Vice-Provost’s View: Sustaining the excellence and impact of our researchers

As the new academic year gets underway David Price, Vice-Provost (Research) highlights the continued commitment and achievement of our researchers, and shares some of the ways we are seeking to sustain our community through and beyond these challenging times. I am deeply grateful for the continued commitment and achievement of our researchers and those who support them, and would like to share some of the ways we are seeking to sustain our community through and beyond these challenging times. Just over a year ago in a Vice-Provost's View ( 'The future of UCL research is.. open' ) I noted both our outstanding recent research successes, and the fact that these were taking place in "an increasingly turbulent external context". A year on, our successes continue, the political and funding environment remains unstable and - additionally - we are in the midst of a pandemic affecting us globally, nationally, locally, domestically and personally. In that context, the potential contribution to humanity of a university like UCL - one that is research-intensive at scale, multi-faculty with a strong culture of cross-disciplinary working and guided by a deep moral purpose - has never been more significant. As we begin a new year, I want to take this opportunity to: remind you how exceptionally well UCL researchers are performing , including through our response to the pandemic acknowledge the challenging conditions in which our researcher and those who support research are operating, and remind you of our responses to these challenges   describe some of the longer-term steps  we are taking to help our research community thrive and deliver public benefit.