QR

The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research (FVMR) Hub is a multidisciplinary international consortium focused on developing disruptive vaccine manufacturing technologies for deployment in low- and middle-income countries in order to reduce costs, increase availability and accelerate the public health response to emerging threats. During the Covid-19 pandemic FVMR research led directly to the trials of the first self-amplifying RNA vaccines for SARS-Cov-2.  FVMR Hub activities at Imperial were underpinned by QR funding, including  the support of a senior lecturer in vaccinology  who was central to the clinical assessment of these next generation vaccines.

The Business School’s newly established ‘Research Fund’ is financed from QR income. This is a key piece of infrastructure for the Faculty, with strategic importance, to support research.  

More broadly, QR funding has supported research into business mergers that has transformed European Union policy, on household financial decisions leading to the structural reform of mortgage regulations in the UK and India, and on the measurement of financial risk in asset management that has generated new policy guidance for the International Monetary Fund.  

The Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) is using QR funding to develop a project to help Imperial reach its 2050 Net Zero target by developing an open access Transition Pathways Explorer. Together with colleagues, Professor Jem Woods is updating the Carbon Calculator to apply it to Imperial’s various divisions and strategic planning to ensure we drastically reduce our Carbon footprint. The work is being applied in support of an emerging higher education sector wide standard and toolkit to guide the sector’s sustainability transition.

QR funding enabled Imperial to purchase a Faraday Cage, an enclosure to block electromagnetic fields from interfering with highly sensitive microscopy equipment in Imperial’s Centre for Cryo Microscopy of Materials facility.  

This Centre was established by a £10.3m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), creating a unique facility in the UK for characterisation of environmentally sensitive materials. Without our ability to purchase the Faraday Cage from QR funding, in addition to further refurbishments of Imperial facilities, the Centre would not be able to fully function. 

Imperial’s Automated high-throughput platform suite (ATLAS) has only been made possible because of QR funding. ATLAS, opened in 2023, enables researchers and industrial partners to undertake rapid discovery and development of new molecular systems, helping these innovators to overcome traditionally timely processes.  

The refurbishment of Imperial’s facilities for ATLAS was funded by QR, which allowed the purchase of equipment, supported by EPSRC, that is being utilised as part of over £8m worth of research projects.  

Located in our White City Deep Tech Campus, the Molecular Sciences Research Hub is the most advanced molecular science facility in the world. The facilities, including the Centre for pulse electron paramagnetic resonance (PEPR) and the Centre for Rapid Online Analysis of Reactions (ROAR) (an Imperial Centre of Excellence) need QR funding in order to remain world-class.  

Imperial ensures that local SMEs and industrial partners can also access these world-class facilities and Imperial expertise, helping growing businesses to characterise and test their products. For example, half of the equipment time in the ROAR facility is utilised by SMEs and industrial companies.  

Dr Mirabelle Muûls was awarded an Imperial Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) at Imperial College Business School following postdoctoral work in the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. The JRF award allowed Dr Muûls to collaborate with colleagues across Imperial’s faculties, creating lasting relationships and opportunities to learn from senior academics.  

Dr Muûls’ research focuses on the economics of climate change, seeking to understand the impact of climate change policies and climate change on firms' emissions, innovation, and performance. Her research also explores the determinants of households’ energy demand flexibility.  

The JRF award provided her with valuable training to prepare for a future career as a lecturer, as well as the independence to establish her research autonomously. Dr Muûls is now a Co-Director of the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions, driving research in the transition to net-zero pollution.  

Beyond her research, Dr Muûls collaborated with her networks across the university to establish Imperial’s Climate Change, Management & Finance MSc, drawing on cross-disciplinary expertise to create a cutting-edge course at the intersection of science and business that now recruits 160 students a year.  

“Being awarded a Junior Research Fellowship enabled me to advance into an academic career while raising young children, in a field where most economists typically transition directly into tenured positions.” 

Dr Rachael Barry is an Advanced Research Fellow in the Nutrition Section within Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine. She was awarded her ICRF in 2020, which allowed her to move from Imperial’s Faculty of Natural Sciences to the Faculty of Medicine to pioneer research into hydrolytic enzymes and their role in cancers.  

