Imperial’s mission, strategy and vision
Our mission is to achieve enduring excellence in research and education in science, engineering, medicine and business for the benefit of society. Our strong foundations, great people, excellent partners and enablers are the pillars of our success.
- The foundations of our work are our world-class core academic disciplines, our focus on transdisciplinary research, delivery of an excellent educational experience and our vibrant, research-led, entrepreneurial environment.
- In our focus on our people, we commit to creating an enriching, inclusive environment that supports and motivates staff, students and alumni.
- Our partnerships are critical to achieving our goals, and we commit to strengthening collaborations – in both research and education – across the globe. We also inform decision-makers to influence policy and strive to empower society through meaningful engagement.
- Our enablers help us to deliver our strategy through strengthening and diversifying our revenue streams, providing professional support, consistent processes and appropriate technology for staff and students, and committing to courageous, innovative pursuit of new opportunities.
The pandemic has shown how indispensable our work and research are to society. We are helping uncover crucial insights into COVID-19 though our groundbreaking research and innovations, the first of their kind in the world.
We have demonstrated the importance of vaccinations through our REACT study, which found that double vaccinated people were three times less likely than unvaccinated people to test positive for the coronavirus.
Our self-amplifying RNA vaccine technology may prove to be one of the great scientific advances of the pandemic, accelerating development of a technology that could underpin future vaccines, boosters, and the fight against a variety of infectious diseases. We have demonstrated what we can achieve when we collaborate across disciplines, sectors and nations.
Our brand and profile are stronger than ever, and we are using this moment of influence to grow the societal impact of our research, education and innovation. We are advancing
a healthy, sustainable, smart and resilient society – the four cornerstone themes of our Academic Strategy.
This has been a groundbreaking period for our teaching and student experience. As we transitioned to multi-mode teaching, we raised standards and increased student satisfaction. Teams across the College, including the Imperial College Students’ Union, have collaborated to ensure we continued to offer the world-class education our students deserve. We’ve sent
miniaturised lab experiments to students across the world during lockdowns, we’ve recreated field trips in virtual settings, and we’ve carefully delivered innovative on-campus teaching when possible.
We know that a diverse community is key to a vibrant and intellectually stimulating environment, and to attracting and retaining the most creative and capable staff and students from all backgrounds. We are confronting the fact that our institution lacks diversity in some areas – for example, over the reporting period only 235 of our 10,000 undergraduates were Black – and we are taking action to address this. Recently we made a £5 million commitment to scholarships for Black and other underrepresented students, with a view to doubling this through fundraising.
We became one of the first universities to join the Black British in STEM University Alliance, and we have submitted our first-ever application for a Race Equality Charter Mark.
We are translating science and technology so that our discoveries can benefit society through partnerships with industry, academia, governments and the public. Last year, the government placed a £161 million order for 5.8 million high-speed DnaNudge COVID-19 tests, an Imperial startup headquartered in our campus in White City and founded by Professor Chris Toumazou.
We’ve partnered with the Royal Institution and other organisations to launch a new centre that will put London at the heart of global climate change innovation. It will support green business opportunities and offer an accelerator for cleantech startups, as well as providing public education about the transition to net zero carbon. The White City Incubator provides labs and office spaces for scores of early-stage startups. Scale Space, a new scaleup community at White City launched by Imperial together with Blenheim Chalcot, is nurturing growing businesses across the technology, digital and life sciences sectors.