Introduction
I was appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Sussex in September 2007 (until 2016) and am honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead this great University in the 21st century.
I have found my first year at Sussex to be the most exciting, challenging and rewarding of my career so far. Together with Professor Bob Allison, our Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, we are building an exciting future for research at Sussex, as part of a wider new strategic plan to take us forward to 2015.
The intellectual strength of Sussex is founded upon its research. Excellent research not only establishes our reputation as a major international university but it supports high-quality teaching and learning, underpins scholarship and is central to the exchange of ideas that contribute to the knowledge economy.
This Annual Research Review provides an overview of our research strategy, an introduction to some of our current research projects and a look toward the future. You will also find here some brief updates to stories covered in our first review, published in 2007 to accompany an event at the Royal Society. The event was hosted by our distinguished alumnus, Cabinet Minister Hilary Benn, and our Chancellor, Lord Attenborough.
The Royal Society was an excellent venue for the launch of our research event, as one of our scientists, Professor Geoff Cloke, was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society just weeks before; although we might equally have held it at the British Academy, since two Sussex faculty, Professors Michael Lipton and Ted Timms, were elected as Fellows there just the year before.
Over the last decade, the º£½ÇÉçÇø has continued to build on its reputation for research excellence, interdisciplinarity and innovation. In developing the new strategic plan for the University, which will be published later in 2008, we are building on excellent foundations.
Professor Michael Farthing - Former Vice-Chancellor