The award of an ICRF enabled Dr Barry to connect with clinical research whilst utilising her background in life sciences, and existing networks in the Faculty of Natural Sciences to take a cross-disciplinary approach to her work. Dr Barry was awarded an Organ-on-a-Chip Network and Emulate Proof of Concept Award and CRUK-Imperial Development Funds to work on pioneering ‘gut-on-chip’ research to model the impact of hydrolytic enzymes on the colon.  

The ICRF allowed Dr Barry to prioritise her research, collaborate across disciplines and adopt a flexible to approach aimed at maximising impact. She now leads a team within Imperial’s Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and was awarded a UKRI Future Leader Fellowship in 2024, which identifies and supports some of the most talented researchers across the country.  

“The ICRF programme enables people with great ideas to be able to explore and tackle them in an independent way. Without these opportunities, we risk losing the transformative impact these ideas could achieve.” 

Dr Sophie Morse was awarded an ICRF in 2022 and is undertaking her fellowship in Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering. Dr Morse has been able to advance her research into the use of ultrasound technology to delay the onset of brain aging and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, whilst also looking at these techniques for applications in non-invasive and targeted treatment for brain tumours.  

In the first year of her ICRF, Dr Morse was given the freedom to apply for research grants across a number of funders and research applications, successfully winning six grants and amassing £400,000 in funding to drive her research forward. 

This provided Dr Morse with the chance to build and manage a research group. Her group is now made up of 18 researchers all tackling different aspects of research, from technological development, to immune system biology, to devising patient treatments that target a range of disease applications.  

“My group is made up of engineers, biologists, neuroscientists and medical doctors, all coming together with the excitement and commitment to reach a common goal. My ICRF award has greatly expanded the reach of my research which wouldn’t be possible without this multidisciplinary effort.”  

The independence and ability to apply as a primary grant holder and lead a research group, have led to further recognition for Dr Morse, who has been named an Emerging Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute and a fellow of the European Talent Academy, alongside 24 research awards, including the Top 50 Women in Engineering Award. 

Dr Agi Brandt-Talbot was awarded an ICRF in 2017, after she had initially joined Imperial to study for her PhD in the Department of Chemistry and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on the creation of low-cost renewable materials, and efficiently recycle them, to support the creation of a truly circular economy. 

During her ICRF award, Dr Brandt-Talbot co-founded a spinout company called Lixea, which invented a new innovative method for producing valuable and sustainable biochemicals. The flexibility of the fellowship allowed Dr Brandt-Talbot to not only undertake the research that is related to the company’s technology but also meet with and discuss Lixea with investors and contribute to key strategic decisions as a company director, which was pivotal to the success of the company’s 2019 funding round. Lixea has since gone on to establish a pilot manufacturing plant for their patented technology process. 

Reflecting on her time on the fellowship, Dr Brandt-Talbot said that she was able to develop the research leadership and important teaching skills and prepare seamlessly to take up an academic position at the end of her fellowship. ICRF fellows are able to bid for competitive grants and take on the supervision of PhD students, which form vital parts of academic research roles. 

“The ICRF gave me the ability to learn important skills to become a research group leader – helping to reduce the gap in my transition to group leader and lectureship roles at Imperial."

Dr Ed Gryspeerdt moved to Imperial from Germany in 2016 to take up his Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in the Department of Physics. The chance to work independently and begin to be recognised for his own research under the JRF on the physics of clouds and their interactions with airborne particles under the JRF was a key differential offer at that stage in his postdoctoral career.

“The most attractive thing about the JRF was being able to have my own independence to undertake my research, which helped me direct my research and through the fellowship and in achieve future fellowship awards. Without this element of independence with the JRF, I would not have come to the UK.”

During his JRF, Dr Gryspeerdt undertook a pioneering study to assess the impacts of new clean fuel regulation on ships coming within 200 miles of the US coastline. The US Government could not directly assess the impact of the regulation, but Dr Gryspeerdt was able to apply his research into aerosol interactions with clouds to show how clear differences in cloud formation could demonstrated the adherence to these regulations. Techniques building on this work were used to assess the impact of worldwide changes in shipping pollution from new regulations on fuels used by ships in 2020.  

Following the JRF, Dr Gryspeerdt was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellow, where he was able to continue his research that he had established during his JRF. His reputation as a researcher grew, and he was invited to be a consortia member of a Horizon Europe project called CERTAINTY, which is looking to further increase research understanding of the interactions between clouds and aerosols, and how this impacts on the weather and the propagation of adverse weather events.