Research within the School of Biological Sciences has a broad cross-cutting theme of understanding the fundamental biological consequences of environmental change. Our research incorporates theoretical, empirical and experimental studies on plants, animals and microbes, and spans from gene to global scales, from the deep ocean to high altitude, and from the Arctic to Antarctic.
SBS comprises approximately 45 academic staff, 90 postdoctoral researchers, 150 postgraduate research students and five independent research fellows. Current active research grant holdings total over £25M (c. 29M €, 39M US$) secured from government, non-governmental organisation, industrial and charitable sources.
REF2014 confirmed SBS as one of the top UK institutes for research in the biological and environmental sciences. Staff were submitted to two units of assessment - Biological Sciences (UoA5) and Agriculture, Veterinery and Food Science (UoA6), with 83% and 92% of our overall research activity being considered to be world-leading or internationally excellent (4*/3*), respectively. 100% of our research impact was judged as 4*/3*, as was our research environment. We were ranked top in the UK in UoA6.