Our research culture

We offer a vibrant research community that emphasises equality, diversity and inclusivity and provides a supportive environment in which to work and study.

We create a positive culture by recognising individuals for their contributions, encouraging ideas and innovation, and supporting our researchers to produce work of the highest standard.

Supporting our staff

We support our researchers in a variety of ways to help them achieve their research ambitions. These include training and development opportunities, participation in regular meetings of our research groups and cross-cutting themes, and annual reviews to identify future goals, potential research impact, promotion and training needs.

All of our new research and teaching staff are assigned a mentor when joining the School to help their transition to a new role. We assist in finding funding for research and making grant applications, as well as running biannual research leave calls to support new research opportunities.

We also provide additional support to early career researchers, and those making the transition from postdoctoral research, to ensure they receive the guidance, support and opportunities they need to establish themselves as future research leaders. We have established networks for early career researchers, and we provide help and guidance as well as funding to assist those embarking on their first grant proposals.

Our HR policies and procedures provide a supportive and encouraging environment to give our staff the best possible chance to succeed in their research and teaching careers.

The School provides the infrastructure and support to enable flexible working arrangements for all staff, as well as providing support measures for staff and research students with caring responsibilities, or those returning from periods of leave (including parental leave or ill health) or managing long-term illness.

Supporting our students

We support our research students in a variety of ways to help them throughout their research degree and future careers.

In addition to the University’s Doctoral Academy Programme, Student support and wellbeing service and Careers and Employability services, we provide training and development, and opportunities to work within highly influential policy organisations. Office space and appropriate laboratory facilities are provided and all of our students are allocated to an academic research group.

Academic support is available from an assigned supervisor and research tutor who will provide feedback through regular progress reviews. Financial support is available for research training and networking over the duration of the studentship.

Research impact

Research impact is embedded in our culture and we encourage our staff and students to work with our wide range of industrial and international partners to develop the breadth of their research and to help to address the most pressing engineering challenges for industry and society.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

The School of Engineering fosters an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and to this end, we have organised our research into five priority areas. We have also developed seven cross-cutting themes to enable our researchers to work across disciplines to address some of the major engineering research challenges and opportunities.

We encourage and support interdisciplinary working across the University to produce exciting and innovative research. Creating opportunities for our researchers to pool their knowledge is part of our dedication to inspiring collaboration.

One of our recent interdisciplinary collaborations includes working with the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences to develop a system for exploring radio propagation through glacial ice in North-East Greenland.

We collaborate with the Schools of Physics and Chemistry through our Magnets and Materials Research Group to develop and test magnetic materials which are critical for the current development of electric vehicles.

We also collaborate with Cardiff Business School and the School of Medicine to support manufacturing companies across Wales as part of the ASTUTE 2020 operation.

Our Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Human-Machine Systems research is a collaboration with the School of Psychology and Computer Science and Informatics; it builds on the strength of globally established academics in the field of digital manufacturing and robotics, human factors and cognitive psychology, mobile and social computing and artificial intelligence.

Our Sustainable Transport Group are working with the Cardiff Business School and the School of Psychology to help reduce barriers to the introduction of electric vehicles.

Celebrating achievements

We are dedicated to recognising and celebrating the value and accomplishments of our research staff community.  Our researchers have many prestigious awards and accolades, including Fellowships of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

A number of our researchers are members of the Learned Society of Wales and some have received honours such as the CBE for services to engineering, outstanding contributions to academic research and services to higher education. We actively engage with the Cardiff University Innovation Network and our researchers have won several Innovation and Impact Awards. Our researchers are regularly invited to give keynote lectures at international conferences. Notable examples include the European Solid Mechanics Conferences, European Mechanics Society EUROMECH Colloquia, and the International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems.

Distinguished visitors

Through the Royal Academy of Engineering Distinguished Visiting Fellow scheme, we have hosted several distinguished visiting academics. We regularly host international visitors and take part in exchanges with our many international partner universities across the world. These visits help us to develop our links with international universities and researchers and nurture joint research projects.

Our wider influence

Our researchers contribute to the engineering industries and the wider public through representation on multiple boards, organisations, projects and on policy, standards and technical committees.

Public engagement and outreach

Engaging with the public about our research is an important and exciting part of our research culture. We work with over 40 partners and groups to ensure our research is societally driven and mutually beneficial.