Our Partnerships

In partnership with the University of Queensland (UQ), we have launched the new branding for our joint institute, the UQ-Exeter Institute, previously known as QUEX.

During September 2025, Professor Lisa Roberts, our President and Vice-Chancellor, and Professor Deborah Terry, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland (UQ) launched the new branding whilst reflecting on their experience as women in higher education.

The UQ-Exeter Institute is a strategic alliance between two world-leading research universities, delivering transformative solutions to global challenges across the themes of Healthy Living; Global Environmental Futures; Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies; and Mineral Security and Sustainability. Through our partnership, we are advancing global sustainability and wellbeing through collaborative research excellence - aligning with our purpose to create a sustainable, healthy and socially just future.

Visit the UQ-Exeter Institute.

We are proud to have launched a new strategic partnership with Université Paris-Saclay, strengthening research collaboration between two of Europe’s leading institutions.

The three-year agreement will drive high-impact projects across climate science, law, health, antimicrobial resistance, AI and more. Joint investment, including a €60,000 annual strategic fund, will support seed funding, staff exchanges and student mobility. The partnership builds on an existing double PhD programme and aims to unlock further UK–France–EU research opportunities.

This ambitious strategic partnership reflects our shared commitment to global research excellence and creating new research and education opportunities.

We are proud to lead the Cornwall Mining & Geo-Resources Alliance (CMGA) in collaboration with the Cornish Chamber of Mines and Minerals and the Cornwall Mining Alliance. Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the project brings together businesses, educators and policymakers to strengthen Cornwall’s geo-resources sector and support the UK’s transition to net zero.

Aligned with our Strategy 2030 commitments, the CMGA reflects our ambition to co-create knowledge, grow meaningful jobs, and shape an inclusive, innovation-led economy. Through outreach events, skills development and collaborative research, we are empowering the next generation, enhancing regional productivity and delivering real-world impact.

Visit the Cornwall Mining & Geo-Resources Alliance website.

We are proud to lead the Cornwall Mining & Geo-Resources Alliance (CMGA) in collaboration with the Cornish Chamber of Mines and Minerals and the Cornwall Mining Alliance. Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the project brings together businesses, educators and policymakers to strengthen Cornwall’s geo-resources sector and support the UK’s transition to net zero.

Aligned with our Strategy 2030 commitments, the CMGA reflects our ambition to co-create knowledge, grow meaningful jobs, and shape an inclusive, innovation-led economy. Through outreach events, skills development and collaborative research, we are empowering the next generation, enhancing regional productivity and delivering real-world impact.

Visit the Cornwall Mining & Geo-Resources Alliance website.

We have signed a new five-year agreement with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) to strengthen our collaboration on key environmental research, both in the UK and globally.

Our partnership will focus on pressing issues including nature recovery, pollution monitoring, invasive species, sustainable farming, hydro-climate risks and biodiversity loss. The agreement includes cooperation on secondments and joint appointments, studentships, collaborative research programmes, and knowledge exchange activities.

Together, we will work to lead meaningful action against the climate emergency and ecological crisis and create a better environment both in the UK and across the world.

Visit our Centre for Ecology and Conservation.

Our students on the BA (Hons) Environmental Humanities degree in Cornwall are working with National Trust properties across the region to support their climate and sustainability efforts. The programme, the first in the UK to focus on arts and humanities in the climate crisis, offers hands-on experience through research projects at sites including St Michael’s Mount and Botallack Mine.

This partnership gives students valuable practical skills while helping heritage sites tackle environmental challenges, creating a sector-leading student experience and preparing students to make a real-world impact.

Find out more about Environmental Humanities.

Our Centre for Degree Partnerships has received the prestigious Gold Award at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2024. Recognised in the Power of Partnerships category, this award highlights our commitment to enhancing education through collaboration alongside our dedication to transforming education and inspiring global partnerships.
 
Launched in September 2023, the Centre for Degree Partnerships drives innovation in degree apprenticeships by partnering with over 400 UK-based and global organisations, including the BBC, NHS, and many government departments. By aligning academic excellence with industry needs, we are addressing skill deficits and ensuring we align with the current and future demands of a diverse workforce. 

Explore our award-winning degree partnerships.

As a proud member of the SETsquared Partnership, we are committed to fostering innovation. Alongside leading regional investment firm QantX, we are excited to be involved in plans to create a new £300m investment vehicle to support the development and growth of science and technology companies addressing global challenges. This initiative will provide funding and expertise to regional start-up companies working on areas of global impact, including sustainability, clean energy, and transformative healthcare.

Find out more about our partnerships and collaborations.

