Overview
Research and the creation of new knowledge is central to our role in generating positive change. Excellent research informs our teaching, enterprise activity and engagement and underpins the University's status and reputation. Our first and guiding priority is to undertake research of the very highest quality by international standards, as recognised by our peers, funders, stakeholders, users and adopters. In so doing, we will increase the quality and impact of our research and enterprise, and work with national and international partners to consolidate our position among the UK's leading research-intensive institutions and further develop our international standing.
The scale of global, economic and societal challenges emphasises the critical nature of interdisciplinary research in tackling the current issues facing humankind. Our track record of disciplinary strength combined with high-quality interdisciplinary research that bridges departmental and faculty boundaries has underpinned our research success. Our research culture is fiercely collaborative, but more human in scale than in many research-intensive universities. We have put in place mechanisms to guard against research silos and encourage cross-faculty working. Indeed, over 20% of our major research grant awards are interdisciplinary and all of our major doctoral training partnerships span departments.
We must leverage this strong interdisciplinary and collaborative culture to further develop our research excellence and intensity in line with our UK and international peers. We will seek to further strengthen our output quality to ensure our research has the highest possible impact and recognition globally. Third party funding is central to undertaking research that has a transformative impact on thinking and practice in our communities and wider society. Increasing the proportion of our total income derived from research to more than 25% would bring our income in line with our direct competitors and better reflect the high ranking for research quality achieved in both REF 2014 and REF 2021. In order to enhance our research intensity, compete with our peers and ensure the sustainability of our research base, we will need to scrutinise the volume, variety and value of our research income and capitalise on the government agenda for place-based research that addresses a regional focus. Increasing our income from enterprise activity will also need to play a significant part in growth and the proportion should rise from under 5% to 7.5%.
Across our research ecosystem, we will support our broad community of staff and work with our global partner campuses to rise to these challenges, to develop opportunities and the skills necessary to take advantage of them, undertake enterprise activity and maximise the impact of their work. Informed by developments in research analytics, this will include support for early career researchers as well as those who are more established. We will also develop opportunities for our technical staff, postgraduate research students and post-doctoral researchers to develop the skills needed to succeed in interdisciplinary research and enterprise, not least through the further development of the Lancaster University Doctoral Academy, our Research Centres and Research Institutes.