…stic test for Covid-19. Within weeks of the start of the awareness of an on-coming pandemic the team had adapted their LAMP approach for detecting urinary tract infections (UTIs) to the Covid-19 virus. By the spring of 2020 they had made successful bids to the Welsh Government for resources to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the test, together with a partnership with a local engineering design company to produce a manufacturable point…
…ereira Union Affairs Officer, Leeds Beckett Student Union Supporting their Communities, and the Nation/s, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Alliance universities have been at the forefront of the Covid response. Thousands of nursing students from all 12 Alliance universities volunteered to take up positions with in the NHS to support the nationwide effort to stem the spread of the virus; something Birmingham City University PVC Dean Professor Alis…
…l for the automatic identification and classification of illegal pharmacies- online malicious websites that prey on vulnerable people with the promise of cheap medicines. FAST uses a sophisticated algorithm and rapid method to identify illegal online pharmacies, discouraging visitors from buying pharmaceuticals online and providing valuable information for Interpol and other national bodies in identifying and classifying illegal activity. The rese…
…men. This commitment is reflected at home with her encouragement of her six-year-old daughter Freyja to carry out science experiments in the garden. Her national reach extends to Whitehall, as co-author of the UK Industrial Biotechnology Strategy that was officially presented to UK Government in 2017 and adopted along with its associated road map. Professor Julie Lydon OBE, Vice Chancellor University of South Wales I feel very fortunate to have ha…
…he solution alone. Social and economic success, defined as ensuring fair access and full utilisation of human capital, will rely on harnessing the online environment to enrich and support face-to-face teaching, and vice versa. Find out more in our policy briefings The rise of online learning is shaking up the sector MOOCs: changing the HE landscape…
…d development of our company and most importantly helped us develop a state-of-the-art technology product that will touch millions of businesses and add significant value to the country’s economy. As an SME, such support is transformational. A program like this must be supported in all possible wills and intentions.” Kemi Madumere, Director, Brighter Futures Foundation “[Our] research project…with the University of Greenwich was pivotal in us gett…
…ng back students with a blended learning approach (a mix of online and face-to-face teaching). For Alliance universities this approach is nothing new, with digital learning opportunities existing long before the pandemic. But our recent experience has taken this one step further. Alliance universities have now amassed a wealth of evidence about the benefits of blended teaching and learning, and have a good understanding of the challenges of delive…
Image by Elle’s Dad, Flickr We humans like putting things in order. From an early age we are taught that all things have a place. When we are faced with complex problems, we seek to create schemas and organise findings in a way that will aid our understanding. This is all well and good except that sometimes this approach is in danger of missing the point. In the case of universities, this can be a particular problem due to the broad spectrum…
…patient decontamination processes for a chemical incident. The University committed significant investment in large-scale test facilities for evaluating building and mass casualty decontamination, vapour chambers for simulating human exposure to hazardous substances, and a team of 16 full-time research staff. Volunteers participated in studies that analysed the efficacy of different decontamination processes. This involved spraying participants w…
…me (PSIP) to build a new world-class marine facility which will house state-of-the-art research facilities including new wave tank testing equipment that will be unique to the UK. PSIP builds on expertise in the City and provides a solid innovation infrastructure which expects to create 500 jobs and 30 new businesses in the next five years. PSIP is expected to drive up the city’s Gross Value Added, an indicator of economic performance, by £130mill…