN Assembly in New York and hosting UN officials on campus. In March 2023, DMU established an SDG hub to centralise sustainability efforts. Recognised as one of the UK’s greenest universities, DMU's achievements include a 91% recycling rate, a Carbon Literacy training programme and a 58% reduction in emissions since 2005. The curriculum integrates sustainability, earning several Green Gown awards. In November 2023, DMU showcased its research at COP28, further solidifying its commitment to sustainability.

The CEDaCI Project is building a circular economy for the data centre industry. Deborah Andrews has demonstrated outstanding leadership, organisation and coordination skills, building and leading 25 partners across seven countries from 2018-23.

International collaboration was critical to the success of the project, which focused on a global industry comprised of 11 subsectors; awareness of different national practices and markets was essential. Collectively, the CEDaCI team generated considerable global impact and developed a free-to-use digital tool that enables businesses to make informed/sustainable choices about equipment, presented at 78 conferences/industry events, co-authored 11 articles, and published Circular server design drawings and guidelines via OCP.

Professor Andrews continues to promote good practice by speaking at international industry events and podcasts and as a member of the UK government Defra Digital Sustainability Team. There is no doubt that the excellent international collaboration contributed to the success of the CEDaCI project and on-going dissemination of learning.

During the development of the University of Aberdeen’s Net Zero strategy, we identified a gap in our emissions reporting - we had no data on the emissions related to students travelling to study in Aberdeen from around the world. With no sector best-practice to fall back on, we established a part-time student internship to develop a reporting methodology that would allow us to calculate these emissions for the first time.

The resulting internship proved more successful than we could have anticipated. Institutionally, it established a robust methodology and effective, innovative calculation tool that allowed us to calculate and report these emissions. At a sector level, through subsequent engagement and collaboration with EAUC Scotland, the tool has been embraced, enhanced and made freely available as best practice for UK institutions. Moreover, it has been adopted and embedded in sector and governmental emissions reporting guidance and has even attracted interest from an international audience.

Exeter has more of the world’s most influential climate scientists than any other university, according to Reuters. The interdisciplinary nature of the 1,500 people now working on green solutions is leading to major collaborations with policymakers, business and financial leaders, philanthropists and the wider public to act on climate change.

At the vanguard of Exeter’s work to translate outstanding science into action is the revered work on the Global Carbon Budget (GCB) and Global Tipping Points Report (GTPR) which in 2022/23 set the standard for climate science influencing senior decision-makers. At COP28, the GCB and GTPR team led science briefings to the UN Secretary General and senior policymakers in the US, UK and Brazil with numerous world leaders referencing this work including King Charles and John Kerry. The reports also delivered over 4,000 pieces of top media coverage and reached more than 17 million people on social media.

Offshore renewable energy (ORE) is widely acknowledged as being critical to the global net-zero agenda. Thanks to its pioneering research, teaching, facilities, collaborations and influence, the University of Plymouth has earned a place at the forefront of national and international ORE innovation.

Its Centre for Decarbonisation and Offshore Renewable Energy, launched in 2023, is furthering its work in the field while its facilities – including the UK Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Test Facility and laboratories dedicated to autonomous monitoring and cyber security – are ensuring future installations take advantage of the latest technologies.

Its continued leadership of the national Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub is allowing the University to unite government, industry and academia beyond common clean energy goals that are driving the UK towards its ambitious net-zero commitments.

The University of Portsmouth's Revolution Plastics Institute aims to urgently transform our understanding of the global plastics crisis through inclusive, solutions-focused research and innovation to support the transition to a sustainable plastics future. The Institute demonstrates clear leadership on environmental issues through innovative, multidisciplinary approaches and impactful collaborations.

Addressing the global plastics crisis, it is the evidence provider at the interface of government, businesses, citizens and researchers. Impact and engagement is a thread that runs through all that the Institute does. It advises governments on national, regional and global action plans and effective policy options, and it is closely involved with the UN Global Treaty negotiations.

As the world watches while 200 member states negotiate a global plastics treaty - the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change - the Institute is at the forefront of providing independent, evidenced-based research.

Recent reports highlight several challenges facing researchers from under-represented backgrounds, including the lack of representation in the mainstream UK media and the disproportionately low receipt of research funding from awarding bodies. The damaging impact of this is the continued perception that under-represented researchers, particularly black researchers, make little or no contribution to science.

To address the challenges of visibility and recognition of the contribution of black and minority ethnic (BME) researchers, the Imperial As One Media Academy has trained researchers and PhD students from BME backgrounds in magnifying the impact of their work through workshops in the media, social media, podcasts, videos, writing, and public affairs and policy. This has increased the diversity of media-trained individuals accessible to journalists when looking for expert commentary.

This partnership between a university and its local authority has delivered a fully monitored, year-long, practice-as-research programme, offering access for forced migrants whose university access was interrupted to existing specialist language training, with close monitoring of outcomes throughout.

The collaboration, through a joint-funding agreement, offered forced migrants academic continuity in a stable and welcoming environment, and so both significantly enriched the academic community they joined, and developed their own sense of settlement in a new location. The project has impacted positively on the learning experience of Kingston’s existing students, promoting inclusion, institutional pride and involvement among students/staff across both institutions.

Long term, this initiative is a model for practical implementation elsewhere, a demonstration of policy through practice, and an initiative that has inspired members of both institutions involved, as well as their wider communities. It offers forced migrants the opportunity they routinely seek: to be useful and positively contributing members of society.

By helping to solve challenges faced by individuals and communities at local, regional and global levels, Queen’s recognises universities are uniquely placed to shape the world in which we live. Queen’s Inclusive Employment Scheme demonstrates how we are leading on disability inclusion. It exemplifies innovative and ambitious collaborative thinking and commitment to severing the link between social and financial deprivation due to disability.

Leading on disability inclusion, embraced by local disability organisations, in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment (NIUSE), this innovative scheme fosters relationships with multiple organisations in the Northern Ireland disability sector. These partnerships and the collaborative approach have been welcomed by the wide range of disability organisations facing immense challenges and financial pressures. Other benefits include staff learning about the challenges and difficulties faced by participants who, through placement opportunities on the scheme, experience newfound confidence, social skills, technical skills, improved self-worth and, above all, hope.

Inclusivity and accessibility in laboratories should be integrated for all and should form an integral part of laboratory design. Students’ lived experience is an essential and valuable resource to enable an inclusive journey. Significant emphasis has been placed on making reasonable adjustments for disabled students in teaching and assessment strategies in non-laboratory settings. Provision of appropriate support in the laboratory environment for disabled/temporarily impaired students has been overlooked across the higher education sector.

We have designed and developed a Managing Risk for Impaired Laboratory Users (MaRILU) system; this system facilitates the identification, assessment and accommodation of reasonable adjustments in laboratories. It facilitates co-creation of support systems, enables learners to feel valued as partners in the learning process, increasing their sense of belonging on the course and the university. MaRILU can be a catalyst for change, guiding institutions to provide consistent and equitable support for disabled students in laboratory settings.

The James McCune Smith (JMS) Scholarships and Development Programme is a pioneering initiative that provides funding and tailored support for black UK doctoral researchers. It is an important part of the University of Glasgow’s reparative justice initiatives and has become a high-profile, high-impact flagship programme, underscoring the principles of the University’s research strategy where the quality and integrity of the research and the culture in which it is done are paramount. 

The aim of the programme is to provide scholars with exceptional training in their PhD discipline and with the skills they need to ensure their success during, and beyond, their PhD. Through conferring benefits in terms of networks, placements, mentoring and leadership training, it is life-changing for our scholars. It is also changing the nature of scholarship in the University, extending this to areas that will ensure we remain at the forefront of scholarship and research in the future.

The University of Reading is committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone is respected. In 2022-23, we launched our Decolonising the Curriculum resource to industry acclaim. We formally became a University of Sanctuary, recognising our dedication to supporting those seeking sanctuary. We earned our Bronze Race Equality Charter Award, reflecting our strategic actions towards race equality. Our Inclusion Consultants scheme helped to establish BAME student networks and helped our curriculum be more inclusive.

