Founded in 2013, GW4 is an alliance of four of the most research-intensive and innovative universities in the UK: Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. Collaboration is at the heart of the Alliance, making its institutions greater together than the sum of their parts. GW4 works with other universities, businesses and civic bodies, acting as the anchor institutions to support a knowledge-intensive economy.
GW4 works at pace and scale to:
- add value by creating research and innovation that address some of the biggest challenges and priorities facing society, inform policy and attract investment to support regional economic growth, address regional skills needs and raise the national and international profile of its universities’ activities;
- help its universities to identify and develop new internal and external collaborations, building strategic partnerships to provide co-created solutions and increase the Alliance’s impact;
- provide sector-leading opportunities for research and training for GW4’s postgraduate and early career researchers, and technical staff, increasing diversity and inclusion, and enhancing research culture;
- enable and support shared cutting-edge equipment, infrastructure, and capabilities.
Set out in the Strategic Vision 2023-2028, GW4 has four core strategic priorities:
- Tackling global challenges through advanced cyber and digital transformation
- Effective routes to accelerate the transition to sustainable Net Zero
- Capitalising on creative communities to foster sociocultural growth
- Advancing health and wellbeing research and innovation for all
GW4 identifies areas of complementary expertise across the region’s universities to develop research communities at scale, often in collaboration with external stakeholders and industry partners.
Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable Net Zero and Advanced Cyber and Digital Transformation, and Creative Communities are strategic research priorities.
GW4 identifies areas of complementary expertise across the region’s universities to develop research communities at scale, often in collaboration with external stakeholders and industry partners.
