About our research
Research at Queen Mary is distinguished by outstanding RAE results, impressive research council UK funding, and ambitious plans for the future. Read our Research Strategy 2012-2015.
Ambitious
QM's Strategic Plan 2010- 2015 sets out our aim to be within the top 10 universities in the UK, and top 100-150 in the world, by 2015. We have already achieved one of those aims. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011, we are ranked 127th position globally, and equal 17th in the UK out of the 32 UK universities which made it into this year’s top 200.
Thriving
QM’s total research income was over £90m in 2011-12. This includes over £10m in block grant research council funding for PhD students, a vital part of our research community.
Many of our large awards are held jointly with other universities and cultural institutions, enabling the sharing of specialist knowledge and facilitating multi-disciplinary collaboration.
Read about our research funding
Highly-regarded
We have done exceptionally well in external assessments of our research. The Guardian ranked us 11th in the UK in its analysis of the last RAE (2008) results. The following departments were placed in the top five in the country: Linguistics (1st), Geography (joint 1st), Drama, dance and performing arts (1st for Drama), Dentistry (2nd), English Language and Literature (2nd), Epidemiology and Public Health (3rd), Pre-clinical and human biological sciences (4th), Health Services, Research (ranked 4th), Cancer studies (5th).
Read more about our RAE results (pdf). The next major assessment of research quality across the UK is the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014.
Effective
Our research addresses global concerns such as energy sustainability, health, poverty and inequality: from making great inroads in cancer screening and treatment (Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentisty was awarded £4.7m to lead a Policy Research Unit dedicated to cancer research) to campaigning for living wage for the University’s own domestic staff.
You can also find out more about just three areas where our research is having an impact and changing lives: New materials in the twenty-first century, Healthy cities and the East London, the Olympics and Paralympics. Overall, our research portfolio is underpinned by a particular strength in computational research.
Collaborative
As a large multi-disciplinary university, we have strengths in many different disciplines, which enables interesting and constructive collaborative work. In fact, we actively seek to bring together researchers working in different fields. Our research centres formalise these valuable interdisciplinary links.
We also enjoy strategic partnerships with academics in other universities, as well as strong links with cultural institutions, such as Tate and the British Museum.
Inspiring
Research informs our teaching at all levels – whether that is inspiring undergraduates or supporting PhD students in actively contributing to the body of knowledge in their chosen field.
This helps to explain why, in the 2012 National Student Survey, 87 per cent of students expressed 'overall satisfaction' with their experience at Queen Mary – the best results among the leading research universities in London. (See www.unistats.com)
Generating new business
Much of our research has commercial potential, and we actively seek ways to bring it to the market place. Our latest licensing opportunities are available at Queen Mary Innovation Ltd – a company devoted to providing a wide range of services in support of business-academic partnerships, from technology licensing to spin-out activities.
Queen Mary has several spin-out success stories, including: ApaTech Ltd, a company specialising in synthetic bone graft material which was sold in March 2010 for up to $330 million. See more about our spin-out companies.