AUB’s outstanding results gained from REF 2021 demonstrate our continued desire to grow our research output, showcasing how work from across the creative sectors can have a huge impact on the world; from works of cultural and industrial significance, to that of work protecting and raising awareness for minority and under-represented groups in society.

More than 12 percent of the AUB’s research has now been classed as ‘world-leading’ with a further 42 per cent being classed ‘internationally excellent’, according to REF 2021.

The University’s research activity includes online and digital work, as well as exhibitions, photography, museum curation and published work, and represents research across areas of art and design, performing arts, and film and screen studies.

Through our Research and Knowledge Exchange Plan AUB will expand and deepen research with relevant aligned professions and industries in the UK and overseas. Our international renown in the application of specialist technical knowledge in modelmaking, future fashion technologies and diverse modern materials will be developed through adventurous schemes of knowledge transfer and exchange. Drawing on our unique archives and collections in materials such as plastics we will accelerate interaction with material scientists, environmentalists and industrial designers.

Drawing on our unique assets as a Maker Culture underpinned by high-end, high-impact infrastructure and equipment, and informed by the disruptive possibilities of Industry 4.0, we will create a Lab 4 Creative Technologies (L4CT) that physically and conceptually fuses our workshop expertise and other spatial assets with the ERDF Innovation Studio to create a Creative Technologies House, which will aim to accelerate our collaborative works across design, innovation and technology.