The Geo-Resources Strategic Sector Strengthening project is a partnership between our University, the Cornish Chamber of Mines and Minerals, and the Cornwall Mining Alliance. The project has been awarded over £900,000 by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to support the provisioning of the geo-resources, with a spotlight on critical minerals, and materials required for the energy transition and sustainable development. The project aims to enable growth and support the development of the Geo-Resources sector in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

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Our new partnership with Petroc College will boost education opportunities for young people in Devon; building on our shared values of knowledge transfer, boosting social mobility and aspiration. Our two institutions will work together to identify skills gaps to encourage wider participation in higher education and drive inclusive and clean growth in the South West. There will also be opportunities for the use of shared facilities to support research and facilitate academic networking, with an initial focus on the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre, floating offshore wind and materials innovation.

Find out more about our Petroc partnership

We are dedicated to the principle that access to education for all not only creates a fairer and more socially just society, but also provides the foundation for collaboration. We have partnered with the University of Antioquia, the Secretariat of Culture and Tourism of Guaviare Department, and the Geographical Society of Colombia, to create a new diploma in Cultural Heritage Management which supports a sustainable, economic model for cultural heritage tourism. More than 40 students – many of them from rural villages – have become the inaugural ‘heritage guardians’, protecting the region’s internationally-significant rock art. The students learned about the archaeological heritage of their country, the value of cultural mediation and the origins and nature of the rock art of Serranía de La Lindosa. Some of the students also visited UK archaeological attractions to understand how sites are preserved and presented to tourists in other countries.

Find out more about this partnership

In 2023 we launched Exeter Innovation, a new initiative that forges business partnerships and aims to deliver research and education that makes a positive impact locally, nationally, and globally. Harnessing world leading research and a dynamic community of skilled workforces, entrepreneurs and experts, Exeter Innovation drives transformative innovation in organisations and businesses. These new connections will enable our partners to create real and lasting impact within their workforce, as well as the global market, giving them the confidence to make the right changes at the right time.

Find out more about Exeter Innovation.

Our exciting collaboration with Exeter’s Royal Albert Museum is helping to ensure the museum’s incredible collections are available for use by everyone. The partnership between the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) and the GLAM-E Lab at the University of Exeter, will help spread awareness of incredible artworks and ensure the public can use them for free and without permissions. The RAAM is only the 9^th UK cultural institution to adopt open access for all digital collections, which will allow people around the world to make new cultural discoveries and raise the museum’s profile. This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Exeter’s AHRC Impact Accelerator Account.

Find out more about this collaboration

We Are The Possible is a collaborative, interdisciplinary and international programme that co-creates new narratives to imagine a liveable future for all. Working at the interface of science, health, education, and the arts, it has brought together millions of people from the UK and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to reflect upon the plight of our planet and deliver a creative and inspiring response to catalyse climate action and solutions at COP Climate Change Conference and beyond.

Find out more about We Are The Possible

We are the lead UK institution in UKCHA, with responsibility for liaising with the Secretariat based at Tsinghua University. As part of this work, we oversee the (Re-)Connecting Research in China grant, to support collaborative research across the Alliance. Over the last two years we have facilitated 11 Early Career Researcher Fellowships from Chinese member universities to undertake placements at UK member universities, 20 UK students to participate in the Higher Education Young Talent Alliance (HEYTA) Conference at Tsinghua in 2023, and 12 UK Early Career Researchers to deliver papers to the UKCHA Conference in Wuhan in 2023. In 2024 we supported a range of collaborative workshops and are currently organising the next HEYTA Conference for students to be held at Exeter in September.

Find out more UKCHA

We believe in the power of partnerships to ensure our Strategy 2030 goals become part of a global endeavour for a greener, healthier and fairer future for all. With that in mind, we have joined the prestigious Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) which comprises more than 20 leading research universities stretching across six continents. As well as fostering research collaborations of global significance, the network shapes talent, international policy and practice, and builds partnerships across international bodies. The Network supports research that addresses themes of sustainable development, social justice and inequality, energy transition, food security, mental health, information security and much more.

Find out more about the Worldwide Universities Network

We are committed to partnering with universities with shared values, creating new research and education opportunities, and in November 2023 signed a new agreement with the Université Paris-Saclay to collaboratively deliver a series of double PhD degree projects. Together, we are offering joint funding to provide tuition, living, travel and research costs, which will see students graduate with PhD awards from both universities. Our partnership with Paris-Saclay builds on strong links in areas of shared strategic priority, including climate sciences, astrophysics, computer science and cybersecurity, and brings together staff and students to research, innovate and tackle global challenges.

Find out more about this partnership.

We aim to partner with organisations to exchange research and technology that creates new opportunities, innovation and jobs, and tackles pressing global challenges. We have therefore extended our partnership with Duke University USA; signing a new three-year collaborative agreement in February 2024, that builds on the already strong working partnership between the two institutions. This will support a range of new collaborative research and education projects focussed in thematic areas of mutual strength and existing connections: Investing in Health; Sustainability and the Environment; Public Policy and Global Security; and Digital Worlds - Approaches to Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Computational Social Sciences.

Find out more about our partnership.

