Queen Mary University – Co-creating in the creative and digital space

Queen Mary University of London is an institution that builds upon its deep history of uniting diverse ideas from around the globe.

The university’s achievements stem from its strong academic excellence that carves pathways towards remarkable high-impact innovations across various areas.

The university’s leading national and international research-innovation strengths span across wide-ranging disciplines from law, medicine, drama, and engineering.

In a quest to drive this agenda, the university will now have a new physical University Digital Environment Research Institute (DERI), due to open in autumn 2020.

Located adjacent to the University’s Incubator, DERI sits in an unparalleled ecosystem for digital and data science.

DERI will bring together research leaders from across humanities and social sciences, medicine and dentistry, and science and engineering, to drive new multi-disciplinary research and increase commercial interactions with key businesses.

Queen Mary University of London’s impact has far-reaching effects on the creative field

Most creative-economy businesses based in the UK are microenterprises.

This leaves them with limited internal resources to invest in testing new ways of working, creating new products, building new markets and audiences, or shaping cultural policies that would increase their sustainability.

The university, through its pervasive and innovative research and knowledge exchange activities, has championed a multitude of projects that have brought significant positive impacts to the creative industry.

The university has produced a significant impact on the creative sector through DERI. Its research has enabled deep engagement with treasured literary gems from the creative industry dating back to the 19th century.

Kiera Vaclavik’s research on Lewis Carroll’s classic literary piece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland played an integral role in a series of high-profile collaborative endeavours.

Vaclavik’s consultancy with the V&A Museum of Childhood landmark Alice exhibition from 2020 to 2021 continues to shape curatorial practice.

Her creative collaboration led to the creation of a concert suite for the London Symphony Orchestra, and the launch of a fabric collection for Liberty Art Fabrics.

The impact of the university’s research on literature is also seen through Matthew Rubery’s research that has transformed public understanding of recorded literature.

His work involved tracking down Europe’s oldest talking books and secured them for preservation by the National Sound Archive.

Rubery also served as an advisor of the Royal National Institute of Blind People and Blind Veterans UK, helping them to develop their archives, and working on a major public exhibition.

In addition to his extensive public engagement work to foster a greater understanding of the significance of recorded literature, Rubery is also called upon regularly by the book trade as an expert.

His work in the research field has also led publishers to consider the crucial role talking books play in areas surrounding mental health, well-being, and social inclusion.

The university also has played a significant role in benefitting theatre, library, museum, and arts organisations.

All of this is possible through research carried out by Jerry Brotton from the university.

In his study, he investigates the decentralisation of European spaces and cultures from narratives of exploration from the Renaissance onwards.

This exciting venture includes reframing histories of encounter and exchange through non-European perspectives and recent critical theories of cognitive mapping.

Queen Mary University of London revolutionises medical technology innovation 

The university has also revolutionised the field of medical technology through its invention of Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRIS).

IRIS is an evidence-based training, support, and referral programme designed to improve the healthcare response to domestic violence and abuse.

In 2014 the IRIS model was cited as an example for best practice by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and in 2016 became part of the UK government strategy to end violence against women.

The university’s research has also helped to make significant in-roads in the treatment of Hepatitis and has also led clinical development programmes to find a cure for haemophilia.

Among the many successes of the university’s research collaborations is the transformation of the life of haemophiliac Jake Omer, thanks to a gene therapy trial.

Omer said, “At 23, I struggled to run 100 metres to catch a bus; now at 29, I am walking two miles every day which I just could not have done before having the gene therapy treatment. It is incredible to now hope that I can play with my kids, kick a ball around, and climb trees well into my kids’ teenage years and beyond.”

DERI aims to develop new lines of multidisciplinary research to continue changing lives and the world around us for the better.

The university’s collaboration also revolutionises the study of human genomics

Queen Mary is also home to Genomics England and has built strong partnerships with key industry players, including Barts NHS Trust and 46 Alan Turing Fellows.

In July 2013, Professor at the university, Mark Caulfield was seconded to the role of Chief Scientist of Genomics England to lead the delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project.

With his strategic leadership and support from UK scientists, including those at Queen Mary University of London, a protocol for delivering the project was published in 2015.

The 100,000 Genomes Project has now been delivered on time and is recognised internationally as an ideal model for a national sequencing project which has transformed the UK’s gene-sequencing landscape.

The university also plays an important role in the healthcare field and more recently has taken up a position as a forerunner in research towards fighting the coronavirus.

Through a partnership with COVIDENCE UK Research Study, the university has formed a research collaboration with several other universities as well as a team of doctors, scientists, public health specialists, and health economists based in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Island.

Sealing its position as a leader in revolutionising technology in healthcare, the university also led a collaboration project involving a diverse team of senior researchers in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and clinical academics from the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry School.

The project, known as Pambayesian is a three-year EPSRC funded project awarded to the university which aims to develop a new generation of intelligent medical decision support systems.

Similarly, the university is also a part of a partnership with HDR London for a planned foundation site of the new national institute of Health Data Research UK which aims to transform health through data science.

This partnership will allow the university to build on its strengths in e-health data research and human genomics. This is expected to help improve the long-term health of our local communities, especially in managing diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The university is also undertaking a collaborative observational study that examines the effects of air pollution, ethnicity, and telomere length on schoolchildren in London.

The study will have a direct impact on the health and well-being of children and links to the Children’s Health in London and Luton (CHILL) study led by researchers from the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, the University of Bedfordshire, St George’s Hospital Medical School and the University of Cambridge.

The university is also partnering with BT, NPL, Beecham Research, and BOC in an initiative to run innovation programmes for start-ups and small businesses where they can access industry mentors, as well as commercial and academic expertise to help them bring their products to market.

Through this initiative, the university has supported over 50 SMEs including several companies in London and is enabling companies to adopt technologies across several sectors.