Foster multidisciplinary research

We draw upon the strength and depth of our knowledge within our core disciplines to foster multidisciplinary working.

CDr Nuria Oliva-Jorgeollaboration between disciplines is essential for responding to today’s global challenges.

Across the world, people are recognising that the changes and challenges we face require us to work together more effectively. We have created a flexible framework of Multidisciplinary networks, centres and institutes to facilitate working across disciplines. Our institutes, centres and networks transcend faculty boundaries to enable the efficient progression of scientific endeavour. Our global institutes address some of the most important issues facing the world today, from health inequalities and the dangers of global warming, to the opportunities created by big data and molecular engineering. These institutes are outward-facing, collaborating with policy makers and businesses to apply new knowledge and provide independent scientific advice.

We ensure that our multidisciplinary research has an environment in which it can flourish. Multidisciplinary hubs at our White City Campus, including the Molecular Sciences Research Hub and the The Sir Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Research Hub, have been designed to encourage close team working and serendipitous encounters.

Dr Nuria Oliva-Jorge (pictured), from the Department of Bioengineering, develops smart nanomaterials for the controlled delivery of growth factors for bone repair. Her research combines aspects of materials science, nanotechnology and biology to develop a transformational approach to using growth factors, which are powerful biomolecules that promote wound healing and repair. The technology she is developing could enable the use of less growth factor, making this type of therapy safer and cheaper.

 
 

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Nutrition and Food Centre

The continued global increase in noncommunicable disease (obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer) is driven through changes in lifestyle, a major component of which is food. Expanding populations and rapid urbanisation are leading to grand challenges on resources, food, energy, and waste globally.

The Centre for Translational Nutrition and Food Research brings together research teams across the College’s faculties to tackle these issues by understanding novel approaches to food design and functionality, as well as understanding how food interacts with metabolism. The understanding of food at a molecular level, as well as the underlying effect of food and nutrition on public health, is crucial to the design of food systems that can take advantage of key and emerging trends and respond to current challenges.

Antimicrobial Research Collaborative

The Antimicrobial Research Collaborative (ARC@Imperial) consolidates world leading, multidisciplinary research across the College to address the urgent global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms are able to survive exposure to antibiotics that would normally kill them or stop their growth. Of particular concern are microorganisms known as ‘superbugs’, which become resistant to most antibiotics. Infections which were once easily treatable can become fatal.

ARC@Imperial harnesses the expertise of over 100 academic experts across all of Imperial’s faculties, alongside numerous external partners. The ultimate driving force of the collaborative is to deliver improvements in patient care and population health, to support and develop staff and researchers, and build groundbreaking multidisciplinary research programmes that facilitate the translation of innovation into healthcare.

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Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment

The  Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment is an authority on climate and environmental science and works with nearly 200 Imperial staff who are making an impact across academia, industry, NGOs and governments. In the last year, Institute members and affiliate members met with organisations from 26 countries, discussed their work in the media over 80 times, and published over 500 scholarly scientific articles.

The Grantham Institute’s mission is to drive climate and environment-related research and translate this knowledge into real-world impact. Harnessing the tremendous research strengths areas of the College, the Institute addresses issues including fundamental understanding of climate processes, environmental impacts, mitigation technologies and policies.

The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies

The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies is a cross-faculty centre that aims to develop a rigorous scientific approach to investigating the effects of blast on the human body. As a result of the Centre’s research, the posture and placement of personnel in Army vehicles has been changed to reduce injury, assessment criteria for amputations following heel injury have been altered, and clinical practice has been changed for pelvic injuries in Afghanistan and major civilian trauma centres.

For more information see Centre for Blast Injury Studies