Science and Engineering South Consortium (SES-5)

The most powerful cluster of research intensive universities in the UK are joining forces to form a new consortium to become one of the world's leading hubs for science and engineering research. The Science and Engineering South Consortium has been initiated to pool the collective insights and resources of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Southampton, Imperial College London and University College London. These world-leading centres for research, the SES-5, will innovate and explore new ideas through collaboration whilst providing efficiencies of scale and shared utilisation of facilities to increase the return on existing and future public investment. "Our institutions are committed to the concept that competition between ideas and hypotheses is essential for the healthy development of excellent and impactful research," said Professor David Price, Vice-Provost for Research at UCL. "However, as communities of scholars, we are also convinced of the value to the UK and beyond of collaboration and the sharing of insights and resources". "The SES-5 will be well-placed both to compete and to collaborate with other world-class institutions on the global stage," said Professor Ian Walmsley, Oxford's Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research. "It will also provide a regional hub with the potency and capacity to attract inward investment.