The Universities for Nottingham initiative is a pioneering collaboration which brings together the strength and civic missions of Nottingham's two world-class universities. Over the next few years it will improve the way we work with each other and with our local partners to help change the lives of local people for the better.
Where it began
Our two institutions began work on this initiative early in 2019. The aim was to explore whether, by working together, we could be more effective at helping our partners address the major challenges facing our local area.
Individually, we know that our institutions are actively engaged in literally thousands of projects that are specifically aimed at supporting our local communities. But we suspected that much of this activity was, in fact, complementary. We recognised that where our actions could be better joined-up, the added value would be felt— not just by our institutions— but by Nottingham’s businesses, people and society.
“As the Vice-Chancellors of Nottingham’s Universities, we agreed to commence the Universities for Nottingham project because, while both of our institutions were making a significant individual contribution to our region, we recognised the potential for further collaboration.
Once we started investigating the potential to deliver projects in the local area, the sheer scale and number of opportunities was striking.”
Professor Edward Peck, President and Vice-Chancellor, Nottingham Trent University and Professor Shearer West, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Nottingham.
What has happened so far?
We have now mapped these overlapping areas and investigated the economic, social and cultural contribution we jointly make to our local area – the results of which can be seen on these pages and in the full report.
Download our Impact ReportOur ambition
Drawing from the recommendations of the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission, we are going to use this work as the foundation for a programme of renewed, focused and impactful collaborative working with local partners. We will create a process of co-curation and consultation leading to the creation of the first “Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement” later this year.
Our ambition is for the Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement to establish a programme of collectively agreed and publicly shared initiatives between the universities and our partners, which will deliver transformative change for the people and place of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Following early conversations with over one hundred local stakeholders and organisations, we are going to focus this co-curation phase on developing ideas across five main areas where we think we can add most value. These are:
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01. Economic prosperity
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02. Educational opportunity
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03. Environmental sustainability
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04. Health, wellbeing and culture
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05. Unlocking the universities
For initiatives to be included in the Agreement, they will need to focus on solutions, be ambitious, be collaborative with both universities and more than one local partner, align with our universities' strategies and not lead to the universities exceeding their remit, expertise or local responsibilities.
We will update these pages with updates on progress, new partner organisations and dates for public consultations in due course.
See some of the work we do
