Partnerships and collaborations

We have been developing our partnerships with research institutes, governments, businesses, charities and other universities, as well as a wide range of stakeholders, over many years.

Nexus, the University’s £40 million innovation hub, demonstrates our commitment to building collaborations with businesses to help them innovate and grow. Our strategic relationships with KPMG and NorthInvest ensure the business community within and through Nexus receives a wealth of support including: commercial advice, investment connections and funding opportunities.

Local and regional stakeholders

As an anchor institution, we strive to bring economic, health, environmental and social benefits to our local communities. We place ourselves at the heart of the region, but with an outward looking aspect that reflects our international standing.

We value our strong partnerships with local and regional stakeholders including:

• Leeds City Council
• West Yorkshire Combined Authority
• Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership
• Leeds Academic Health Partnership
• Leeds Climate Commission
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

National partners

The University is also a partner in a number of prestigious national institutes representing excellence in specific disciplines:

• The Alan Turing Institute for data science and artificial intelligence where we are the lead for the urban analytics research programme.
• The Rosalind Franklin Institute for life sciences where we lead the next generation chemistry theme.
• The Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials where we are the lead for atoms to devices.
• The Francis Crick Institute for Biomedical Research – together with the universities of Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield, we have established a clinical PhD programme in collaboration with the Crick Institute.

We are also a founding member of the Met Office Academic Partnership which aims to develop the atmospheric science leaders of the future.

International partners

Further afield, we have developed relationships with global university networks that enable us to work closely with research-intensive universities in order to help meet the United Nations sustainable development goals.

The University is a member of a number of international networks including:

• World Universities Network (WUN).
• RENKEI - the Japan-UK research and Education Network for Knowledge Economy Initiatives.
• African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) – N8 Research Alliance. This network was formed to identify collaborations for potential Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) projects.
• MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) – we are part of a prestigious leadership programme run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The scheme provides expert, evidence-based guidance for global teams to bring about significant economic and social change in their regions.

Corporate relationships

As well as working with other higher education institutes and networks, we have an established track record of working with businesses of all sizes from start-ups through to large corporate organisations. Find out more about our corporate relationships.

Commercialisation and licensing

We transform academic research into commercial success, we support our academics to do this and have an impressive track record in creating innovative spin-out companies. Six of our spin-out companies are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and employ over 1000 people in high value jobs.

Commercialisation of the University’s intellectual property through spin-outs and licences benefits the businesses, social enterprises and operations we work with by generating impact and economic growth.