In 2016 the UK-China Humanities Alliance (UKCHA) was founded as a cross-institutional structure to facilitate collaboration in humanities research and education. The alliance brings together scholars from leading universities in China and the UK in mutually respectful dialogue and intellectual exchange. We are currently the lead UK institution in UKCHA, with responsibility for liaising with the Secretariat based at Tsinghua University, co-organising joint workshops and conferences and helping to coordinate UKCHA activity in the UK. As part of this work, Exeter oversees the (Re-)Connecting Research in China grant to support collaborative research across the Alliance, as well as Early Career Researcher fellowship opportunities. Our work fosters global engagement, mutual understanding and trust, and ensures we are more innovative and connected than ever before.

Find out more about the work we do with UKCHA.

Our strategic partnership with the University of Queensland through the QUEX Institute continues to go from strength to strength. QUEX brings together world-leading researchers to enhance our joint global research impact, focussing on global sustainability and wellbeing. Together we tackle major global challenges through interdisciplinary research, staff and student mobility and industry and business collaboration, publishing high-level policy reports that help shape key government initiatives across the globe. Central to QUEX is our joint PhD programme, which has now funded 60 students to research a wide variety of topics within our themes of Healthy Living; Global Environmental Futures; Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies; and Mineral Security and Sustainability.

Find out more about the work carried out with the QUEX Institute.

As part of Strategy 2030 we commit to being partners in global networks of universities with shared values, creating new research and education opportunities. We are committed to social justice and access to education for all, which means safeguarding higher education in times of adversity. Through the Researchers at Risk scheme, we are offering sanctuary to researchers facing discrimination, persecution and violence. We are also proud to be twinned with King Danylo University in Ukraine. This partnership will foster joint research projects and academic exchanges, which will help sustain the Ukrainian higher education system and ensure its universities are ready to play a role in post-war reconstruction. Together we will develop projects in energy security, human rights, and issues relating to veterans and trauma.

Find out more.

In the wake of Covid-19 antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to public health, making it more likely that diseases will lead to severe illness and death. Researchers from the Living Systems Institute (LSI) have worked in close partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) through PhD studentships, to undertake detailed research leading to key breakthroughs. This success has led to Dstl funding two further studentships, one of which began in January 2023.  It is hoped further breakthroughs can be made to allow us to understand more about this key area.

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We are proud to announce a new, national partnership and research initiative with the National Trust. The project will explore how both organisations can best respond and adapt to environmental and cultural change, support wildlife renewal and improve wellbeing through nature. Experts will develop science-based, action-orientated research to inform land use decision making and better understand ways to care for our natural and cultural landscapes. The focus will be to plan and manage the inevitable transformation of landscapes, so they work best for people, place, nature and future generations. This is only the second university collaboration of its kind from the National Trust, and it builds on more than 20 joint research projects and four student placements run collaboratively over the last five years.

Find out more about our National Trust partnership.

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and are at the forefront of research into net zero initiatives. A funded PhD studentship with Quorn Foods has developed a strong evidence-base for the nutritional value of mycoprotein, a key protein found in meat-free products. The studentship provided Quorn Foods with a strong, comprehensive ‘proof of concept’ that mycoprotein is a healthy protein source, which supports muscle maintenance and growth as effectively as meat-based alternatives. Quorn Foods has now funded a further PhD studentship with the University, looking into mycoprotein’s application to sports nutrition. The partnership has created benefits for Quorn, our students and our academic teams.

Find out more about our industrial studentships.

In December 2022 we joined the Nature Positive Universities Alliance, a partnership of 117 universities from 48 countries, who have pledged to start a journey towards becoming nature positive. This initiative is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration; a movement to avert climate catastrophe and mass extinction, launched at the COP15 summit in 2022. As part of the alliance, we aim to halt, prevent and reverse nature loss, through the restoration of ecosystems and address the impact of our activities on nature. It is hoped that by sharing our approaches to conserving and enhancing biodiversity, we will educate future leaders and find solutions to environmental challenges.

View the Nature Positive Universities website to find out more.

In October 2022 we signed a three-year agreement with Natural England.  We will work together on challenges that can’t be solved with expertise from practitioners or academics alone. However, by working together we hope to use our research power to protect nature and landscapes by co-creating solutions, informed by both theory and practice.  Over the past decade we have worked on more than 60 joint projects with Natural England and look forward to building our partnership further.

Read more about our partnership agreement

We have signed a significant agreement with the University of Khorfakkan to advance research and education in marine biology. Signed by His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member And Ruler of Sharjah and Professor Lisa Roberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter, the partnership strengthens the relationship between Exeter’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation and Khorfakkan’s College of Marine Science and Aquatic Biology. 

The collaboration includes a new BSc Marine Biology course, enabling Khorfakkan students to study at Exeter and the potential to continue their studies through the Exeter MSc programme. Together, we will enhance marine research, education, and conservation - building expertise to protect Sharjah’s unique marine biodiversity and contribute to our commitment to lead meaningful action against the climate emergency and ecological crisis. 

Find out more about the BSc Marine Biology Course.