University of Leeds
Leeds University is an international centre of excellence for research and teaching with some 28,000 students. It ranks among the top 10 research universities in the UK, with some 3,000 researchers and an annual research income in 2002 of more than £63 million, of which 9.5% is from EU awards. Under the Fifth Framework Programme, the University of Leeds was awarded 157 contracts to the total value of €32.5 million; 57 of these were co-ordinated by Leeds. The last national Research Assessment Exercise in 2001 confirmed the University as a leading research institution, with 28 departments deemed to be undertaking research of international quality. Leeds was the first university in the country to create a technology transfer company 30 years ago. In 1999 it set up a unique partnership with the investors "Forward Group" providing £20 million to help academics develop and commercialize ideas.
Leeds University participates through the Department of Chemistry, the Centre for Self Organising Molecular Systems (SOMS) a world-leading multidisciplinary research Centre within the University of Leeds, with current director Professor Richard Bushby. It was established in order to bring together expertise from various departments, to generate new science and to develop strategically important applications in collaboration with industrial partners. The main research focus is work on self-organising systems It is an independent Department occupying its own suite of laboratories in which chemists, physicists and biologists work side-by-side. Its strength derives from this multidisciplinary ethos. The University secures internationally-recognised excellence in research whilst simultaneously providing a first-class, innovative and flexible learning and teaching environment for students of all ages and backgrounds ; it is committed to the dissemination, transfer and application of knowledge for the benefit of all sections of society; it is an international institution which also serves the nation and local and regional communities; it strives always to provide value for money and to be accountable to the communities which it serves.
The discoveries on self-assembling peptide materials took place in Leeds several years ago. Since then this work has grown to become one of the main research themes of the Centre and all the appropriate infrastructure and interdisciplinary collaborations have been established for world-class research in the field of self-assembling peptides. Four international patent applications have been filed by the SOMS Centre over the last eight years on self-assembling peptides. The main focus is work on self-organising systems but it has also become a leading Centre in the University for Nanotechnology and it hosts the Leeds component of the EPSRC-funded MSc in Nanoscale Science and Nanotechnology and Bio-nanotechnology as well as the new BSc course in Nanotechnology (from 2004).