Our aims

The University’s Strategic Plan 2006-2010, Building on Excellence  was published in Spring 2006.  This sets out our ambition to be one of the best universities in the world, by being an outstanding place for research, teaching and learning.  We aim to be recognised as one of the UK's top 10 universities, and as one of the world's top 50 research-intensive universities.

Our vision

By developing and supporting a confident and successful academic research community, to be one of the world’s top 50 research-intensive universities, recognised for its position at the forefront of setting and delivering the research agenda, nationally and internationally, across the range of disciplines in which we are active.

We aim to be:

• A leading research institution, in the sense of setting and leading research agenda, both politically and from a discipline perspective
• A confident research institution, as characterised by its ability to recruit and nurture high quality academics and excellent research students, whether from the UK or internationally
• A successful research institution, across a range of measures including quality of research outputs, research income, international recognition and collaborations and performance relative to peer institutions both nationally (eg Russell Group) and internationally (eg Times Higher international league table)

To achieve these aims, our research strategy for the period 2006 -2010 is built around four strategic themes:

• International Excellence
• Inter-disciplinary research
• Knowledge transfer
• Research environment

Research and Knowledge Transfer Strategy, 2006-2010 is available to download here - Research Strategy 2006 - 2010