Research beacons and key themes

Research at the University of Exeter focuses on some of the most fundamental issues facing humankind today, from climate change to conflicts in the Middle East.

We believe the future of research lies in breaking down some of the traditional barriers between academic disciplines so that the bigger problems of the 21st century can be considered from human as well as physical perspectives.

Our research strengths and key themes include:

Climate change and sustainable futures

With world leading research in climate prediction, adaptation and migration, and close liaison with the Met Office Hadley Centre, the University will significantly enhance its strengths in climate change impacts and socio-economic interactions.

The University’s academic focus ranges across

• predicting climate change;
• its effects on ecosystems and human and animal health;
• developing the technology for mitigating its effects;
• and the study of public attitudes and government policy.

Although work is organised as part of the University’s science strategy, the input from the social sciences and humanities is crucial. This is particularly true in understanding people’s relationship with the environment and how this might be changed.

Drama and Intermedia

In 2006 the University invested £4 million in providing state of the art new facilities for the Department of Drama. The Alexander Building is home to the Centre for Intermedia, which promotes transdisciplinary research in performance and the arts through collaborations between artists, scientists, academics and the business community.

Extrasolar planets

Exeter is establishing a centre for cross disciplinary research into the physics of planets ouside our solar system, which will be unique in the UK. Bringing together mathematicians and theoretical astrophysicists with observational astrophysicists, researchers will directly test their predictions using state of the art equipment.

Astrophysicist Dr Suzanne Aigrain is a key member of the COROT space mission to detect new planets outside of our solar system. Engineers and mathematicians are working on simulations of thermal convection and convection-driven dynamos taking place in the deep interiors of planets like Jupiter and Saturn. This work is vital in understanding the processes that drive exoplanets. Further simulations of star and planet formation are being developed by Professor Matthew Bate and Professor Keke Zhang. Professor Mark McCaughrean is a scientific adviser on the new James Webb Space Telescope.

Functional materials

We will bring together world leading expertise in engineering 'smart' materials and fundamental physics research in photonics and nanomaterials to create innovative new materials.

Photonics is a major research specialism of the University of Exeter’s School of Physics, where an established team of 20 scientists focus on the interaction between light and matter and the way light may be controlled by different structures through the development of new photonic materials.

Engineers from our School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics are developing blast curtains made from a 'smart' material that gets thicker when it stretches rather than thinner. The material could catch glass fragments and debris blown through windows by an explosion, minimising injuries inflicted by a terrorist attack.

Genomics

Some of the most fundamental questions associated with developments in genetic research and its application are being addressed by the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis). The Centre has received funding of £7 million from the Economic and Social Research Council and is one of four research centres created to look at different aspects of this new science. The Exeter Centre focuses on the social scientific understanding of genomics.

Medical history

The Centre for Medical History is part of Exeter’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Centre was set up in 1997 to enhance the University's reputation for research within the field of medical history and for the social study of contemporary medical and health-related activities. Work is supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Middle Eastern and Islamic studies

The Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies is one of the leading research bodies in Europe. The Institute has particular international research prominence in three main areas:

• the social scientific and historical study of the modern Arab and Islamic world;
• Islamic Studies, where the Institute has a larger body of research staff than any other university in Britain;
• Arabic, Persian and Kurdish language, literature and culture, and Islamic material culture.

Migration and identity

The causes and effects of human migration have been a major world issue for thousands of years, whether as a result of persecution or simply the search for a better standard of living.

The Migration and Identity themed area is based in the School of Arts, Languages and Literatures but brings together researchers from many other academic areas, including history, sociology, biosciences and business and economics. It also includes external partners such as the Met Office, Non-Governmental Organisations working in Palestine and the Stanford Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity.

Systems biology

A fundamental goal of systems biology is to integrate research across all scales of organisation from genes to ecosystems. Systems Biology is a phrase adopted by biologists, and other scientists, working at scales of organisation between molecules and cells. Complementary to research at this scale, a group of strategic biologists and mathematicians at the University of Exeter is looking forward to the next generation of Systems Biology – what they call ‘Systems Ecology’.

Major advances have been made by our researchers in tackling rice blast fungus, the world’s biggest killer of rice crops, and Candida Albicans, a fungus which kills patients with damaged immune systems. Meanwhile, scientists from the University of Exeter and Shimane University in Japan have proved for the first time that vitamin C is essential for plant growth, and researchers from our Ecology and Conservation Biology research group and from our Mathematics Research Institute are collaborating to investigate the signal of genetic variation as we move up from genes to populations to ecosystems. The aim is to help predict the response of biological systems to environmental change.

Translational medicine, personalised healthcare and public health

Exeter is internationally recognised for clinical and translational research in diabetes, mood disorders and interventions to achieve behavioural change for health. Health research at Exeter addresses important clinical issues through basic and clinical science, clinical trials, policy and regulation, and health services research.

The University has a breadth of internationally rated research funded by organisations such as the Medical Research Council, the Department of Health, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

The research encompasses:

• health and clinical psychology
• exercise sciences
• sociology
• biophysics
• bioengineering
• and bioinformatics.

Related links

Directory of research activity