The media team arranged a high-profile interview with the Grantham Institute’s Dr Friederike Otto in The Guardian, in which she spoke about her work with World Weather Attribution looking at the impact of climate change on extreme weather events.
More broadly, this work continues to draw widespread media interest. During this period, that included a front-cover feature on Dr Otto in WIRED magazine and international coverage of a study of floods in Pakistan including The Washington Post, CNN, Agence France Presse, The Guardian, Bloomberg and the BBC.
The media team gave The Guardian a tour of South Kensington Campus, including visits to the Enterprise Lab, Carbon Capture Pilot Plant, and Digital Media Lab. The visit also included an interview with Imperial's President, Professor Hugh Brady, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise) Professor Mary Ryan and then-Vice Provost (Education) Professor Emma McCoy.
The work resulted in a glowing in-depth feature on Imperial in September after naming it University of the Year, highlighting Imperial’s culture of innovation and enterprise, as well as the strength of its research and education.
The media team secured coverage on the news that Imperial scientists have successfully engineered mosquitoes that cannot spread malaria. This included priority outlets like The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and New Scientist as well as coverage in Indian media – a key international market – including The Hindu (the second most-circulated English-language newspaper in India) and The Indian Express.
We achieved coverage for the launch of a new Imperial-led trial looking at potential treatments for flu.
This included the BBC, PA News Agency, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Independent, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Metro.
Following a press release from the media team, the discovery of a river longer than the Thames under the Antarctic ice sheet was highlighted in outlets including The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, and Wired. The international team behind the discovery, including scientists from Imperial, say the active water flow under the ice sheet will potentially accelerate the loss of ice as the climate warms.
The media team secured good coverage in The Times and The Daily Mail for research suggesting that sea level rise will dramatically speed up the erosion of rocky coastlines by 2100. We also organised regional coverage in the Yorkshire Post, as one of the two study sites was in Yorkshire.
We achieved excellent broadcast coverage with BBC London in October about Imperial being awarded £95 million in Biomedical Research Centre funding.
The award will support research that translates scientific discoveries into new treatments, diagnostics and medical technologies.
We secured coverage of comments from President Hugh Brady in The Straits Times to mark the launch of a research hub with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The NTU-Imperial Health, Sustainability and Technology Hub was established as part of an agreement expanding the collaboration between the two institutions.
The news that a startup founded by Imperial graduates has won £1m in the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot Prize was shared by the media team with outlets including the BBC, Bloomberg, The Independent and The Guardian. Notpla, founded by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia while they were students at Imperial, has developed a seaweed-based biodegradable alternative to plastic.
The media team arranged demonstrations of a virtual reality project to prepare medical students to deal with emergency situations such as cardiac arrests for iNews, BBC London, and the Evening Standard, as well as internationally with a piece on France Télévisions.
A media briefing organised by the team in September on expected winter pressures on the health service led to Imperial experts in infectious and respiratory diseases being featured widely across UK media.
We arranged media interviews for Professors Peter Openshaw, Azeem Majeed, Nick Hopkinson and Azra Ghani, including with the BBC, The Independent, Guardian (in both an article and podcast), The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Express and several pieces in the Evening Standard.
The team arranged for US and UK media to speak to Professor Chittenden following a breakthrough fusion reaction at the National Ignition Facility in the US which generated more energy than was used to create it.
Professor Chittenden, who was part of the team, appeared on the ITV News bulletin and was quoted across UK outlets including BBC News, the Times, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express, and New Scientist, plus US media including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Newsweek and Forbes. Some articles also featured Imperial’s Professor Robin Grimes and Dr Mark Wenman.
We arranged for several Imperial researchers to share their insights with UK media about the worrying rise in Group A Streptococcus infections in children. Dr Elizabeth Whittaker and Professors Neena Modi and Shiranee Sriskandan spoke to outlets including the Guardian (in both an article and podcast), BBC, Financial Times, Sky News, PA News Agency, The Times, Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Daily Express, Evening Standard, iNews, The Sun, and LBC.
The team continues to connect experts on indoor and outdoor air pollution with media to raise public awareness of the scale of the problem and its effects on health. Professor Frank Kelly appeared on the primetime One Show on BBC One and in The Times, and Dr Gary Fuller talked about the impact of wood burners on BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science. Dr Fuller also publishes a regular column about air pollution in The Guardian.
We organised interviews with Imperial experts about the significance of breaches in the Nord Stream pipelines that caused huge leaks of methane. Dr Jasmin Cooper talked to The Guardian, iNews and Reuters and Dr Paul Balcombe appeared in the Financial Times and on CNN.
Professor David Miles took part in a number of interviews to coincide with the OBR publishing its economic analysis alongside the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. This included an interview with Bloomberg News, a discussion for the Spectator podcast and coverage in The Guardian and The Times. After the Budget announcement, he was quoted in further stories including pieces in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Daily Express.
The team continues to ensure that Imperial leaders highlight strategic College priorities in the media, including placing a letter from Provost Ian Walmsley in The Times on the importance of international students to the UK, and arranging for Professor Mary Ryan, Vice Provost (Research and Enterprise) to speak to Science Business to make the case for continued access to Horizon Europe.
This figure shows us the number of pieces of coverage in our most valued media outlets (print, online and broadcast) for example: global outlets like the BBC; broadsheets like The Times, Guardian, Telegraph; mass media outlets like The Daily Mail and The Sun; international outlets like The Washington Post and China Global Television Network; influential news wire services like Reuters; and radio stations like ABC and CBC.
Media coverage in winter 2022 was down by 35% compared to summer 2022. Seasonal variations in press coverage are normal for Imperial, but we continue to monitor these trends.
The vast majority (2918 pieces) of coverage in winter 2022 was by UK media. Followed by the United States (895 pieces). In summer 2022, the percentage of coverage in US outlets was higher than it is in winter 2022.
In winter 2022, The Daily Mail, Telegraph and Guardian carried the most pieces relating to Imperial.
It was similar in summer 2022, however The Times published more pieces than it did in winter.
In winter 2022, the highest volume of TV and radio coverage were in BBC regional TV programming, followed by CBC Radio in Canada.
In summer 2022, the most coverage was in BBC radio regional programming, followed by CBC Radio in Canada.
This chart shows us the prevalence of keywords contained within the media coverage. We see that in winter 2022 the most common words refer to activity of a global nature, and of relevance to children and education.
In summer 2022, climate change was far more prevalent in our media coverage.
In winter 2022, the largest peak in coverage by far related to Imperial expert commentary on the outbreak of Strep A in the UK, and the consequent impact on penicillin prescription levels (14 Dec).
In summer 2022 (not depicted above), the most significant peaks in coverage were for a Department of Infectious Disease study that interrupting immune-suppressing treatment can boost COVID vaccine response (27 July); and Imperial commentary on the Archie Battersbee case (early Aug).