We launched a new LGBTQIA+ Inclusion Fund to support understanding for our LGBTQIA+ community, while our Technical Services team were first in the UK to receive a Silver Athena Swan award for gender equality. We launched "Look Again", a campaign to improve digital accessibility, while our research in EDI-related areas continued to make significant contributions to society. Together, these initiatives set a benchmark for inclusivity in higher education.

The Hillingdon Herald newspaper is a unique project, and there is unlikely to be anything else similar in the UK. The print paper was launched in October 2021, produced entirely by Brunel University London students. However, unlike campus newspapers, this serves the local borough, reporting community news and filling the vacuum left by the disappearance of traditional print products. It is a 24-page paper delivered free at pick-up points such as libraries and shopping centres. 10,000 copies are produced each month.

The Herald has already established itself as the number one local newspaper, delighting readers who bemoaned a gap in the market. Editor Rachel Sharp, a journalism lecturer, said: “We have been stunned by the outpouring of love and the gratitude that Londoners felt in having their local newspaper returned to them.”

High blood pressure is a major public health concern because it contributes to an increased risk of heart and kidney disease. People of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage in the UK are disproportionately affected by high blood pressure, due to genetic reasons, possible lack of awareness and distrust in the NHS, and less engagement with traditional healthcare settings. It is therefore imperative to identify places outside the NHS where we can engage with people at risk of high blood pressure.

We now work closely with voluntary organisations and local communities in the London Boroughs of Southwark and Croydon (our campus locations) to do this. In Croydon, we work with barbershops and in Southwark with student nurse Community Ambassadors, to run outreach events at the university. Our aim is to run innovative community engagement initiatives to take blood pressure readings and give advice to local people, staff and students.

Children Without Limits is an innovative programme that harnesses one of our greatest assets – our students – to narrow educational attainment gaps in our local community. The scheme, which is the only university-run fully operational Saturday school in the country, reinforces Manchester Metropolitan University’s roots in our local community, supporting our local schools, their pupils, their parents and our students.

During the 2022/23 academic year, 122 students from our teacher training and other degree courses delivered additional maths and English sessions to 400 children aged 6-10 from 12 local primary schools each week who had been identified by their head teachers and family liaison officers as needing additional support. The programme, which equates to approximately £480,000 of free intervention to the local community each year, gives students real-world experience and boosts their employability skills while also raising the pupils’ learning, confidence, ability, aspiration and belonging – to deliver better futures.

Understanding the Me in Dementia is a first-of-its-kind module of a master’s course at the University of Bradford, co-designed for health and social care professionals by people living with dementia. A group known as Experts by Experience (also unique to the university) teamed up with the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies to identify the title, exercises and content included on the MSc Advanced Dementia Studies programme.

Those who helped to design the module are involved in teaching, alongside the university’s academic staff. The project began with 13 online workshops featuring 22 people living with dementia who were asked what they most wanted health and social care professionals to know about the condition.

The postgraduate module, taught from September 2023, aims to help students understand people with dementia, treating them as individuals with their own experiences, aspirations, needs and wishes, and challenging stereotypes often still associated with dementia.

The Student Living Strategy is a pioneering commitment between the University of Nottingham (UoN), Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Nottingham City Council. Born out of the Universities for Nottingham partnership and Civic Agreement, the Strategy arose from the joint commitment to "build safe and respectful communities". It aligns civic partners on a strategy to manage and plan student living arrangements for the benefit of both students and longer-term residents.

The Strategy was co-created through a comprehensive programme of stakeholder engagement, data collection, stakeholder engagement and focus groups, culminating in a public consultation and comms launch in February 2023. It has attracted significant sector recognition, providing a blueprint for this type of partnership work. Since its official launch in September 2023, it has demonstrated positive early outcomes for students and communities in Nottingham through influencing planning applications, reducing waste and anti-social behaviour and increasing civic engagement.

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship are engineered into the DNA of Cardiff Met, with a pipeline of successful innovators and change-makers being built through an entrepreneurial approach to curriculum design, mentoring, staff training, and a teaching and learning (enterprise) community.

The Centre for Entrepreneurship acts as a catalyst for the entrepreneurial journey of students, graduates and colleagues, with many entrepreneurs and business leaders engaged with the university and over 1,000 students taking part in sessions aimed at helping them spot opportunities and develop an entrepreneurial mindset. A holistic approach to start-up support has placed Cardiff Met in the top 20% of UK universities for student start-ups for the past five years.

The teams at Circular Economy Innovation Communities (CEIC) Wales, the Creative Leadership and Enterprise Centre (CLEC) and the Food Industry Centre also provide support to businesses spanning the circular economy, leadership, and food development and marketing.

Since its founding in 1907, innovation and entrepreneurship have been at Imperial's core. The new 2024 strategy, "Science for Humanity", stresses the importance of student and academic founders in ensuring Imperial remains a world-leading and a world-changing university. Anchored by three flagship initiatives - Enterprise Lab, Advanced Hackspace and White City Incubator - Imperial has developed one of the UK's leading university-based innovation ecosystems.

Recognised as the best large university in Europe (£1bn+) for start-up creation by the 2024 Redstone University Startup Index, Imperial's goal is to be an internationally recognised university of choice for entrepreneurial students and academics.

LSBU was founded to address challenges in the most deprived communities of London and has a proud heritage of providing opportunities through technical education. The Enterprising Futures team drives LSBU’s entrepreneurial strategy through empowerment, experimentation and elevation. This has created 40+ start-ups and supported 3,000+ students to develop entrepreneurial skills for graduate-level careers. We bridge the entrepreneurial "attainment gap", demonstrated through parity in engagement and venture-creation outputs from flagship programmes, notably from under-represented demographics.

Entrepreneurship is integrated into our academic structure and enhanced through the Enterprising Academic Forum, developing impactful pedagogies for entrepreneurial education. Our student-led services - South Bank Collective, Business Solutions Centre, Legal Advice Clinic and Solutionise - engage 5,000+ SMEs and students a year.

Our support extends to the local community, delivering 8,000+ learner hours to aspiring entrepreneurs, awarding £50,000 in seed funding, and offering guidance from Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Our international collaborations attract distinction, fostering innovation and knowledge-sharing locally and globally.

The University of Dundee has always championed an entrepreneurial culture, but this has now been cemented within our core identity. Our new strategy, co-designed by members of our community and its leadership, resulted in Enterprise and Engagement becoming one of three cornerstones that will define our work for years to come.

Our focus on entrepreneurship at all levels is drawn from innovative research and education and is strongly geared towards creating prosperity and well-being. This has resulted in Dundee being consistently recognised as one of the top universities for successfully supporting new ventures, with Octopus Ventures naming us top in the UK in September 2023 for spin-out support.

With Enterprise now formalised at the heart of our strategy, building on years of consistent success, it clearly demonstrates our effort to embed an entrepreneurial culture across our community, providing joined-up support to help fulfil our shared vision.

With entrepreneurship at the heart of our mission to make the world a better place, the University of Edinburgh works with all our communities to nurture and grow the vibrant Edinburgh region entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our activity embeds our values of diversity, inclusiveness and sustainability throughout this pathway and builds cross-university and regional activity, through the Data-Driven Initiative, to support the whole entrepreneurial journey. Our Data-Driven Hubs and our world-class Edinburgh BioQuarter provide even more opportunity for direct links to industry collaborations, and space for young enterprises to grow in a connected network.

We inspire and equip every student and staff member with the entrepreneurship skills to solve the world's biggest challenges and we support the whole adventure from idea to investment from Old College Capital, our in-house venture investment fund. Our entrepreneurial ecosystem enabled 123 new staff and student companies and secured £108m of investment in associated companies.

The University of Westminster has developed an inclusive approach to entrepreneurship appropriate for its diverse student community, where 58% of home undergraduates are the first in their family to go to university. Because its students lack capital and access to professional networks, the University developed the Westminster Enterprise Network (WeNetwork) a community of entrepreneurial alumni, freelancers and intrapreneurs, able to demystify entrepreneurship and make it achievable for students. In 2022-23, more than 80% of home undergraduate students taking part in extra-curricular entrepreneurship activities were from disadvantaged backgrounds. WeNetwork activities, including student consultancy for local businesses, are being embedded across the curriculum.

