BT, University of Warwick and Warwickshire County Council today announced a collaboration to bring 5G innovation and co-development to the University campus and the wider region, stimulating regional economic growth and post Covid-19 recovery.

Today the Coventry City of Culture Trust announced the first events that will form part of the 365-day programme of UK City of Culture 2021, which kicks off in May 2021.

For many years, at the end of the summer term, we would welcome our local community volunteers onto campus to help the RAWKUS Project collect food surplus and other items that were no longer needed from campus accommodation. This year, the challenges of Covid-19 meant we had to adapt our usual approach to ensure surplus items did not go to waste.

We rose to the challenge and had tremendous success after colleagues from numerous teams at the University stepped up. In total, we were able to donate around 100m³ of products – more than double the size of donations from previous years.

A showcase of work by Coventry artists, funded by the city’s universities and produced during lockdown, will launch online on Monday 5 October.

The UK Vegetable Genebank at our Wellesbourne campus is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Learn more about the scientific centre, which supplies seed to projects across the UK and worldwide.

The Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research (CMHWR) brings together a large community of researchers across all faculties at Warwick University with external collaborators in local government, healthcare and regional businesses. There is a fusion of expertise from a broad range of disciplines including computer science, history, mathematics, social sciences, psychology, medicine, business, engineering and economics.

The University of Warwick has retained its top 100 position of 77th overall in the World and 9th in the UK in the THE (Times Higher Education) 2021 World University Rankings published at midday on Wednesday 2nd September 2020.

In the previous two years Warwick rose a total of 14 places in the THE global rankings.

We're aware of the following scheduled road closures in the area surrounding our campus.

A message from the Vice-Chancellors of Coventry University and the University of Warwick about students returning to Coventry and Warwickshire

Please note that there are planned roadworks in the surrounding area to our campus over the Summer months, which we are anticipating will have a major impact on our community.

Rebecca Silver, a staff member working in Rearch and Impact Services, shares with us her experience of volunteering at Spencer's retreat.

Read about the project and how our academics are involved.

Two building projects recently completed for the University have been shortlisted in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) regional awards in the Midlands, with final judging for the winner taking place later in the year.

The two projects are the Professor Lord Bhattacharyya Building hosting the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) and Phase 1 of the Cryfield Village Student Accommodation. Both buildings dramatically enhance the University campus and provide world class facilities for research, teaching and living.

They are extremely energy efficient (EPC A) and sustainable (Breeam Excellent), incorporating renewable energy systems and are assisting the University in the journey towards carbon net zero. Most importantly the buildings are now enriching the experience for staff, students, visitors and the Universities industrial partners, bringing more employment to the region.

Image: Nick Dimbleby

Whilst the UK has been in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gill Frigerio, an Associate Professor in the Centre for Lifelong Learning, has been crocheting coronaviruses to raise money for local charities.

Each week she raffled off her bespoke creations to support different causes in the West Midlands. Tickets were available for anyone to buy for a donation of £5 each. Earlier this month she hosted her ninth (and final) raffle, reaching a grand total of £2,300.

Sharifah Sekalala, Associate Professor in Warwick School of Law, will be taking on two significant projects aimed at ensuring that human rights don’t get eroded in the national and international response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Supported by funding from the University of Warwick’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Dr Sekalala will lead a project scrutinising the emergency laws introduced in the UK and around the world in response to COVID-19. The project team will submit evidence to the UK Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, which has announced an inquiry into COVID-19 and human rights, and also write a global human rights impact assessment on global emergency laws for the World Health Organisation Bulletin which is read by public health officials, legal counsels and policy makers.

More than 1000 face masks, donated to the University of Warwick by its partner Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in China, will help protect key workers in care homes across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Warwick is working with NHS community distribution channels to ensure that the entire batch of personal protective equipment is delivered to care homes throughout the local community — where supplies are limited during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six Warwick social science researchers have become members of the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner’s new Academic Advisory Board.

Dr Ana Aliverti, Professor Jo Angouri, Professor Jackie Hodgson, Professor Vanessa Munro, Professor Tom Sorell and Professor Azrini Wahidin will share research and expertise with the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson.

The board brings together academics from the region’s universities who have expertise in political governance, policing, social cohesion, criminology and social work to share research and identify new and creative ways they can work together with the police to reduce crime in the West Midlands.

Whilst the UK has been in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gill Frigerio, an Associate Professor in the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Warwick, has been crocheting coronaviruses to raise money for local charities.

