Departmental news

Warwick has retained sixth place position in the latest University rankings. The Daily Mail University Guide 2026 highlighted excellence in graduate salaries, support for students to achieve high-skilled jobs, and research quality.

University of Warwick, ZARM and Georgia Tech have hit upon a breakthrough in space life support systems thanks to the magnetic properties of water.

The Universities of Warwick and Birmingham opened the first of their respective 1.2 GHz NMR facilities at Warwick, the result of a £23M investment from UKRI that solidifies the West Midlands as a powerhouse for NMR spectroscopy.

The first evidence-based assessment of how the Government’s Inheritance Tax (IHT) reform would affect farm estates has been published by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax), led by Professor Arun Advani of Warwick Economics and Dr Andy Summers of the LSE.

CenTax analysis finds that there is scope for better targeting the reforms to extend protection for family farms and other small businesses whilst further reducing the use of agricultural and business property as a tax shelter.

A farm estate, which is the focus of the analysis, is defined as the total net wealth of an individual who has died owning some farmland or other farm assets on which they had claimed tax relief.

Using detailed HMRC inheritance tax data, The Impact of Changes to Inheritance Tax on Farm EstatesLink opens in a new window finds that, as currently designed, the planned reforms do protect family farms to a large extent - just under one third of farm estates would be impacted by the reform; and that of that 30 per cent, around 200 estates per year potentially comprise family farms valued at less than £5 million - but there is scope for better targeting the reforms to extend protection for farms and other small businesses whilst further reducing the use of agricultural and business property as a tax shelter.

The report proposes two options for better targeting the reform whilst still raising at least as much revenue overall:

• A ‘minimum share rule’ that would remove relief for passive investors in farmland and other business assets, reducing the use of these assets as a tax shelter. Restricting relief to estates whose relief claims cover at least 60% of the total estate could fund an increase in the combined allowance for 100% relief to £5 million per estate, whilst still raising at least as much revenue as planned reform overall.
• An ‘upper limit on relief’ that would cap relief at the first £10 million of claim, funding an increase in the allowance for 100% relief to £2 million per estate. The effect would be to extend protection for family farms and other small businesses.

Addressing concerns that family farms would need to be sold to pay the tax, the report finds that:-

• Almost half (49%) of all impacted farm estates would see a tax increase of less than 5 percentage points.
• All of the 25 farm estates per year facing an increase larger than 15pp are valued at over £7.5 million.
• 86% of impacted farm estates could pay their entire IHT bill out of non-farm assets, leaving around 70 farm estates per year that could not.

Dr Andy Summers, Director of the Centre for Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) and Associate Professor at London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) said:

“Our analysis shows that the Government’s reform largely protects family farms whilst limiting claims by the wealthiest estates. But the relief could be better targeted to reduce its use for tax planning and further extend protection for businesses, including farms.”

• PHOTO - His Majesty's Treasury, Whitehall
  
  
• Read the report in full on the CenTax website: The Impact of Changes to Inheritance Tax on Farm Estates (2025)Link opens in a new window Arun Advani, Sebastian Gazmuri-Barker, Sanaya Mahajan, and Andy Summers
  
  
• The Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) is an independent research centre dedicated to improving public understanding of tax policy and helping to design a better tax system. This research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.

To drive safety in our future airspace, WMG has been working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on new research to assess how future electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft can be safely integrated into UK skies. The 18-month study, funded by the Department for Transport, forms part of the regulator’s Future of Flight programme and applies systems thinking to assess the safety of future eVTOL aircraft operations in UK airspace.

Earlier this year the UK Government recognised agri-tech, in its Industrial Strategy, as a key frontier industry within Advanced Manufacturing.

The recognition marks a pivotal shift by the government - acknowledging the sector’s potential to drive growth, enhance productivity, strengthen climate resilience, and reduce agricultural emissions - while prioritising a sustainable and secure food supply for the UK.

This also aligns with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) new food strategy for England, to tackle UK food resilience and enhance supply chains, while protecting nature and biodiversity.

Warwick Agri-Tech, established in 2022, is a pioneering initiative that brings together the expertise of two leading University of Warwick departments – WMG and the School of Life Sciences. By integrating advanced engineering with plant science, the initiative aims to shape the future of agriculture.

As part of this mission, Warwick Agri-Tech has launched a new Pilot Facility featuring state-of-the-art robotics designed to support sustainable food production and accelerate agricultural innovation.

The Advance HE Teaching Excellence Awards are among the most prestigious in the world of higher education — and WMG, University of Warwick, is proud to share that one of its own, Dr Freeha Azmat, has been honoured this year.

An Associate Professor and Reader in Engineering Education at WMG, Dr Azmat has been named a National Teaching Fellow for her outstanding innovations in engineering education and curriculum design, as well as her steadfast commitment to inclusion.

Freeha is now one of only three academics at WMG to have received Advance HE’s National Teaching Fellowship Award; she joins Professor Robin Clark, Pro-Dean International, and Professor Margaret Low, Director of Outreach and Participation, as a fellow.

We are Chemistry (WaC) is a student-staff partnership in Warwick Chemistry that empowers students as genuine partners in educational transformation, creating lasting change that extends far beyond the department. Read about their

The University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, invites applications for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD studentship to explore co-creation in civic theatre. The project investigates how co-creation, as an emergent method and process, seeks to build reciprocal partnerships between arts workers and local communities for the purpose of promoting social justice and challenging notions of who has knowledge, expertise, and the right to be seen and heard in cultural organisations.

The Belgrade has placed co-creation at the heart of its role as a civic theatre, with an ambitious aim to "make the local community part of every show at the Belgrade." Spotlighting four productions—Big Aunty (2023), I, Daniel Blake (2023), Romeo and Juliet (2025), and Nanny of the Maroons (2027)—the project will discover how this commitment to co-creation shapes the values that drive the theatre's culture. It will particularly address Nanny of the Maroons, a retelling of Jamaican revolutionary leader Queen Nanny's history involving over 1,000 community participants drawn from the West Midlands Black Creative Network, Coventry Caribbean Centre, and other local groups. Employing mixed methodologies such as participant observation, interviews, and surveys, the project will ask: What does co-creation mean for artists, participants, audiences, and locals? How can co-creation offer alternatives to models in which creative professionals exclude or exploit the local communities in which civic theatres are embedded? What challenges and learnings arise from co-creation, and how might the Belgrade's experience inform wider arts policy and practice?

The student will be supervised by Dr Matthew Franks (English and Comparative Literary Studies) and Professor Nadine Holdsworth (Theatre and Performance Studies), and benefit from integrated support within Warwick's arts and humanities research environment and the Belgrade's professional networks, including Creative Director Corey Campbell and other staff members. The student will be able to determine whether to receive their doctorate from the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies or the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.

Cutting-edge WMG scanning technology led by Professor Mark Williams featured in BBC Two documentary, The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice  

Advanced scanning technology developed by Professor Mark Williams and his team at WMG, University of Warwick, plays a pivotal role in the powerful new BBC Two documentary series The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice.  

The two-part series, produced by Longtail Films and airing on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, reopens one of the UK’s most harrowing cold cases: the search for the final victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, 12-year-old Keith Bennett. The documentary features never-before-seen documents and audio recordings, alongside new forensic investigations that challenge long-held assumptions about the case.  

Professor Williams is a leading expert in advanced scanning and imaging technologies, who contributed state-of-the-art forensic analysis to the programme. His team’s high-resolution 3D scanning and material analysis provided critical insight into key pieces of evidence uncovered during the investigation. The technology helped to scan an area of interest on the moors to identify anomalies and features in the landscape for potential body deposition sites.