This sector-leading approach was recognised in 2023 when WeNetwork won three National Enterprise Educator awards. The WeNetwork community’s entrepreneurship, job creation and business innovation impacts will scale further in 2025, when it moves to a new Entrepreneurship building at 29 Marylebone Road, London.

Estates Team: Stephen Pullen; John Starmer; Ann Beirne; Matt Cooper; Valerie Crepin; Graeme Cappi; Dan Johnson

Faculty Team: Hannah Page; Kara Hanson; Niki Jones

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Estates Team successfully led the creation of a new building as part of a strategy to enhance the university’s ability to improve health worldwide. Carefully designed to maximise space in a tightly constrained location and developed in collaboration with the community, Tavistock Place 2 (TP2) provides a high-quality, flexible and sustainable working environment.

Having the right facilities is key to achieving LSHTM’s vision for a more healthy, sustainable and equitable world. The team was tasked with transforming this challenging site to release space and create a vibrant workplace where cross-disciplinary innovation can flourish. It is home to 200 members of staff including scientists developing solutions to major health issues facing the world. Green rooftop terraces support local biodiversity, while brass cladding and privacy screens incorporating artwork inspired by LSHTM’s illustrious history in epidemiology will enhance the environment for years to come.

Ulster University’s Estates Services is a diverse regional team of professionals and highly skilled trades – architects, engineers, surveyors, joiners, plumbers and more – designing, developing and delivering our inspiring estate and the places and spaces in which our research and learning communities thrive.  The team are responsible for day-to-day efficiency to progressive biodiversity, and everything in between; from estates planning, including capital developments central to the region’s City Deal ambitions, to the safety and security of campus facilities, minor works and essential maintenance.

In September 2022, Ulster University’s enhanced Belfast campus opened its doors to new and returning students and staff. A 75,000m2 campus addition made it one of the largest higher education capital builds in Europe. A huge team effort since its inception – and never more so than in those final few months – the Estates team’s unwavering dedication and teamwork ensured readiness for opening and occupancy as this new place of work and study came to life.

The University of Glasgow Estates team has delivered on a once-in-a-century opportunity to transform the 14-acre former Western Infirmary site, adjacent to the Gilmorehill campus, into a learning and research environment. Leading a £1.3 billion campus expansion programme – one of the largest higher education developments in the UK – the team secured support from a range of stakeholders, navigated competing design priorities, stringent funding requirements, a global pandemic and supply shortages.

Partnering with trusted contractors, the team has designed, constructed and, over 36 months, opened four state-of-the-art academic buildings along with expansive public realm and supporting infrastructure in the heart of Glasgow’s West End. Every aspect of the development was carefully planned and executed to ensure a sustainable approach and a lasting legacy of innovation, teaching, research, sustainability and community engagement. All this is in alignment with the University’s vision, mission and the needs of the students, academics and the local community.

The University of Plymouth’s Estates and Facilities Directorate has 313 staff covering functions from capital projects, catering, cleaning and nursery facilities, to student accommodation, security and sustainability. This fosters opportunities for interdepartmental working, which enabled the University to become the second in the UK to achieve PAS 2060 carbon neutral verification.

The team has completed a £100 million remodelling of the 1960s InterCity Place and the 1970s Babbage Building, and worked with researchers on the CobBauge Building, a first-of-its-kind showcase of sustainable construction technologies. Other initiatives include a strengthened commitment to encouraging biodiversity, the increased use of ethically and locally procured food in its cafes, and the sourcing and transporting of an electricity generator to a partner university in Ukraine.

Engaging students, staff, partners and visitors, these actions symbolise a joined-up team approach that enables the University to deliver first-rate facilities and opportunities, while supporting communities and reducing any environmental impact.

Reading’s Estates team had a stand-out year in thier mission to deliver campuses that serve our people and the environment. We were ranked the number one sustainable university in the UK (2023/24 People & Planet University League) and best in Europe for contributing to global goals around waste and resources. Our new Estate Strategy for campus development underpins this recognition, harnessing best practice from the private sector, including Formula 1, to go beyond sector standards.

Stand-out achievements during the period include diverting almost 99% of waste from landfill, through successful recycling schemes, and securing £3m funding to install green energy facilities that will cut our carbon footprint by 10%. We completed a new mock hospital ward to provide clinical training to students and NHS staff, and a new Art building that has breathed new life into a disused building. We also invited the community and emergency services to engage with our campus in brand new ways.

In April 2023, the University of Worcester opened its Elizabeth Garrett Anderson building – a state-of-the-art building for the education of health and medical students. The development formed part of the University’s transformation of a declining and part derelict industrial estate into a vibrant, dynamic University Campus, with a focus on health, well-being and inclusive sport.

This flagship development, now home to the University’s long-awaited and much-needed Three Counties Medical School, presented a number of challenges, not least as work got underway as the world entered the global Covid-19 pandemic. Part of the existing Brutalist structure included three "feature" external staircases which, as part of the planning, were required to be retained during construction and incorporated into the new build. The Estates team worked collaboratively with the architects and appointed contractors, through transparent and honest relationships, ensuring that the complex transformation was completed on time and on budget.

Cardiff University Library has demonstrated visible leadership of groundbreaking work on anti-racism, EDI and sustainability, which is embedded within the library strategy for 2023-27. In putting our words into action, we work across the university and with other sector partners to advocate for change and make it happen.

The library strategy, approved by Senate, includes the following commitments:

• We aim to create a welcoming environment for a diverse body of staff and students, to attract and retain more diverse staff who better reflect the customer base and enrich our services through their lived experience
• We seek to promote a cultural shift and active challenge to the status quo in a UK library workforce, which is 97% white
• Ensure we have the physical infrastructure to support the ambitions of the university and can deliver a future-proofed and environmentally sustainable library service

Dublin City University (DCU) has been at the forefront of widening access to its Library spaces. In 2022, DCU piloted providing free access to library study spaces for Leaving Certificate students. This was the first time such a service support was formalised by an Irish academic library and proved to be very popular providing safe, quiet study areas in advance of and during pivotal exams. A large percentage of the spaces were reserved for students coming from DEIS (Delivering Equality of opportunity In Schools) and disadvantaged areas.

In 2023, the service was mainstreamed and numbers jumped from 790 to 1,651 registered students. In 2023, DCU Library also piloted classes in English and Irish for secondary-level students, drawing on the expertise of the DCU authors in residence, Dave Rudden and Megan O'Connor. 200 students from over 80 schools participated, gaining access to free expert tuition and unique insights.

Emily Dott and the Library's Academic Liaison Team; Terry Charlton and the Learning and Teaching Development Service

Generative AI poses both challenges and opportunities for educators and students. Using videos, critical evaluation checklists, online tutorials and self-assessments, we have created practical tools for students to enhance their studies.

Our Learning and Teaching Development Service colleagues have created parallel guidance for academics, including AI-focused workshops to introduce AI and how to optimise its use. All resources have been well received. Within a week of launching, they had attracted 2,024 unique views. From April 2023 to date, they received over 18,300 unique views, and several universities have approached us for permission to reuse materials.

Our work has been recognised professionally, and we have been invited to collaborate with colleagues in other higher education institutions to develop subject-level resources. Co-creation, feedback and co-evaluation with students underpin all of this work and ongoing feedback will inform future phases of development – nothing stands still in the world of AI.

Supporting our University strategy to enhance the student experience, our library teams collaborated with students through our University “students as partners” initiative to create a decolonising and diversifying toolkit for reading lists.

The team worked together focusing on four objectives:

• conducting a literature review and research on information and toolkits created by other Universities
• an audit of a select group of internal reading lists to gain an enhanced understanding of the authors and voices being represented
• the creation of the toolkit
• a video explaining diversification and decolonisation and how it relates to the library collection

The resources produced are available via our internal library pages. Following the completion of the project, the team have shared the work at external events, and one of the staff members is working with one of our faculties with the aim to embed the toolkit further within programme delivery.