The Building Fabric team from Estates Maintenance has recently completed a community project at St Peter’s Primary School in Leamington Spa.

With the majority of the team on furlough, colleagues wanted to put their building maintenance skills to good use during this time, to help the community.

Team member Nicola Austin, whose daughter attends the school, identified the project and set the ball rolling several weeks ago. She liaised with the school, doing the preparation work and co-ordinating the team throughout.

Discover how our academics in the Zeeman Institute are contributing to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and providing scientific evidence to support the UK's response to COVID-19.

Charlotte Croft has swapped the lecture theatre for a hospital theatre after returning to nursing to help the UK's National Health Service (NHS) fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Associate Professor of Human Resource Management left her role as a nurse at Nottingham University Hospital in 2013 to work in academia, but decided to answer the Government's call to return to the frontline to help the thousands suffering from coronavirus.

‘The Viral Archive’ is a collaborative project between archaeologists at the University of Warwick, University College Cork (Ireland), and University College London, that is sending out a global invitation, for you to capture the visual record of the signs, marks, and graffiti that are keeping us safe, together, and uplifted during this pandemic.

So far the team has received over 500 contributions from around the world through their @Viral_Archive Twitter page, and are hoping to grow this as an archive of the times. Examples submitted to date include: pictures of rainbows, decorated trees and painted stones, chalk street art, and virus-related graffiti.

Over 300 kilometres of West Midland’s roads are set to trial connected and autonomous vehicles, making UK roads safer and allowing for more predictable goods delivery and journey times.

Three Warwick Business School MBA students have set up a programme of free weekly online seminars for healthcare workers across the world to help them cope with the coronavirus crisis.

Mya Krishna-Kumar, a first year Maths student at the University of Warwick, was inspired by the weekly clap for carers. She wanted to find a way to connect people with NHS staff, to give a more personal touch. A couple of weeks ago, Mya set up 'Letters for the NHS' – a pairing system where anyone can write to a hard-working healthcare worker.

Dr Kate Bailey, a Principal Engineer at WMG, is an expert in food supply chains and has shared her thoughts with us on the challenges our food supply chains have been facing in recent weeks.

Doing the weekly shop, or putting in your regular online delivery order, was something most of us took for granted until the COVID-19 crisis hit. Since the social distancing ‘lockdown’, something as basic as going shopping, or popping to the chemist to pick up a prescription, has become increasingly difficult to navigate for vulnerable and elderly people, as well as those who have found themselves in financial difficulty due to a reduced income.

Thankfully, dozens of community support initiatives have quickly sprung into action to support these groups, and many of our students and staff have been getting involved to help get food and assistance out to where it’s most needed.

Lisa Randle, Chef de Partie in Warwick Conferences’ Rootes kitchen, has been putting her writing skills to good use by volunteering as a pen pal befriender through Hope Coventry’s Good Neighbours programme. She is writing letters to vulnerable local people in Coventry.

Dr David Gregory-Kumar reports for BBC Midlands Today on University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire conducting tests for COVID-19 and how Warwick Medical School staff and students are involved.

Major Gary Bilsbarrow, a Senior Lecturer at WMG, University of Warwick in Supply Chain and Logistics Management, has been mobilised as an Army Reservist to Edinburgh to use his expertise to support the Scottish Government and NHS in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Coventry Very Light Rail project is about to embark on a new adventure, investigating how to create a low cost trackform for the light rail carriages already in development, thanks to £1.5m funding from West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), secured by CCC. This project aims to revolutionise affordable public transport in towns and cities.

Around 1,000 face masks, donated from Beijing to the University of Warwick, will be distributed to NHS key workers across Warwickshire.

We've got some resources from Warwick Sport to help you stay active at home.

Medical students are supporting health services across Coventry and Warwickshire to help fight COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

There are many ways in which universities can actively assist in the response to the pandemic.

Many of our staff and students have not just been asking how they can help but they have simply got on and done so. Here are just five of things those colleagues and students are doing now, some of whom are named below.

Learn how the CWLEP is supporting two of the University's transformational major projects.

University of Warwick researchers have shared their knowledge in the development of a new play showing at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Like There's No Tomorrow has been conceived, written and performed by The Belgrade’s Young Company, and commissioned by the National Theatre Connections programme. Academics from the University of Warwick spent time with the cast and writers of the new production to help feed in and break down scientific facts about climate change and environmental issues. Warwick academics will also join in a panel discussion after the performance.