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Warwick Number One for Research Council Awards

The University of Warwick is the most successful university in the UK for obtaining successful Research Council Awards, ahead of Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial, according to research by the Times Higher Education.

During the 2007/08 academic year, Warwick applied for 273 research grants and achieved 105 successful awards. This means Warwick's success rate has inreased from 33% in 2006-7 to 38% in 2007-8

Professor Mark Smith, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research (Science and Medicine) at the University attributes this increase to the new research strategy instigated by Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift as part of the Vision 2015 Strategy.

This new strategy involved creating two pro vice-chancellor positions dedicated to research, one for science and medicine, and the other for arts and social studies.

Professor Smith told Times Higher Education that: “this allows us more time to get stuck into the detail of our portfolios and take an active interest in selecting the grants to go through.

Through the Vision 2015 Strategy, Warwick is aiming to be a centre for excellence in research and scholarship, where first class research is second nature.

Professor Thrift says: “We have set our sights on making Warwick a universally acknowledged world centre of higher education by 2015, firmly in the top 50 of world universities.”

“Excellent research is the lifeblood of a University like Warwick. Without it nothing else will work.”