In 2022, the University of Edinburgh's Library Research Support Team introduced the UK's first "Rights Retention" Publications Policy, allowing authors to comply easily with complicated Open Access Requirements, and retain more control over their publications. This sparked a shift in scholarly communications, and 30 UK universities have now adopted such a policy, making life easier for authors and libraries and potentially saving the sector millions of pounds.

Early in 2023, Library Research Support also introduced one of the first Library-based Citizen Science & Participatory Research services, which supports researchers to use library collections, spaces and services to actively and positively involve individuals and community groups in research projects.

Sharing information about both these initiatives with academic libraries across the UK and further afield, we hope to change practice internationally. Our colleagues come from diverse professional backgrounds and employ interdisciplinary approaches; we are the modern face of research libraries.

From an inauspicious starting point, University of Nottingham Libraries has transformed our Digital Accessibility offer into one that is now sector leading. As well as adopting new technologies to effectively meet the needs of users, a programme of cultural change has been embedded to ensure good practice and governance throughout the University of Nottingham. A dedicated Digital Accessibility Team provides proactive advice and guidance across the institution, via a package of training, resources and support for a Community of Practice. A sector-wide Special Interest Group has been established, which shares outputs and supports the development of guidance for the sector.

This work culminated in the sector’s first Digital Accessibility Conference in June 2023, with over 300 delegates attending in person, with a further online conference scheduled for June 2024. The real measure of success for the programme has been in creating truly accessible teaching and learning experiences.

Abertay University rolled out a comprehensive brand awareness campaign in 2023 creating a new narrative for the institution based on its core values, sense of local pride and social mission. Work began to conceptualise a top-to-bottom brand refresh focused on three key goals from the Strategic Plan 2020-25: offering transformational opportunities; inspiring students/graduates to achieve full potential; and preparing students for work.

These values reflect Abertay’s student demographic (around 50% of students from the local area, high proportion of disadvantaged students, around a third of all students coming to us from college, high proportion of mature students). The successful campaign addressed outdated local and national perceptions and led to an 11% rise in student applications, bucking a national downwards trend.

We are a fraction of the size of most university marketing and communications teams and we have a giant remit. By prioritising everything we do based on impact and efficiency, we have driven huge success for the University, from driving exceptional ROI through our Clearing campaign, to generating 1,270,772 organic engagements from one important moment in our students’ journey.

Our work has contributed to almost all strands of the University’s strategy and we have gone above and beyond in our commitment to our students’ futures. With London Met graduates making up more than a third of our team, we embody our institution’s values, we deliver authentic marketing and communications activity and, with it, we are achieving great success.

For the academic year of 2022/23, Queen’s strategic communications team worked tirelessly to significantly enhance the University’s public perception locally, nationally and internationally, with 97% of the 50,000+ pieces of media coverage generated being positive. Social media sentiment echoed this positivity, with targeted storytelling amplifying Queen’s across the world as a reputable academic authority and a force for local good, with positive sentiment increasing across platforms.

The team’s concerted media engagement efforts yielded unprecedented results, including: the major Agreement 25 conference; an innovative communications approach to highlight funding challenges by strategically demonstrating Queen’s contribution both economically and to wider society; and taking a quirkier approach to scientific research. Their efforts have positioned Queen’s University as a global leader in academia and research, driving positive public perception and impactful outcomes on both local and international scales.

In 2022/23, the University of Exeter brought marketing and communication professionals together with world-leading climate scientists and collaborated with policymakers, businesses, philanthropists and charities to create a new campaign to drive action on the climate and ecological crisis.

Exeter built a Green Futures campaign that drew upon its 1,500 experts working on green solutions to deliver change utilising platforms such as the World Economic Forum, New York Climate Action Week and UNFCCC conferences, to speak science to power and thus influence key decision-makers.

At COP28 in Dubai, Exeter delivered over 4,000 pieces of media coverage and achieved nearly 2,000 media mentions, six times more than any other university. On social media, Exeter reached over 17 million people within two weeks, and a campaign on positive tipping points has now reached over 15 million people. Exeter’s work was referenced by world leaders and in the final COP28 text.

The University of Leeds' Student Communications Team launched a dynamic content campaign to empower students in tackling the cost of living crisis through effective money management. The strategy aligned institutional messaging with student insights and needs, structured around key milestones in the academic calendar, culminating in a series of activities timed during National Student Money Week.

The campaign included an online cost-of-living hub, 26 blogs, 7 TikTok videos, 10 Instagram story takeovers and 42 student newsletter articles. A student-informed digital recipe book enabled students to create affordable recipes from peers around the world, while student money tips formed the basis of a student money guide shared with freshers every September. Campaign content was created in collaboration with students being student-led, -informed or -approved. As a result, the campaign drove behaviour change and significantly increased student awareness of financial support available.

University of Stirling footballers made history when they played Premiership side Dundee United in a "David versus Goliath" tie in 2023. It was an unprecedented opportunity to promote Stirling’s reputation as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence – but the marcomms team faced several challenges. With limited time and budget, the team focused on creating exciting and engaging social media content, while strategically maximising earned media opportunities. The ambitious strategy yielded phenomenal results, with major sporting names – including Sir Alex Ferguson and Lilian Thuram – backing the campaign. Their endorsement, combined with the production of four impactful films, led the team to surpass their objectives.

Driven by the campaign, which reached 1.49 million across social media, Stirling sold 1,000+ tickets for the match. With widespread media coverage including BBC Sportscene, Reporting Scotland, STV News, The Times and The Sun, the campaign cemented Stirling’s reputation as a leader in university sport.

Dr Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero, Associate Professor of BioResource Systems in the School of Civil Engineering, embodies the superpower of providing consistent and sustained support to postgraduate researchers. His unwavering commitment to students has been recognised through awards, including the Mentorship Award at the Leeds University Union Partnership Awards 2024.

As a leader at Leeds, he has focused on enhancing student experience and has supervised numerous research projects. His approach creates a supportive network that provides tailor-made training around postgraduate researchers’ needs, which also helps to deliver consistent supervision and share good practices among colleagues. His supervision approach emphasizes supporting students from diverse backgrounds by increasing the participation of under-represented groups in STEM subjects and aims to empower all students to reach their full potential.

Professor Angela Creese is an exceptional supervisor who has supported high numbers of doctoral researchers over the span of her career, inspiring the next generation to excel in the academy. She has supported students who face significant linguistic and cultural challenges, creating a stimulating and supportive environment for them to reach high levels of achievement and contribute to the education of future generations in over 20 countries globally.

She has gone beyond typical levels of supervisory support, creating opportunities for postgraduate students to learn through the bespoke programmes she has designed. Many of her graduates go on to excel in academic and professional posts in the UK and abroad, winning prestigious prizes and appointments to the boards of respected international organisations.

Professor Felix Driver has supervised PhDs from the UK and abroad and has an enviable success rate, with his students moving on to incredible career journeys: from the British Library and Kew Gardens, to professorships at universities, with three former students becoming postgraduate research managers at Oxford, Bristol and a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership.

Professor Driver has also made a notable commitment to Collaborative Doctoral Projects by devising and co-supervising collections-based doctoral research projects with external partners, including Kew Gardens, the Royal Geographical Society, Science Museum, National Maritime Museum and the British Library. He has, to date, has won funding for 18 AHRC and ESRC Collaborative Doctoral studentships, 12 as lead applicant, including two new AHRC awards with Kew and the RGS starting in September 2024.

Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey is Professor of Applied Disability Sport and Director of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) at Loughborough University. In 2017, she received the IPC Paralympic Scientific Award. A renowned scientist, she is an inspiration to everyone with whom she works. She has supervised almost 30 PhD students. Since graduating, they have secured leadership roles in Para sport. About 20% of the Paris 2024 Paralympics GB Leadership Team are PHC alumni. Her unique supervision method – the “embedded scientist approach” – is now replicated elsewhere. It provides students with unique access to Para athletes, resources, facilities and international travel to support their research.

