Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil wrote to all staff on Thursday 26 June. You can read her message in full:

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased that today, after many months of discussion, a new collaborative of research-focused universities is being formed, of which Sussex is a founding partner. We are calling ourselves ResearchPlus and our primary aim is to enhance the strength of the UK’s research and innovation base to serve the common good. Our manifesto can be read in this HEPI blog. 

Alongside Sussex, the ResearchPlus founding partners are: Brunel, University of London; City St George’s, University of London; Keele University; Royal Holloway, University of London; SOAS, University of London; the University of Essex; the University of Hull; the Open University; and Ulster University. We are a diverse group of research-focused universities. Some partners are defined by Research England as ‘large highly research-intensive and broad-discipline universities’, like Sussex; others are more specialised institutions with distinctive and globally-leading research capabilities that are vital to our economy and society. We are united by a commitment to collaborate with common purpose – to drive economic growth, prosperity, and societal wellbeing for the benefit of the cities and regions in which we are located, and for the wider world. 

There is a very real need for ResearchPlus. A significant number of research-focused universities are not aligned to any university mission group, and so have lacked a voice in articulating our strengths, our potential, and our needs. This means that the UK is not making the most of its research and innovation capabilities and capacities. ResearchPlus will give visibility and profile to universities that constitute a critical element of the UK’s research and innovation system, and that deliver excellent research-informed education and advanced skills. 

ResearchPlus will complement rather than compete with other sector bodies and our intention is to grow our partnership with other leading research-focused universities over time. We will formally launch ResearchPlus in Parliament in the autumn, and we are plannng a programme of policy engagement and institutional cooperation for the coming year. 

We believe that the time is right for ResearchPlus. Many people across government, the university sector, and more widely, have been calling for greater collaboration between institutions. I am delighted that ResearchPlus has the enthusiastic endorsement of Peter Kyle who is both Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, and MP for Hove and Portslade. He said: 

“The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world, making ResearchPlus an exciting opportunity to bring that top talent together to solve challenges and unlock new innovations that improve lives across our country.  

“By strengthening collaboration between universities, industry and government we can break down barriers to opportunity and work together to drive the economic growth that is central to the Government’s Plan for Change.”  

Finally, in these financially challenging times, I want to reassure our community that we are not planning to build a significant and costly infrastructure around ResearchPlus. Partner universities will share resources, and through collaboration between existing staff, we will work together make a positive difference to the UK higher education and research system as a whole, for our partner universities, and all those whose lives are impacted by our work.  

With warm wishes,

Sasha

Professor Sasha Roseneil 
Vice-Chancellor

• Read the associated news article.