Research Expertise

We have world class expertise on our doorstep in County Durham. Durham University is the third oldest university in England and is considered one of the top universities in the country - ranked 6th in the UK for 2015 in the Times and Sunday Times. It has 12,550 undergraduate students and 4,538 postgraduates, with 21% of students coming from abroad. A member of the elite Russell Group, it’s a research intensive and world class university in a number of fields, including engineering, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Durham University has established multidisciplinary research institutes, including:

• The Biophysical Sciences Institute
• The Durham Energy Institute
• The Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience
• Institute of Advanced Research Computing

In addition, P&G recently selected Durham University as its strategic partner of choice, recognising both the depth and breadth of Durham’s research excellence and its commitment to the wider innovation and commercialisation agenda.

There are four other universities within easy reach of Durham: Newcastle (the largest in income terms with £450m), Northumbria (the largest by number of students with 27,565), Sunderland (with strong industry links) and Teesside (the first modern university to be awarded Times Higher Education University of the Year). Expertise includes an acclaimed design school (including industrial), an automotive centre of excellence, health and medicine, and digital excellence.

The North East region has a variety of sector specific bodies, often membership based, that exist to support innovation and promote best practice, networking  and inter-trading. County Durham’s Science Park, NETPark at Sedgefield, for example is home to the Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult and works with CPI to help businesses scale up innovative processes and products to commercial volumes. Talk to us about your sector needs and we will help you to plus into the most effective networks.

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