An EDI advocate, she positively recruits mature and disabled students, going above and beyond to eliminate the barriers to their success. There is no denying Professor Goosey-Tolfrey’s ability to challenge her students, supporting and inspiring them to achieve their potential.

Kimberly Hutchings, Professor of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, demonstrates an outstanding commitment to nurturing Politics and International Relations careers. She has had a long supervisory career during which she has mentored many of her field’s current established scholars. Her responsive, student-centred approach to PhD supervision has inspired an outstanding range of creative and challenging initiatives that have benefitted doctoral students in her whole school and field.

Dr T. Komang Ralebitso Senior has fostered an inclusive research environment in her laboratory and beyond, in which postgraduate researchers (PGRs) are given every opportunity to grow their ambitions while retaining a sense of perspective and belonging. She has had remarkable success with her supervision of international PGRs and support for them through the challenges of research in another country. Her supervisees’ reflections of their experience state that they felt part of a team but were also encouraged as individuals.

Dr Ralebitso has a highly person-centred approach to supervision, responding to individual needs and developing bespoke support and guidance. She sees support in the round as an integrated part of supervision and this is evident in the testimony of her supervisees. Supervisees concur that Dr Ralebitso is highly invested in every aspect of their doctoral journey and her exceptional willingness to support them in their ambitions for research and to be beside them for the duration.

Dr Colin Rickman leads pioneering interdisciplinary research in regulated secretion and super-resolution microscopy at Heriot-Watt University. He consistently goes above and beyond to enhance the postgraduate research experience, personally stepping in to support students with concerns such as the departure of a primary supervisor. The successful career trajectories of his former students clearly demonstrate his ability to inspire enthusiasm and passion for biomedical research/research tools. Completing a PhD is challenging, and many students leave research after being burnt out by the process, but this has not been the case for any students under Dr Rickman’s care.

As a founding member and Director of the award-winning Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging Consortium (ESRIC) facility at Heriot-Watt, Dr Rickman promotes access for students and researchers to cutting-edge technologies and to in-depth training. He is an exceptional research supervisor, and his unwavering dedication to providing support has significantly impacted the academic and professional journeys of his students.

Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design and Postgraduate Research (PGR) Lead for the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art. She holds a PFHEA focusing on pedagogy and design PhDs and has pioneered elevating graphic design as an expanded practice to doctoral level. Professor Triggs has supervised 31 PhDs to completion and has been an external examiner on 25 PhD examinations in the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Her contribution to PhD pedagogy resides in helping designers coming back into education reform their practices to serve new goals.

To counter the often-isolating experience of PhD research, she runs the School of Communication’s weekly seminar series, where research students and staff share interdisciplinary knowledge through peer engagement. Professor Triggs also initiated a PGR-led collaborative project – itinerant space – to provide students with publishing experience and an inclusive space to reconsider the role of academic publishing.

Nick Braisby, Vice-Chancellor; Margaret Rioga, Director of Student Success

Buckinghamshire New University Student Hub team: Jill Austen; Jade Laver; Dan Gerrish; Andy Davies; Imam Haseeb Jahangir; Annice Thomas; Samantha Mitchell; Lucy Austen; Simon Allen; Sarah Jamieson; Emily Crawshaw; Bisma Petafi

Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is committed to supporting students with transition into, through and out of higher education into graduate-level employment that empowers each student to make a significant contribution to society. The "Student Hub recruitment drive, investment and growth" has supported this as evidenced by the recruitment of a second Safeguarding officer, an International Advisor and a Multi-Faith Chaplain in 2023.

The Hub has moved to the all-new atrium space on the ground floor of the BNU Wycombe campus, making it more accessible for students. The Report & Support project that commenced in May 2023 went live in September 2023, enabling students and staff to easily refer concerns to the Safeguarding team. BNU networks with local community projects such as Bucks Mind, Helping Hand and Safe Haven to hold events.

London South Bank University undertook an 18-month collaborative project with our black students in relation to reshaping and redefining our Mental Health and Well-being services and resources recognising the needs of our black students. The project involved the production of a wealth of resources and we undertook a number of initiatives, including developing a peer-mentoring scheme. The backdrop to the project was that black students were under-represented in self-referral to Mental Health and Well-being support services and over-represented in crisis pathways. We spent time identifying why this might be and to develop our services on the back of these findings.

The project was instructive in helping us to develop our cultural awareness in the delivery of mental health support and to understand barriers that black students have in accessing our services. We developed an understanding of the connotations for black students and, in particular, black male students around accessing support.

The New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering is revolutionising engineering education by focusing on real-world problem-solving and reducing barriers for aspiring engineers. The BOOST initiative, introduced in 2023, addresses the cost of living to support student well-being and finances allowing them to fully focus on their studies.

Key components include:

• Free daily BOOST Breakfast: drinks, cereals, toast, fruit and a "grab and go" option
• Free monthly Friday Breakfast Club: Pre-ordered hot items and social time
• Free monthly Sunday Lunch: Traditional roasts from local partners
• 12 Weeks of Free Shopping: Access to community larders
• Free Sanitary Products: Available across campuses
• Travel Support: £1 daily towards commuting costs
• Free Cleaning Bundles: with quarterly restocks for shared houses
• For 2024/25, additions include free laundry pods and guest meals at local businesses

Students appreciate BOOST for financial relief, improved nutrition and reduced stress, with 100% supporting its continuation in a recent survey.

Queen Mary University of London's (QMUL) Sexual Assault and Harassment Advice (SAHA) Service, established in May 2022, fills a crucial support gap for students who experience sexual violence and/or abuse. Before its inception, students lacked specialist support and often faced lengthy waiting lists for help. SAHAs offer trauma-informed practical and emotional support.

Over 21 months, the service supported 154 students from diverse backgrounds. Satisfaction rates are high, with many students reporting improved mental health, coping strategies and a sense of safety, as well as feeling empowered to continue in education. The SAHA service also delivers awareness-raising campaigning and delivers training to staff on responding to disclosures.

The service is part of QMUL's broader efforts, including the PHASE group, to address sexual harassment and misconduct. The SAHA's partnerships with external services ensure students receive comprehensive, holistic support. Overall, the SAHA service significantly enhances the university's response to sexual violence fostering a safer, more inclusive environment.

In response to the emerging Cost of Living crisis and its impact on our students, the University of Manchester and our Students’ Union joined forces to develop an exemplary package of support during 2022/23. Notably, one-off payments (totalling over £9m) were made available to all students in November 2022 and February 2023. In total, over £10m of support reached our students through a wide range of interventions across the academic year.

This outstanding student support response received national media coverage, was showcased in a number of pivotal reports and subsequently has directly influenced political discourse in Westminster addressing systemic issues with student finances, effecting significant policy shifts. The legacy of our response during the academic year 2022/23 endures through this work and continues to positively impact conversations around financial support for students across the whole country.

The University of Roehampton’s 4P approach to student support and success is delivering transformational change by enhancing student experience and improving outcomes across the student journey. Through the creation of integrated data dashboards, we identify early risk indicators such as self-reported low confidence in study skills pre-arrival or a decrease in attendance during their studies which triggers our proactive early interventions. In 2022/23, our unique approach to support made it possible for 75% of the 10,000+ students considered at risk of poor outcomes to progress successfully.

Our 4P approach is modelled on:

• Predictive: utilising data to predict students in need of early intervention
• Preventative: developing opportunities to support students to navigate the challenges across their academic journey
• Proactive: supporting students before they arrive to aid transition or before their issues are exacerbated through early indicators of risk using data analytics
• Personalised: adapt support based on unique needs of individuals

Dr Sarah Bennett, of the School of Life Sciences, has led on two areas of significant change at the University of Warwick: firstly, leading the design and implementation of the Bio-Analytical Shared Resource Laboratories (BioSLRs); and secondly, driving positive research culture change for research technical professionals (RTPs) across Warwick and nationally.

Through the BioSRLs, Dr Bennett has united a range of technologies to provide a more organised, accessible and sustainable infrastructure and technical resource. This includes securing £50,000 from Research Culture funds and £500,000 from BBSRC for state-of-the-art equipment, both with Dr Bennett as principal investigator. She has supported the development of the staff in the BioSRL, providing opportunities for training and empowered her staff to take on further responsibilities, creating a positive culture.

