About our research

Our desire to create knowledge that will benefit society drives our active and diverse research agenda. Our research is useful, real-world research, which is designed around issues affecting society both in the present and in the future.

The quality of research at the University of Reading is highly regarded nationally and internationally and we are committed to enhancing our position as a leading research-intensive University. We enjoy great success in bidding for research funding, in the past financial year we won over £35 million of new research grants and contracts.

Our multidisciplinary research strengths fall into three main spheres, where we focus our research effort to make most impact on issues which affect us as a society. These spheres encompass Health, and Food and Environment and Sustainability. These are all fed by research into enabling science and enabling technologies, which are key in facilitating this work.

In addition, the Henley Business School at Reading is one of Europe's leading business schools and our academic expertise in typography has lead to the formation of the Simplification Centre, which focuses on the way written information can be presented to promote effective communication.

The University of Reading also continues to have a world class reputation in the more traditional areas such as - philosophy, archaeology, typography and graphic design, food and nutritional sciences, modern languages and law.

Our research environment is important to us and we are investing in spaces to foster collaboration between research areaswhich keep Reading at the forefront of pioneering science.

Our research is funded through a variety of routes including through research council grants, charities, government agencies, European Commission, through enterprise and through industrial partnerships. Part of our approach is to engage and work collaboratively with other organisations and institutions around the world in order to make a significant contribution to societies needs and to national and international policy agendas.