Research at Lancaster

The quality, reach and significance of research produced in Lancaster University's vibrant research environment is world-leading.

Scientific research in the Physics Isolab building.

Sea of Change

Lancaster researchers are working to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable marine ecosystems and the people that depend on them.

Sea of Change
Fish swim around a coral reef

Find Lancaster University research

Our Research Directory allows you to search for specific people or publications or find a list of our research groups.

Research Directory
A researcher looks through a microscope
Logo for the Research Excellence Framework 2021

REF 2021

The UK Government's Research Excellence Framework (REF) confirms Lancaster as a home of world-leading research.

REF 2021 rated 99% of Lancaster's overall research environment as 4* 'world leading' or 3* 'internationally excellent'. This includes support and training of research students, research integrity, equality and diversity, as well as facilities available to support research.

REF 2021 results

‘This is Lancaster’ - a podcast series.

Here at Lancaster University, we bring people together to deliver solutions to complex problems, both in our region and around the world.

At the heart of Lancaster's research endeavour, our experts are working in partnership with others to make a difference. In this series of interviews, Lancaster University researchers share the stories, setbacks and discoveries behind the headlines and provide an in-depth look at some of the truly life-changing work taking place in our University.

This is Lancaster Podcast
A researcher in a lab holding and pointing toward a petri dish containing samples.
Professor Muhammad Munir

Faculties and Departments

See the full list of Lancaster's faculties, departments, institutes and research centres.

This is Lancaster: A global research community changing lives

We're proud of our research and the difference it makes locally and around the world. We'd like to introduce you to the fascinating and diverse work we do here, and the incredible people who make it all possible.

Interdisciplinary research

A major strength of Lancaster University is its thriving ecosystem of interdisciplinary research. This collaborative approach is fostered by our mixture of formal and informal structures - including Institutes and University Research Centres - bringing together experts from different disciplines to address regional, national and global challenges.

  • Security Lancaster

    Working with government and industry to find new ways for individuals, organisations and societies to secure and protect themselves.

  • Data Science Institute

    Taking a joined-up approach to data-driven research challenges, from infrastructure and fundamentals to global problems and the legal and ethical issues of 'big data'.

  • Materials Science

    Home to a field of study practiced at a handful of world-class, research-led UK universities and equivalent universities globally.

  • Social Futures

    Combining social science and humanities with science and technology research to discover routes to the futures we want and need.

  • Centre for Ageing Research

    Growing a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary research around ageing, older people and age-related disease.

  • The Ruskin

    Home to the leading collection of the works of John Ruskin (1819-1900), the epoch-defining writer, artist and social thinker.

  • Energy Lancaster

    Experts from across Lancaster University working with global partners to the develop secure and sustainable energy supplies.

  • Centre for Mobility Studies

    Combining social theory with research and innovation to bring long-term sustainability to mobile life.

  • The Pentland Centre

    A world-class hub for transdisciplinary research on sustainability in business.

  • Centre for Global Eco-Innovation

    Delivering solutions for clean and sustainable growth at scale with businesses, communities and wider partners.

The place for the researcher

Home to 1,500+ academics and research staff, and close to 2,000 postgraduate research students, Lancaster University aims to develop a culture and environment that enables world-class research. Our community of researchers transform lives and communities, changing practice and thinking across the globe. Discover what drives our researchers to connect globally, push disciplinary boundaries, take risks, ask the big questions and improve the world around them.

Support for Researchers

Providing support and development opportunities for researchers is a key part of Lancaster's research strategy:

Research Services

Lancaster’s Research Services team provides support for all aspects of externally-funded research activities.

Our experts help academic staff to:

  • Identify funding opportunities
  • Develop applications
  • Cost proposals
  • Deal with post-award administration

The team also provides University-wide support for research governance and ethics, REF, research contracts and research information and systems.

Research Services

Researcher Development

The development of our researchers is central to the success of Lancaster's 2020 strategy.

As part of our People Strategy, we are fully committed to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and have an action plan in place to support its implementation.

Lancaster's demonstrated commitment to the Concordat has received European recognition in the form of the HR Excellence in Research award, first awarded to the institution in 2011, retained in 2013 and again in 2016.

Researcher Development

Research stories

Lancaster University research stories from the past few weeks:

Professor Peter McClintock with Professor Aneta Stefanovska, who led the group

Visualisation of electron dynamics on liquid helium for the first time

An international team led by Lancaster University has discovered how electrons can slither rapidly to-and-fro across a quantum surface when driven by external forces.
Indian children in uniforms eating together

Tackling food insecurity could improve children’s learning

Indian children’s education can be impaired when their households struggle to access enough nutritious food, new research led by the Food Security for Equitable Futures research team based at Lancaster University, has found.
A hand annotated by H-Unique researchers

Scientists need helping hands from businesses and community groups

Scientists behind a pioneering hand identification research project need help from businesses and community groups to build a ‘control’ database of images.
Astronauts at the International Space Station can sign up for experiments to help scientists understand how the human body reacts to long-duration missions in space

Lancaster researcher awarded place on NASA space radiation course

Dr Sam Moore from Lancaster Medical School has been awarded a place on the Space Health Impacts for the NASA Experience (SHINE) Training Course.
Wildfires result in loss of life, property and crops, as well as billions in economic costs to prevent, mitigate and suppress the damage

Saving forests using a fire detection system based on Lancaster research

An automatic camera network which can detect and report forest fires up to 25km away has helped save tens of thousands of hectares of woodland in South Africa from destruction.
The researchers used a unique rotating cryostat in their study

Breakthrough in the understanding of quantum turbulence

Researchers have shown how energy "disappears" in quantum turbulence, paving the way for a better understanding of turbulence in scales ranging from the microscopic to the planetary.

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