She is dedicated to creating a positive research culture for technical staff through involvement with several successful Research Culture projects. This includes reducing isolation for RTPs through a series of local and institution-wide forums for RTPs.

Sally Carter is a confident, helpful and energetic Technician who has made a positive contribution to the culture of the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences. She actively contributes to School Committees and volunteers to help other Technical Teams and encourages this behaviour in others. She is committed to continual learning and applying her expertise and skill set widely.

Her expertise is recognised through Professional Accreditation from BASES and she is experienced in providing sports science services to athletes. She excels in her role to support and enable the collection of physiological data from Human participants and the management of laboratories across two buildings.

Her excellent relationship with Laboratory users and her creative approach to identifying and solving problems led her to develop and implement a Research Buddy Scheme. This scheme was piloted in 2023/24 and saved 260 hours of lost data collection and improved the employability of students.

Jodie Chatfield is an outstanding advocate for the advancement of technical careers and support for neurodivergent staff. In a career of almost 30 years, she has advanced from Apprentice to Head of Technical Services in Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Her dedication has transformed the 100+ technicians in the School to a cohesive team fostering excellent performance with constant opportunities for career development. Ms Chatfield's contribution extends to playing a crucial role in University-level Committees, including the Technical Managers Committee, where she leads the University Technician Commitment strategy supporting staff to achieve professional registration and AdvanceHE status.

Her work with neurodivergent staff developed from one individual, to developing University-wide systems of support and increasing awareness of training needs. Through MI TALENT, she expanded this nationally, to enable the sector to learn from this established good practice. For this, she was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s award in 2023.

Nominating Mark Dabee Saltmarsh for recognition celebrates his exceptional contributions to Cardiff Metropolitan University and the wider educational community in South Wales. Transitioning from diverse creative industries to teaching in 2010, he emerged as a skilled technician, impacting various projects across the university, including the annual Creative Exhibition. His expertise in traditional and modern design methods equips teachers and students with essential skills. Dabee Saltmarsh’s proactive approach and collaborative mindset significantly influences educational initiatives, promoting STEM education and inclusivity. His commitment to collaboration extends to interdisciplinary projects, with consideration for diverse perspectives among students and staff.

As chair of the Technician Commitment working group, he advocates for technicians’ interests across the UK and successfully represents them on institutional committees, including UKITSS, ensuring their voice is heard in decision-making processes. His leadership, dedication and impact for technicians make him a deserving candidate for recognition within Cardiff Metropolitan University and throughout the UK.

Ashley Grimmer has been instrumental in our hyperpolarised projects, including the pioneering first-in-human fumarate study. His expertise ensures that all consumables are available and equipment is prepared for study visits. This niche research area requires specialised knowledge, which he possesses. He often troubleshoots issues independently and supports three other UK centres using the same equipment. His dedication contributed to an 89% success rate in scanning participants, the highest in the UK and Europe.

Academics, postdocs and PhD students rely on his expertise, which has been foundational for many publications and theses. His initiative in optimising the preparation of imaging agents for MRI scans, validating radiopharmacy processes and maintaining lab equipment ensures high operational standards.

Mr Grimmer actively participates in the hyperpolarised C13 community, sharing his knowledge at international conferences and fostering global academic relationships. His exceptional contributions and problem-solving skills make him a deserving candidate for this award.

Jenna Lowe is a core/research support technician at The University of Liverpool. She is currently on a two-year secondment as our lab sustainability officer and is taking the opportunity to use her technical knowledge, skills and experience to follow her passion to influence the whole organisation to become more sustainable in laboratory and technical areas.

Ms Lowe's drive, influencing and organisation skills are enabling her to excel in her role. She demonstrates perfectly how technical skills can be transferable, highlighting an alternative career route that technicians could take by moving into sustainability, a vital and growing area. 

James McStravick's skills as a Research Radiographer (Technical Specialist) support the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Core Facility. He has proactively engaged with the wider technical and academic community to promote the high-impact research undertaken by the facility and seek out collaborative projects that utilise the MRI facility and generate grant income. Aligning to the ITSS recommendations and with support from UKRI, technicians are now encouraged to be part of grant-funding applications. Mr McStravick has been co-investigator on a Wolfson Foundation grant application.

He is a member of the College of Radiographers' Research Advisory Committee where he contributes to the College’s research activity and development of its responses for national and international consultations on research-related matters. He reviews grant-funding applications for the College of Radiographers' Industry Partnership Scheme (CoRIPS) which supports radiography research. Mr McStravick achieved AdvanceHE Fellowship in 2023 and plays an active role within Manchester Met’s Technician Commitment Governance Group.

During her 17 years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Dr Mamta Sharma’s expertise in molecular biology techniques has been instrumental in achieving project goals, advancing scientific understanding, and fostering a collaborative research environment. She has consistently delivered impactful contributions across diverse research projects, collaborated with renowned scientists, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and skilled technicians. Her collaborative spirit extends beyond technical expertise, as she has served as a mentor and role model. 

She has: delivered 30,000 conditional KO vectors for the EUCOMM/KOMP project, enabling global research on gene function and disease (12,000+ mutations); and developed protocols for CRISPR therapies in the ENCORE project, empowering researchers to explore improved patient outcomes.

Beyond her technical expertise, she fosters collaboration and innovation, guiding teams to translate ideas into groundbreaking science and, as a mentor, she inspires creative thinking within the institute. In addition to her technical skills, she has played a role in the Technician commitment programme.

The total number of drug-related deaths (DRDs) in Scotland has increased substantially over the past 20 years. Although police officers are potentially well placed to provide emergency first aid for overdose sufferers, there was no precedent for this in the UK or evidence to suggest it was feasible or acceptable. This pilot project tested the carriage and administration of intranasal Naloxone by officers.

Police records indicate that all recipients of Naloxone administration during the pilot survived these overdose events and no adverse effects were reported. 16,600 police officers now carry Naloxone as part of their standard kit, and Scotland is the only country where every officer is trained and equipped at the point of recruitment.

As of 4 March 2024, there were 452 incidents where police officers administered Naloxone to save a person experiencing an overdose, and Police Scotland now plays a significant role in reducing the annual DRDs in Scotland.

Claire Jowitt, project lead, University of East Anglia

Lord Dannatt, chair, Gloucester 1682 Trust

Benjamin Redding, Sarah Barrow, Steve Waters, Development Office (Communications team, UEA)

Julian Barnwell, Lincoln Barnwell, James Little (Norfolk Historic Shipwrecks)

Steve Miller, Francesca Vanke, Ruth Battersby Tooke, Jo Warr (Norfolk Museums Service)

Since UEA’s worldwide launch of the discovery of a royal shipwreck off the Norfolk coast, a tidal wave of academic, engagement and civic activity has followed. The extent of public curiosity in our work on the Gloucester is as great as ever encountered in the University's 60-year history.

The innovative research at the heart of the project is transforming our understanding of 17th-century political and maritime history and has paved the way for a major heritage attraction in one of England’s most deprived areas. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust and AHRC, the researchers are producing a unique cradle-to-grave history of the warship, while revealing real lives lost when it ran aground in 1682.

As well as extensive global media coverage, the award-winning project has inspired an acclaimed exhibition at Norwich Castle visited by 70,000 people, an animated drama, a lecture at the Royal Institution and a major academic conference.

In August 2023, University of Glasgow archaeologists discovered a hoard of coins buried in a small pot in Glencoe which provide a fascinating insight into life before the infamous 1692 Glencoe Massacre, which saw 38 members of the MacDonald clan killed. Discovered 330 years after they were hidden, the 36 coins were found in a pot secreted in the grand fireplace of a Glencoe house. None of the coins were minted after the 1680s, leading archaeologists to suggest that they were most likely buried either just before or during the 1692 Glencoe Massacre. Whoever buried the coins did not return for them, which could indicate that they were among the victims.

