Outlook Magazine 2023-24

Launched in March 2024, Imperial’s new strategy sets our vision and ambition for the next two decades. It will help guide our major decisions; position us to grasp new opportunities; and inspire others to join us, partner with us and invest in us.  

This strategy, Science for Humanity, will be rooted in our commitment to attracting and nurturing the best talent, regardless of background; creating an innovative and interdisciplinary research powerhouse that can match the scale and urgency of twenty first century challenges and opportunities; and accelerating the impact of new discoveries, inventions and ideas, globally.  

Our founding mission was “to be useful”; an understated precis of all that our exceptional teaching, research and innovation have made and continue to make possible. Few issues unite our Imperial community with such determination and urgency as our desire to address the interlinked existential challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. 

Imperial today offers a wide variety of education programmes in climate-related science, finance, technologies and policy. Our research portfolio is among the strongest in the world. We are using our expertise and research to accelerate a sustainable transformation for industry and society and Imperial experts are working with governments, industry and civil society to advocate for urgent change. 

Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London

This year we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Grantham Institute. It is right to celebrate the major contributions that we and our close community at Imperial College London have made to solutions for the climate and environmental crises, while recognising the work there is still to do.  

Our innovation activity, Undaunted, led by Alyssa Gilbert, is going from strength to strength. I am always excited when I hear about the many successful innovations they support and uplifted by the enthusiasm of our entrepreneurs. 

In the pages of this magazine you will also read about the successes of Imperial’s cross-cutting researchers, who are advancing the knowledge needed to find solutions to climate change, restore biological diversity and protect human rights and basic needs including good physical and mental health. This space only allows us to pick subjective highlights, so sign up to our newsletter for the latest news, events and updates. 

In the education space, our joint MSc course with Imperial College Business School on climate change management and finance continues to grow, with ever more outstanding applicants. I am also delighted to announce that our Director of Education, Anne Houston, has (together with the Dyson School of Engineering) won approval for a new MSc in cleantech innovation. This is another landmark in our history.  

In the summer, our new Director of Policy and Translation, Dr Caterina Brandmayr, and her team organised a major, widely-covered event marking the halfway point to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s annual climate conference, COP28. We intend to host this type of event with the Delegation of the European Union every year as a stocktake on the way to the annual negotiations. 

Imperial’s international reach is outstanding. You will not have missed the extensive media coverage of our Grantham Senior Lecturer, Dr Fredi Otto, whose team works tirelessly to inform the public on climate change attribution of high impact weather events around the world. 

Looking forward, we are embracing the new Imperial strategy, Science for Humanity, with sustainability as a top priority across the university. Like many organisations, Imperial has been on a path of transformation of both its research and its own operation. We are pleased to be at the heart of this and strengthening efforts to create a better future for all. 

Finally, I would like to congratulate Professor Richard Templer, our former Director for Innovation, for his award of an OBE for services to climate innovation. 

Ralph Toumi, Professor of Physics and Co-Director of the Grantham Institute