Record-breaking year for University of Leicester as its research funding doubles
The University of Leicester is celebrating a record-breaking year of research awards after doubling the amount it received compared to the previous year.
The institution received £103m in research awards for the financial year, August 1 2022 to 31 July 2023. It’s the first time Leicester has broken through the £100m award funding ceiling, and comes just over a year after it was named a top 30 UK university for research in the Research Excellence Framework 2021*.
The record awards came in the same year as the University’s launch of five new research institutes, in the autumn of 2022.
The most lucrative amount of funding came in October 2022, when it was announced Leicester and partners were to receive £26m to continue pioneering research into improving and saving lives. The investment is being used by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre to research illnesses linked to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and the consequences of inactivity.
In addition to a wealth of health research, the £103m was awarded for a diverse range of projects which will have wide-ranging impacts on society, culture and the environment.
Professor Philip Baker, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise, said: “To have doubled our research awards is an outstanding achievement in these challenging times.
“This has absolutely been a team effort involving, colleges, institutes, centres and key funder groups and is an incredible start to the University of Leicester’s second century.”
Professor Baker added: “To be a researcher is to make a difference. To be a researcher is to change the world. Every day, world-changing research happens right here.
“As Citizens of Change, our researchers are dedicated to researching some of today’s most critical issues, from viruses and disease to air quality, preserving our natural world, and ensuring social justice for all. Just as we are diverse in our makeup, we are equally diverse in our research.”
Research projects receiving funding in 2022-23 included:
- the harnessing of Artificial Intelligence to identify patients at increased risk of side effects from radiation treatment for breast cancer
- Battery research to help the switch to electric cars
- UK Space Agency funding to coordinate space activity and encourage inward investment in the Midlands’ space industry
- a British Heart Foundation award for pioneering heart valve research
- a study into racism in rural England
- a project to accelerate the process for finding new treatments for lung conditions.
Find out more about research at Leicester.
* Analysis of the REF2021 results placed Leicester’s research within the top 30, with 89% of our research designated ‘world-leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*).