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Our research environment

Aerial view of uni
An aerial view of Cathays campus, set in Cardiff's beautiful Civic Centre

Our culture of innovation, knowledge exchange, impact, and public engagement is supported by a strong research community and facilities to help you achieve your research ambitions.

We are committed to facilitating a positive and inclusive research culture, enabling research excellence to be delivered with integrity and transparency.

In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 90% of our research was found to be world-leading or internationally excellent making us a top 20 university in the UK for the overall quality of our research. Our inclusive approach to supporting research excellence across all disciplines was achieved by supporting Cardiff researchers to deliver research that matters. This was evidenced by a 100% submission and significant growth of our research community over the REF 2021 period.

Helping you build your career

We want to support you to build and sustain your career, and our commitment around this has been recognised with the HR Excellence in Research Award. As one of the founding signatories of the Technician Commitment, we are also committed to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for our technicians.

You will benefit from training and career development services, tailored to your career stage and pathway. We will also support your leadership potential, and help you communicate and innovate from your research. You will have the opportunity to shape the future of our research environment and culture through our vibrant Research Staff Association.

By signing the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), we are committed to ensuring that research outcomes are assessed based on merit. This reflects the importance we place on inclusive research and team science, so that we can support and enhance the career opportunities of all our staff, at all stages in their careers.

You will gain from being part of a community of leading researchers, where staff and research students are working at the frontiers of knowledge in their disciplines.

Our research institutes and initiatives

We run a number of initiatives and programmes dedicated to encouraging innovation, impact, and public engagement, and to advance our civic mission. We can help you connect with external partners, and explore how your research can actively change the world.

We created our institutes to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems and to support areas of research and innovation strengths. The institutes collaborate extensively, from interdisciplinary projects and joint grant incomes to shared technologies and equipment.

Our strategy

Our Research and Innovation Strategy aims to drive greater regional innovation and impact. Our goal is to facilitate the ambitions of our people and those of our external partners, while at the same time fostering a supportive, creative, inclusive transparent and honest research culture.

To encourage this, our strategic objectives for research and innovation will be to:

  • Nurture and promote delivery of research excellence, with integrity and inclusivity
  • Enrich our research culture, promoting success across all our diverse research communities
  • Accelerate growth of major research and innovation clusters within the region
  • Nurture and promote creative, innovative and entrepreneurial academics and students
  • Train a skilled workforce able to accelerate delivery of the future economy

Our leadership team

Our research environment and culture is overseen by a gender-balanced leadership team. It includes:

  • the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Enterprise
  • the Dean for Research Environment and Culture
  • College Deans for Research and Innovation, Postgraduate Studies, and International