Ambition 2027
Research and Innovation strategy
We will be recognised globally as the UK’s applied research powerhouse, and as a leader of sustainable innovation.
Priority areas
Scholarship with purpose
We will encourage a research culture that promotes the articulation of intellectual contribution for useful application.
Workstreams:
- Establishing an Academic Charter to enable researchers to devote sufficient time to pursue scholarly research.
- Introducing an Annual Excellence in Scholarship programme.
- Prioritising the integrity of our research and associated data.
Championing our research students
Our research students will be at the heart of our creativity.
Workstreams:
- Establishing a new Research Student Charter.
- Introducing individualised personal development plans for every student.
- Boosting network opportunities and employability.
Diversity of people and thought
We will reinvigorate our research culture, focusing on protecting intellectual space, interdisciplinarity and nurturing innovation.
Workstreams:
- Enabling greater diversity and inclusion in our research community.
- Attracting, retaining and developing research talent in the changing world of work.
- Fostering an environment for intellectual discourse and the serendipitous collision of ideas.
Partnerships and place
We will continue to lead the sector in our approach to working with business, government and academia.
Workstreams:
- Creating, advancing and sustaining mutually beneficial strategic relationships with key industry partners.
- Shaping policy development and challenging established thinking.
- Increasing access to our unique facilities for a wider range of partners.
Innovators and entrepreneurs
We will encourage all our people to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and translate their ideas into practical application.
Workstreams:
- Better incentivising our people to exploit their research for impact.
- Providing entrepreneurship training and innovation opportunities for all.
- Providing a fully integrated innovation support ecosystem.
Our strategy in action
“I love the challenge of new research. Starting with a unique and interesting problem that no one has found the solution to yet and thinking up different hypotheses, planning the work, applying different procedures, seeing the results, and then, whether we have solved the problem or not. I'm very stubborn and never give up!"
Dr Sonia Martins Meco, Senior Research Fellow
“I am very proud of the fact I'm able to give opportunities to the new generation of researchers. It is so important to have people from different backgrounds in a university. Different ways of thinking contribute to solving problems in so many ways."
Dr Alessio Balleri, Senior Lecturer
“As a multidisciplinary institution, our Cranfield community is full of innovative ideas. Opportunities for intellectual pursuit are welcomed – there’s always someone down the hall who is working on something exciting that you can contribute to.”
Peter Campbell, Lecturer
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