Queen Mary has a long and distinctive history of supporting its local communities and is a founder partner of the UK’s Civic University Network.
Our growth and regeneration interventions impact major socio-economic challenges faced by our local communities, including supporting social mobility, addressing the skills needs of local businesses, providing direct support for start-up SMEs, innovation activities, and provision of infrastructure and facilities.
A key component of Queen Mary's knowledge exchange activities is the SKETCH programme (Student Knowledge Exchange Through Community Hubs) a student-driven, multi-disciplinary professional services organisation that provides support to local businesses. There are six different components of the programme: qLegal, Queen Mary's Legal Advice Centre, the Student Consultancy Project, qNomics, SBM Social Enterprise, and qTech.
The programme supports a large number of organisations within the private sector such as start-ups, SMEs, and larger corporations.
qLegal, based at Queen Mary University of London, provides free legal advice and resources to to start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs. qLegal won the ‘Best Contribution by a Law School’ award in the LawWorks & Attorney General’s Student Pro Bono Awards 2019.
The team at qLegal work across a range of complex issues including intellectual property matters relating to patents, copyright and trademarks as well as business structures, data protection compliance and non-disclosure agreements.
In 2021, Queen Mary University agreed a property deal with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that paves the way for the development of a state-of-the-art life sciences centre and supports DHSC plans for a Whitechapel Life Sciences Cluster.
This development will help to deliver a long-held local vision to establish East London as a major centre of excellence in life sciences, creating high-quality jobs and skills programmes, and attracting industry investment from start-ups to multi-national corporations.
The deal underlines Queen Mary’s commitment to tackling health inequalities at a local, national and global level through world-class research, education and community engagement.
Developing a state-of-the-art life sciences centre
The collaboration between Newham College, Queen Mary, and a wide range of employers delivers bespoke higher technical education and apprenticeships with a focus on high-demand Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, such as digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering that will provide employers with the skilled workforce they need.
In 2022, it welcomed more than 200 students after opening its doors in late September.
The Institute will play a vital role in delivering the technical skills that employers need to survive and equip students with the high level, practical skills in STEM subjects which are, critically, in short supply.
The Institute of Technology and the apprenticeship work it delivers is not currently included within the Knowledge Exchange Framework, but remains a vital component of our approach to working with the local community.
Opening the London City Institute of Technology