In a time of critical transitions in society, technology and the environment, our excellence across education and research is an essential foundation to enable our impact on the world around us. Our community is a vital engine of inclusive economic and social impact.
We are sector-leading, widely recognised as the partner of choice, and our innovative approaches to translating high-quality fundamental research deliver impactful solutions. Our graduates take our values-led approach into their work and volunteering. Our Strathclyde Inspire entrepreneurial programme equips our staff and students to have a far-reaching impact through innovative thinking. Each of these results in innovation that responds to both local and global challenges.
The careful design and many years of growth of our distinctive Strathclyde innovation ecosystem, built around partnership and collaboration, is now delivering these outcomes. This approach has been accelerated through the development of our two Innovation Districts – Glasgow City Innovation District and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland. Our innovation districts are two of the most developed in the UK, setting us apart from others. They are a key engine of growth and innovation in the economy, supporting jobs, growth and wider wellbeing.
Our relationships with government, business, industry and the public and third sectors, developed over many decades, accelerate the development of technologies, help companies compete, and inform the development of public policy. We are embedded within local, regional and international innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, operating in close partnership and supporting our collaborators across all of our capabilities and activities. Today, when organisations face strategic challenges and barriers, they seek us out as the thought leader that can help in useful ways.
Our success can be attributed to the fact that we actively work to solve problems that matter through our excellent research and education. This is reflected in our staffing complement where we actively appoint Professors of Practice – direct appointments from industry and the public sector – and other academic roles that are focused on real world solutions.
In 2030, we will have continued our success in attracting major investments and delivering significant economic growth for our City and Region. We will have created more deep strategic partnerships with high-impact businesses, large and small, from Scotland, UK and around the world. Our outward facing centres are truly world-leading in our areas of strategic focus, creating new jobs, new industries and value for society and the economy.
Distinctive Strathclyde
Read more about how we are making transformative innovation and impact.
People First
Through training and development of our staff and making strategic appointments, we ensure our academic leaders, including our innovative Professors of Practice and Knowledge Exchange staff, are equipped with the skills to support our embedded and systematic approach to innovating, influencing, collaborating, and shaping technology, policy, economy and strategy. Ultimately, this delivers greater impact on the world around us, shaped by our socially progressive values.
Social & Environmental Sustainability
We prioritise supporting our partners in improving their social and environmental impact, acting as both a role model through our socially progressive approach and a guiding influence through our collaborative education, research and innovation. More broadly, we support energy transition and the delivery of societal change.
Process, Systems & Digital
We work with our partners in innovative ways, deploying skills training, data and technology to better enable those partners to connect with and understand the world around them.
Our strategic aims
Strategic Aim 3.1: Engagement with other sectors
Our distinctive approach to engagement, knowledge exchange and collaboration transforms the world around us by opening up our education and research portfolios to other sectors to drive growth, sustainability and other benefits for society, both locally and globally.
We will achieve this by:
- maximising collaborative education and research engagement with industry, government, public and the third sector bodies, including expanding our engagement approach to encompass more diverse partners and models, underpinned by multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches that respond to modern complex challenges. We are open and agile in our approach so that we maximise both income and impact from these interactions. Through our engagement we promote progressive workplace practices that deliver fair work and workplace innovation to drive productivity and inclusive growth
- increasing our constructive and independent engagement with government policy at all levels through our high-impact policy centres, our senior academics’ appointments in key national and international policy advisory bodies as well as working in partnership with public agencies such as the NHS to ensure that our research and knowledge exchange can support change to improve public services and impact on people’s lives. Our distinctive approach to partnership for the benefit of society means we are the key partner for UK and Scottish Governments. We deliver economic growth and industrial strategy in Scotland, and contribute to the development and implementation of both governments’ strategy and policy through a systematic approach that embeds inclusive development and socially progressive approaches. This ensures that the distinctive Strathclyde approach to thought leadership continues to make a difference locally, regionally, nationally and internationally
- collaborating with third sector organisations locally and internationally to provide knowledge, skills, and capacity to support innovation and deliver transformational change for the benefit of society
Strategic Aim 3.2: Innovation, entrepreneurship & economic development
Through our Entrepreneurial campus and Innovation Districts, we are embedded within local, regional and international innovation and enterprise ecosystems, transforming operating models for our partners through the application of technology, expertise and talent.
We will achieve this by:
- playing a leading role in bringing new ideas to life. Organisations seek us out as the thought leader that is useful, strategic, values-led, committed to collaboration and can help them find solutions. Through the development of two of the UK’s most established innovation districts - Glasgow City Innovation District and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland – we are pioneering a new way for universities to deliver economic impact
- developing further competitive advantage through our unique network of UK Catapult and Scottish Innovation Centres for our partners through these world-leading ecosystems and ensuring that our highly successful and authentic promotion of collaborative innovation, inspired by our world-class research, teaching and talent, will be a defining characteristic of our institution
- attracting and developing the right talent to solve the problems that matter by undertaking impactful research and education that directly underpins successful adoption and implementation of new technologies and operating models
- supporting entrepreneurship, industrial engagement and commercialisation and enabling fast-growing businesses, by making strategic investments in developing companies and growing our number of industrial strategic partnerships. Through our role as the leading entrepreneurial university in the UK we will unlock the potential of our people and create an environment in which venture creation and growth thrives. We will do this by positioning entrepreneurship as a mindset and set of behaviours that can be adopted by all as we lead the way for Scotland to become a more prosperous, more productive and internationally competitive small nation. Alongside this we grow our licensing, continuing professional development (CPD), executive development, and consultancy activities with our partners, leading them through transformative change based on our interdisciplinary research and education relating to global paradigm-changing trends and challenges. This activity demonstrates the value of our distinctive approach for UK and Scottish Governments by delivering policy and strategy outcomes for economic strength and development
Strategic Aim 3.3: Education & Public Engagement
We take our distinctive Strathclyde approach to the world through our education, skills development, and public engagement, influencing others in the workforce, civil society and the communities with which we work to adopt and embed progressive approaches.
We will achieve this by:
- expanding the reach of our innovative and successful approach to embedding entrepreneurial skills through Strathclyde Inspire, executive education, skills development, and continuing professional development (CPD) and other training programmes for organisations in other sectors
- providing our students, staff and alumni with broader experiences to apply our values-led approach to innovation and entrepreneurship, through development opportunities that include student sponsorship, internships, placements and projects. We will further value and support staff and students in taking pride in sharing and developing their knowledge with others
- developing the engagement of the public in the priorities and delivery of our research, its outcomes and impact. We will do this through innovative public engagement programmes and platforms with the goal of raising understanding and awareness of the University’s positive impact on society, with an emphasis on socially progressive engagement with wider and more diverse audiences in Glasgow and globally