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Department of Chemistry
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£1.7m funding to enhance student facilities

19 November 2025
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We’ve been awarded £1.7 million to help deliver courses that will increase opportunities for students and support economic growth.

Funding for seven projects

As part of £88.5 million of funding announced for universities and colleges across England by the independent regulator the Office for Students (OfS), we have secured £1.7 million for seven projects across three areas: creative industries and digital media, chemical automation and sustainable materials, and engineering and clean technologies.

What this will mean for students

This investment will allow:

  • The development of new facilities for digital image capture, immersive technologies, and AI-driven analysis.

This will support our visual arts, film and music, and museum and artefacts studies, and enhance student employability in the galleries, libraries, archives, museums, heritage, tourism, and screen sectors.

  • The creation of a chemical automation facility and a sustainable materials lab, to embed green chemistry and digital skills into undergraduate learning.

Both facilities will support the development of digital chemistry and data analysis skills, which are essential across the chemical and advanced manufacturing sectors.

  • In engineering, improvements to teaching labs and the creation of a flight controls laboratory, to build more capacity in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Three projects will help increase our capacity and develop practical skills for engineers of the future.

Universities – engines of opportunity and growth

Jacqui Smith, the Skills Minister, said the Government was committed to supporting colleges and universities as engines of opportunity and growth up and down the country.

Nolan Smith, OfS Director of Resources and Finance, said that all funded projects would offer a boost to local and regional economies, and promote national growth.

This additional funding is most welcome, and will expand our ability to provide state-of-the-art training for students in areas that the Government has identified as key for innovation, and regional and national growth. We look forward to our students benefitting from these new and enhanced facilities.
Professor Tony Fawcett
Our Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

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