University-led excavations provide new insight and understanding into how challenging and inhospitable landscapes such as Glencoe might have been inhabited and managed. The Glencoe Coin Hoard discovery went global, capturing the imagination of the world.

Professor Doreen Boyd, team lead

Team members: Dr Bethany Jackson; Dr Edgar Rodríguez-Huerta; Albert Nyarko-Agyei; Dr Renoy Girindran; Cristina Vrinceanu; Laoise Ní Bhriain; Samuel Valman; Professor Giles Foody; Professor Zoe Trodd; Professor Todd Landman

There are an estimated 50 million people in modern slavery today around the world. But slavery cannot hide from satellites. Using Earth Observation (EO), Professor Doreen Boyd and her team have detected and analysed exploitation at scales never before attempted, in multiple countries and sectors, with impacts on national and intergovernmental policy, and leading to the liberation of thousands of people.

Since 2022-23, funded by the UK Government’s Modern Slavery Innovation Fund, they have focused on exploitation in India’s brick kilns - a vast, under-regulated sector that is rarely assessed for environmental impact and exploitation scale. This Social Science project uses EO via remote-sensing satellites to map the sector’s environmental and labour violations, and then provides robust data to support:

• strengthened capability to disrupt and prosecute
• improved victim identification and liberation
• reduced vulnerability to victimisation; and
• improved evidence on what works, ready for scale-up across surrounding countries

The University of Surrey’s Professor Carrie Newlands, with others, conducted research revealing the shocking extent of sexual misconduct within the surgical professions. Professor Newlands and the team she co-leads - the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery (WPSMS) - deployed the findings to drive real change. Extensive media coverage was combined with pre- and post-publication work with the NHS, regulators and Royal Colleges to ensure the impact of the findings was immediate.

A wide range of actions were captured within the WPSMS report, “Breaking the Silence: Addressing Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare”. Outcomes include over 340 organisations signing up to an NHS England Sexual Safety Charter and support for a change in legislation to make employers responsible for ensuring the sexual safety of their workers. These and other ongoing actions have made UK healthcare safer for the workforce and patients alike.

Professor Barbara Pierscionek, project lead, Anglia Ruskin University

Collaborator: Professor Robert Stevens, Director, Drive Systems Ltd

Sight loss has a devastating impact on quality of life. The most severe eye disease that causes complete loss of central vision is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the incidence of which is increasing globally as the population is ageing. Deterioration of the retinal pigment epithelium and the membrane that supports it are causal factors in AMD. These retinal layers do not regenerate. Hence, the only effective cure for AMD is transplantation of the retinal pigment epithelium with a biocompatible supportive membrane.

The research team led by Professor Pierscionek, in collaboration with engineering expertise in electrospinning, made a breakthrough by creating a viable and sustainable retinal pigment epithelial layer on an electro-spun nanofibre membrane. The membrane incorporates anti-inflammatory agents to prevent tissue rejection after transplantation.

The research was published in 2023, achieved wide media attention and has led to a company dedicating its facilities to production of retinal tissue for transplantation.

Tsunamis have caused over 250,000 deaths in the past 20 years. Over 680 million people live in tsunami risk areas, so reliable early tsunami warning systems are vital. Current warning systems rely on seismic and sea-level measurements which lead to false alarms; reducing false alarms has been a focus for UNESCO.

Dr Usama Kadri and his team started working on tsunami-related research in 2010. In the past few years, funding has allowed the development of the technology. The team has developed a real-time early tsunami warning system complementing current intergovernmental efforts. This more reliable real-time early tsunami warning system can assess tsunamis in coastal areas, globally, in less than 30 seconds and can reduce the number of false alarms and, most importantly, the impact on people.  

The discoveries of the Giant Arc and the Big Ring, two ultra-large-scale structures in the Universe, raise potential challenges to fundamental assumptions upon which the standard model of cosmology is founded. Alexia Lopez, a PhD student from the University of Central Lancashire, presented her work at two American Astronomical Society (AAS) meetings and both times she was selected to present her work at their press conference.

Following these events, Lopez’s work appeared in articles worldwide, and she appeared in interviews (live and recorded) on television and radio and appeared in a BBC Four documentary with Professor Jim Al-Khalili in 2022 (following the discovery of the Giant Arc). More recently, Lopez was invited to present her work at a prestigious Royal Society meeting, "Challenging the Standard Cosmological Model", held in April 2024.

Professor Andrew Crosby; Professor Emma Baple

It is estimated that one in 15 people worldwide will develop a rare genetic condition, commonly during childhood. There are more than 7,000 rare genetic conditions, and diagnosis takes five years on average, although >50% of patients still remain undiagnosed. Finding a precise genetic cause is crucial to access specialist care, unlock new treatments and avoid unnecessary investigations. However, the rarity of these diseases makes them extremely difficult to study in the general global population.

University of Exeter researchers Professors Andrew Crosby and Emma Baple established the Windows of Hope project (WoH), a collaboration with the North American Amish communities, largely funded by the MRC, NIH, Wellcome and Medical Research Foundation. WoH began in 2000 and entails the world’s most successful discovery programme of Amish genetic disorders, which has transformed clinical and diagnostic services for medically underserved Amish communities and for people with these conditions worldwide.

Researchers at the University of Leeds have made a groundbreaking discovery - a new material that thickens as it stretches. Led by Professor Helen Gleeson, the team explored the semi-soft elasticity of liquid crystal elastomers. This synthetic material is the world's first to exhibit auxetic behaviour at the molecular level, expanding under pressure.

Auxeticity - where a material thickens rather than thins when stretched - offers advantages in shock absorption, fracture resistance and durability. Potential applications include electronic screens, glass for buildings and vehicles, and extending the lifespan of wind turbine blades. Professor Gleeson's spin-off company, Auxetec, aims to capitalise on this innovation, backed by a £2 million seed investment from Northern Gritstone, by focusing activity on testing the properties of the material and expanding their understanding of what is achievable via real-world applications.

William Newman; John McDermott; Richard Body; Glenda Beaman; Rachel Corry; Rhona MacLeod (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Manchester)

Ajit Mahaveer; Nicola Booth; Rachel James (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust)

Paul Wilson (Alliance Manchester Business School)

Fiona Ulph (University of Manchester)

Iain Bruce (NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust)

1 in 500 babies carry a gene that causes permanent deafness when given gentamicin, an antibiotic commonly used in intensive care. Working with University of Manchester start-up company Genedrive Plc, Manchester researchers developed the world’s first, rapid bedside genetic test. The test was trialled in 751 babies in neonatal units in Manchester and Liverpool. The test takes just 25 minutes, compared with several days for conventional methods, allowing doctors to give an alternative antibiotic within the recommended hour to those babies carrying the gene.

The technology could save the hearing of 180 babies in the UK every year, and save the NHS ~£5 million annually, by reducing the need for interventions such as cochlear implants. The test is now being rolled-out in all of the Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Greater Manchester, and the NHS is exploring how the technology can become part of routine clinical care across the UK.

Aston University has pioneered the use of SimConverse® AI in pharmacy education, addressing the challenges of experiential learning amid a shortage of placements in an understaffed, over-stretched National Health Service workplace. Custom-built scenarios allowed students to practise communication skills and key tasks, through interaction with an AI character leading to a significant improvement in performance.

This innovative approach has shown promising results in preparing students for real-world pharmacy practice. The approach is sustainable within the envelope of NHS placement tariff and represents a cost saving for both students and the NHS when compared with traditional training on placement. With plans to expand this method to Optometry, Nursing and Medicine, and the possibility of sharing these resources with other pharmacy schools, Aston University is at the forefront of modernising healthcare education.

Imperial is a global top 10 university dedicated to finding innovative solutions to the world's biggest challenges. We are focused on creating the university of the future. Currently, we have a disjointed mobile experience of over 40 different mobile apps. This leads to user confusion and an inefficient use of resources. User research has clearly told us that none of the market leaders can fulfil the high expectations of our community. Our innovation is a seamless mobile experience that reflects Imperial as a global destination for innovation. Our objectives are:

• Student-led design based on user research
• Use of cutting-edge technology to deliver personalised, experiential features
• Reduce the number of apps in circulation
• Be a brand extension

The solution to this problem is to in-source our design and innovation talent, and build ourselves the highest quality mobile experience within the global Higher Education sector.

