Operational review: Partners
Through our partnerships, we strengthen our research and education collaboration, and help to inform decision-makers to influence policy.
We give enterprising students and staff a head start to turn innovative ideas into new products and services through our Enterprise Lab and Advanced Hackspace facilities, and we help startups and spinouts grow at our incubation and scale-up spaces. We work with industry to translate innovative ideas into real-world benefits and share the wonder and importance of what we do with the public, schools and local communities.
Despite the pandemic, Imperial sustained and grew its local, national and global connections and collaborations with business, academia and non-profit, healthcare and government institutions. Imperial is one of the world’s most international universities. We forged and maintained links across 192 countries, from joint labs and centres to seed funds and student exchanges. This year, we celebrated growing links with partners in India and Vietnam, and strengthened our existing relationships with valued collaborators around the world.
2021–22 in focus
University of Cumbria and Imperial announce new medical school
We are working with the University of Cumbria to launch a new graduate entry medical school in Carlisle. The new school, which aims to enrol its first 50 students in autumn 2025, will train new doctors for Cumbria and north west England and transform healthcare in local communities. The school will be based in an area of England where the recruitment and retention of medical staff is a significant challenge. The partnership is the result of a shared vision to train more medical professionals to serve local communities in regions with the greatest need.
“This partnership between Imperial College London and University of Cumbria will help level up opportunity and train more doctors in the North West.”
Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care June 2021–July 2022
Trailblazing ideas at the Great Exhibition Road Festival
Groundbreaking theory and practice across science and the arts formed the backdrop for the Great Exhibition Road Festival 2022: Trailblazers, which welcomed over 38,000 visitors to South Kensington for the weekend-long festival.
Working with partners including the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A and Royal College of Music, as well as the Goethe-Institut, Royal College of Art, Royal Parks and the Royal Geographical Society, the Great Exhibition Road Festival delivered a unique programme of events, including talks, workshops and performances. The Festival drew on the vast wealth of expertise from the College and our partners, inspiring audiences with innovations in medicine, art, technology, design, chemistry and more.
“The Festival is a special opportunity to engage Londoners with world-leading research happening at Imperial, to get insight from a diverse range of people to help further inform our research and to inspire people of all ages through unique science and arts collaborative events.”
Vicky Brightman, Festival Director and Head of Public Engagement
NATO innovation headquarters join White City Campus
Imperial’s Institute for Security Science and Technology will lead NATO’s innovation headquarters in the UK.
Through the work of the Institute, based at the I-HUB at the White City Campus, Imperial has been selected as the location for one of two global headquarters for NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).
DIANA will allow NATO allies to accelerate, test, evaluate and validate new dual-use technologies that address both societal challenges and critical national security issues. The headquarters for DIANA were awarded to the UK and Estonia governments following a joint bid, which drew heavily on Imperial’s activities at the I-HUB and in the wider White City Innovation District.
CNRS and Imperial leading the data revolution
Leading British and French scientists will work together to tackle the world’s biggest challenges in a new research centre launched by Imperial and France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
The CNRS–Imperial International Research Centre for Transformational Science and Technology will explore a broad range of research areas and work on major European-funded projects. Powered by the two institutions’ expertise in mathematics and data science, the Centre supports early-career researcher training, research funding and proposals, and will share facilities, laboratories, infrastructure and data.
“We celebrate the launch of this International Research Center created jointly with Imperial College London. It will be a creative hub of cross-disciplinary collaboration and a solid platform for building new scientific projects between the CNRS and Imperial, addressing major challenges for the benefit of society.”
Antoine Petit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CNRS