Last Word: Professor Warren Manning, Provost - Innovation and Research

The true value of our work comes through collaboration and our interdisciplinary approach. This allows us to create wide-reaching impact in our region, nationally and internationally, and provides opportunities to align our research to the external priorities of businesses, government and our key partners.

Last year, evidence of the regional impact of our collaborative approach was highlighted in Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Framework 2 (KEF). Benchmarked against the higher education sector, we performed particularly well in three categories: Local Growth and Regeneration; CPD and Graduate Start-Ups; and Working with Business.

Key to maintaining and growing our impact is our commitment to forging meaningful partnerships with business, other academic institutions, local authorities and government. In September, an example of the strength of this collaborative approach came to life with the opening of the Nuclear Skills Academy, delivered in partnership with Rolls-Royce Submarines Ltd and other industry partners.

The first of its kind, it aims to address the skills shortage in this sector to support the UK’s nuclear capability. This partnership has marked a step change in how the University works with industry, highlighting our agility and ability to work at pace, and contributing to our growing reputation and influence.

This year we will further strengthen our partnerships in this critical sector as we work with the University of Sheffield to bring the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) to Infinity Park. This facility will bring together experts from the University of Sheffield’s NAMRC and the University of Derby’s Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering (IISE) to carry out research, innovation, supply chain development and teaching – supporting UK government objectives for net zero by 2050 and growth in manufacturing to 20% GDP by 2030.

Clean growth is also the focus of the proposed East Midlands Institute of Technology, given the green light by the government at the end of 2021. This will see us working with Loughborough College, Loughborough University and Derby College Group to provide a facility that will focus on levelling up the critical engineering, manufacturing and digital skills we need to address the challenges of green growth.

The world faces some major challenges that universities are ideally placed to respond to. Working collaboratively with partners from across the city, county and wider region is the most effective way of addressing them and making a long-term impact. The above are just some examples of the ways we are doing that as we look towards the future with optimism.