There is a huge unmet need for surgical care worldwide; training more surgical care providers is vital to meet this need. Trainees and training programmes in low-resource settings often lack access to high-quality, appropriate training material.

SURGhub is an open access e-learning platform, produced as a collaborative effort of the global surgical community (under the United Nations banner) and supported by a project team from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Global Surgery Foundation and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

SURGhub launched on 28 June 2023. As of 29 May 2024, it has 53 courses available and over 5,000 learners from 164 countries. It is reaching its target audience, with 71% of learners from countries classified as low or middle income by the World Bank. It creates significant efficiencies and cost savings, and is both scalable and replicable. Ultimately, SURGhub saves lives.

In an increasingly digital world, significant inequalities in access to training and education persist. The 3DI Virtual Reality Institute - a collaboration between UCL and Marmara University - addresses these disparities by creating a virtual institute where scientists can meet using AI-voice avatars and VR. This initiative, originating from a virtual chemistry centre developed during the pandemic, focuses on 3D printing. Accessible via PC or VR headsets, the institute enhances productivity, reduces costs and offers 24/7 access, including multilingual AI-voice avatars, providing equal opportunities for students in remote or underprivileged areas.

The institute features digital spaces for conferences, lectures and poster exhibitions, with award-winning training facilities for hands-on learning in areas like HPLC and 3D printing. Despite initial challenges, collaboration and support from the British Council enabled broad participation. The institute has trained over 700 individuals, saving time and costs, reducing carbon emissions and offering a sustainable model for global collaboration and education.

The University of Glasgow is addressing complex challenges across HE by enhancing operational processes through its Automation Service. This service aims to boost productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness while improving staff and student experiences. Since January 2023, 24 virtual workers have been deployed across 15 departments, saving over 18,500 hours and multiple other benefits. A notable case study is the automation of student extension requests, saving over 4,000 hours and improving the processing of over 28,500 requests to date.

Our innovative approach leverages AI and automation to streamline processes, ensure data security and provide scalable solutions. We actively share our expertise through sector-wide networks and conferences, establishing a Centre of Excellence with a library of scalable automation solutions. Our future vision includes enhancing our offerings with the latest AI and automation tools to drive value and remain a source of guidance for Institutions on their automation journeys.

University of the Arts London’s Showcase site was launched in 2020 to enable graduating students to exhibit their work despite lockdown. UAL has invested further in it over the past 18 months, with a new vision to "champion students and help them to connect with the people and industries that employ them".

Showcase now provides a year of promotional support when students graduate, while offering employers an always-on directory of creativity. Improvements in the past 18 months include strategic changes (e.g. year-round activations, industry-curated collections, better data/insights) and product developments (e.g. custom URLs for students, awards badging, recruitment-led search tags, and "hire me" buttons). These changes have led to significant YoY uplifts in both students uploading their work and engagement with the site. UAL also has a bank of case studies of graduates who have found meaningful work through the site.

Created to bridge the Placement Progression gap between black and white students, the Future Talent Programme (FTP) has supported 688 students since launching in 2020, providing targeted opportunities, activities and support to advance student growth and level the playing field. Using a data-driven approach, partnerships are made with schools with the highest placement progression gaps providing interventions as well as 1-2-1 student appointments and coaching to support well-being and progress towards securing a year-long placement or meaningful work opportunities.

Listening to students’ experiences and challenges, the programme is tailored each year. With representation, sense of belonging and creating safe spaces being key, our flagship Mentoring schemes receive overwhelmingly positive feedback. Furthermore, work experience opportunities are created with pro-diversity employers to increase students’ social capital. External QED evaluation in 2022/23 confirmed that the programme has had a statistically significant positive impact on placement progression by 16 percentage points since inception.

RNCM Young Artists is an imaginative and innovative training programme for aspiring young pop musicians aged 11-18 from Manchester. Since 2022, Young Artists has provided opportunities for 92 young people in under-served communities to improve education, skills and life chances, opening up viable pathways to Higher Education.

Young Artists is central to RNCM’s Learning and Participation work with Under-18s, addressing the wider crisis of inequity and under-provision in the music education sector. At least 50% of places are free, and RNCM aims to remove all barriers to participation (including travel bursaries and food provision).

The project has extended RNCM’s reach to new areas of activity and new audiences (40% Combined Ethnicity [other than white] and 59% Index of Multiple Deprivation quintiles 1 / 2), encouraging young people from non-traditional backgrounds to enter higher education. Following the project’s inaugural year, two young people successfully gained places on RNCM’s BMus Popular Music undergraduate degree course.

The University of Cumbria launched the Paramedic Science Degree Apprenticeship two years ago to address significant workforce shortages in the paramedic profession. We support seven of the eleven English ambulance trusts through this programme.

The apprenticeship aims to enhance England’s paramedic workforce by upskilling frontline ambulance staff, such as emergency medical technicians, to fully qualified paramedics within two years. The university’s recent OFSTED inspection praised the university for accurately identifying local, regional and national skills shortages and working with health trusts to upskill their workforces to meet government initiatives.

Apprentices work on the frontline as they train, with 96.2% moving into paramedic roles upon completion. Widening participation is a key agenda of the programme, allowing entry via non-conventional routes. A quarter of apprentices have additional learning support needs, nevertheless, we have achieved a high success rate, 90% apprenticeship achievement rate with 79% achieving a 2:1 or 1st class degree.

University of Salford; Sophie Thorp; Nicola Whyley; Maria Dickinson

University of Manchester: Lindsay Mepham

IntoUniversity: Rebecca Marsh; Victoria Beard; Adam Rahman

Salford is the 18th most deprived local authority in England, out of 317, according to the Government's latest Index of Multiple Level of Deprivation (2019) and figures suggest around 22% of children in Salford are living in poverty (Greater Manchester Poverty Action, 2022). Pupils facing disadvantage in Salford are now 22.9 months of learning behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs (EPI, 2020), making it a high-priority area for additional educational support.

In September 2022, a new learning centre opened in Salford with aspirations to empower thousands of young people to achieve their academic and career ambitions. The facility is a collaboration between IntoUniversity, University of Salford and the University of Manchester. Since opening, the centre has exceeded targets, driven by a dedicated team that has supported over 1,500 young people, recruited students to Academic Support, established partnerships with local schools, and run programmes in the holidays.

The UWS Foundation Academy is a pioneering initiative that seeks to raise attainment and provide school-leavers from diverse backgrounds with skills for learning, life and work. Going beyond contextualised admissions, the pilot year of the UWS Foundation Academy has allowed hundreds of participating pupils free access to an extensive programme of higher educational transitional support, embedding aspiration into their educational journey.

The unique 12-month programme includes a 10-week module delivered by UWS academics in the school setting, together with a dynamic range of on-campus activities. 97% of those participating in the first year of the programme were awarded a credit-bearing qualification, enhancing not just their educational success, but in many cases, delivering improved self-esteem and self-belief to the participants.

The Foundation Academy is spearheading successful school-to-university transition for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, at an early stage, to ensure university-level study is an attainable option.

School Tasking is a Warwick Law School-led early intervention outreach programme that aims to bring the joy of the hit Channel 4 television show, Taskmaster, to primary schools serving under-represented communities. Taskmaster itself is fundamentally all about law: interpreting rules, creative semantics, and trying to please a belligerent Judge/Taskmaster. It is, therefore, a wonderful vehicle for legal outreach work.

In School Tasking, law students lead informative and interactive classroom sessions on fundamental legal skills and concepts with Year 5 classes. In 2023-24, 18 universities in six regions across the UK and Ireland ran in-school sessions with 1,773 pupils. Finalists from each region then competed in a national final at Warwick University. From 2024-25 onwards, 30 universities and counting will be involved, making it one of the largest multi-provider WP collaborations. Evaluation findings show that School Tasking participants gain positive exposure to university and develop their understanding of Law.