Faculty of Science and Environment

This Faculty will bring together our programmes in architecture, building, geography, mathematics, physics and chemistry, with mechanical, construction and electrical engineering and the environmental, forensic and computer sciences to create a new Faculty of Science and Environment.

• School of Architecture and Built Environment
• School of Natural and Environmental Sciences
• School of Computer Science
• School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics

 

The Faculty will be home to approximately 5,200 students and 360 staff.

It will comprise of our existing School of Architecture and Built Environment and our School of Computer Science It will also bring together a number of existing programme areas which are currently spread across a number of departments and Faculties*.  

The current department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering will welcome Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Physics to create one new School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics ; while the existing Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences will join with the department of Applied Sciences  to create a new School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (1,300 students; 121 staff)

 

Location

The Faculty’s programmes are delivered primarily on the University’s Newcastle City Campus and are also delivered at our London campus and via Transnational Education (TNE) partnerships.  

The University has invested heavily in state-of-the art facilities for students in these subject areas in recent years. Almost £15 million was invested in a new Computer and Information Sciences building and new Architecture Studios following an ambitious and innovative extension of the historic Grade II listed Sutherland Building. Millions of pounds have been spent expanding, refurbishing and installing world-class STEM laboratories and last year the University announced the development of NESST,  the new £50 million North East Space Skills and Technology Centre which is expected to open on the Newcastle city campus in 2026.

 

Key partnerships

The Faculty of Science and Environment will be home toNESST which is being delivered in partnership with the UK Space Agency and Lockheed Martin UK Space. Described as a “game-changer” for the UK space industry, NESST will put the University at the forefront of research, innovation and skills development in areas including optical satellite communications, space weather and space-based energy.

A collaboration between Northumbria, Durham and Newcastle universities with the North East Combined Authority, Space North East England, the North East Space Leadership Group and 14 industry partners has led to the creation of NESCA, the North East Space Communications Accelerator. NESCA has received £2.5 million from the EPSRC to become one of its place-based impact acceleration accounts with an aim to create new opportunities for knowledge exchange that lead to quality impact, including high-skilled jobs and economic growth.

 

Research, education and knowledge exchange

Experiential learning is at the heart of the programmes in the Faculty of Science and Environment. Most programmes are accredited and all include live briefs and project working in order that students gain the experience of applying the skills they are developing to real world problems.  

The Faculty has an outstanding research profile. Northumbria University has one of the world’s largest groups of polar scientists studying the interactions between ice sheets and oceans and is home to the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling an £8.4 million NERC award to the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling with British Antarctic Survey to deliver the next five years of their long-term polar science activities. Research studies related to this area include the £1.2 million TiPACCs study which is investigating tipping points in Antarctica’s ice sheets.

Two new Centres for Doctoral Training will be delivered in the Faculty from 2024. The University was awarded almost £9 million to deliver the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Citizen Centred Artificial Intelligence, which will focus on the inclusion of citizens in the design and evaluation of AI, helping to ensure the rapidly advancing technology works for everyone.  

The success of the existing Renewable Energy Northeast Universities doctoral training programme, known as ReNU, led to further funding of almost £11.5 million from EPSRC, partner businesses and universities to create ReNU+ which will help the UK government to progress towards its Net Zero aims for a low carbon economy. Links to International Institute for Sustainable Energy with northeast Universities and universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabis.  

They join the existing £1.3 million NUdata STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science which will train a new generation of scientists in artificial intelligence and data science using astronomy as its inspiration.  

Space-based research is receiving a growing number of major awards, including £5 million from the UK Space Agency to take forward work to build a new satellite communications system and £1.3 million from the STFC to fund studies exploring different elements of the Sun’s activity and the Sun-Earth connection.

The University is a recognised Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research and is creating a world-leading hub of research expertise, knowledge exchange and learning on volunteering in humanitarian crises and development contexts.

NU-OMICS is a state-of-the-art DNA and genome sequencing facility which is set to extensively benefit from the new Higgs supercomputer system we are introducing this academic year. Also in the biosciences arena, we have established the world’s first research hub for biotechnology in the built environment in an £8 million study with Newcastle University that is intended to create a new generation of living buildings.

In the last academic year the departments that will make-up the new Faculty of Science and Environment brought in a total of £13.5 million in research grants and contract income from organisations including EPSRC, BBSRC, Royal Society of Chemistry, Toshiba Europe, Lockheed Martin, The Alan Turing Institute, The Red Cross.

Colleagues in the  existing departments enjoyed huge success in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework. Geography and Environmental Sciences (UoA 14) is ranked 2nd in the UK for research power, with all impact rated as 4* or 3* and Architecture, Built Environment and Planning (UoA13) is ranked 11th for research power. Computer Science and Informatics (UoA 11) is closely aligned ranking 12th while Engineering (U0A 12) is ranked 25th for research power with 90% of outputs rated as being world-leading or internationally excellent.

For further information, including details of how to apply, please visit: www.odgers.com/92843