Our impressive research income, over £90 million in the last financial year (2011-12), powers the vast range of research activity across Queen Mary.

Queen Mary holds a number of prestigious Research Council (RCUK) awards. These awards are highly sought after and are a great indicator of the quality, success and impact of research taking place across the university. 

If you are looking for information on funding for postgraduate research, please see our postgraduate funding pages. 

Research Council (RCUK) Block Grant Partnerships

Queen Mary has been awarded a significant amount of RCUK Block Grant Partnership (BGP) funding for PhD studentships. Not only does this reflect well on us as a university, but it also means we are able to attract the very best PhD students: PhD students play an active part in our thriving research community and are funded with generous studentships to complete their research.  

Block Grant Partnership highlights:

• A five-year block grant of £2.9m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (2009-2014) to support outstanding graduate students across the arts and humanities: cultural studies, drama, English, film studies, history and linguistics
• An Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Training Centre in Media and Arts Technology (unique in the UK), which is part of a £250 million RCUK initiative. Another EPSRC initiative, the Plastic Electronics Doctoral Training Centre is run in partnership with Imperial College. Queen Mary has also been awarded generous EPSRC funding for additional studentships
• An Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded Collaborative Doctoral Training centre with Goldsmiths will fund 50 PhD students over the next five years (2011 – 2015).  Queen Mary is one of only 21 national ESRC Doctoral Training Centres in the UK   
• A Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) award of over £500,000 for studentships in Physics and Astronomy
• Collaborative Doctoral Awards for the humanities and social sciences run in partnership with a variety of cultural institutions such as the Institut Francais; V&A; and British Museum

Large funding award highlights

Creativeworks, London: one of four ‘Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy’ in the UK

£4m AHRC (2011-15)

Queen Mary is leading a consortium of universities, businesses and arts organisations in one of four ‘Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy’ in the UK. Each Hub has an equal share of £16m funding from the AHRC to build new partnerships and commercial opportunities between academia and the creative industries, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. Read more 

ImpactQM: linking early career researchers with selected industry partners

£3m EPSRC (2009-12)

ImpactQM is a ground-breaking knowledge transfer project, which aims to create a new generation of science and engineering professional – one which is equally at home in both academia and industry. Early career researchers working in materials, electronic and mechanical engineering, and computer science will work alongside selected industry partners. The initiative is designed to make a fundamental difference to the way universities, government and companies look at the impact of world-class science and technology research. See: www.qmul.ac.uk/impactqm

Cardiovascular research: Barts and The London NHS Trust, and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

£6.5m NIHR (2011-16) 

More than 180,000 people died from cardiovascular disease in 2009 which equates to one in three deaths; making it the UK’s biggest killer. This joint award of £6.5m is destined to accelerate the translation of promising lab research from ‘bench to bedside’ over the next five years.
The joint application was selected on the basis of international research excellence, plans for increasing research capacity and ability to undertake experimental research, the relevance of research to patients and the public, its record of translating biomedical research into clinical research, and the strengths of its strategic partnerships. Read more 

Policy Research Unit dedicated to research on cancer screening, symptom awareness and early diagnosis

£4.7m (2011–16) Department of Health’s Policy Research Programme

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London is leading a £4.7m Policy Research Unit dedicated to studies of cancer awareness and survival; studies of GP responses to cancer symptoms; studies of the benefits of NHS cancer screening programmes designed to identify good practice; and assessment of the interventions designed to enhance cancer awareness, improve access to screening and promote diagnosis at an earlier stage. Queen Mary is working in partnership with UCL.