QUB tops UK university food science list with UEA
17 May 2022
Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute for Global Food Security and School of Biological Sciences has been rated joint first in the latest Research Exercise Framework (REF) assessment of research quality, impact and environment at UK universities.
IGFS/SBS topped the national league table, along with the University of East Anglia, for Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science. In total, 94% of Queen’s research in those areas was deemed world-leading or internationally excellent.
Additionally, 96% of QUB’s engineering research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent.
Welcoming today’s announcement, Professor Nigel Scollan, director of IGFS said: “This is evidence of the world-leading quality of the research conducted in our institute and the richness and depth of partnerships with industry, governments and others to deliver impact which makes real difference to our society.”
Professor Geoff McMullan, head of school for SBS said: “This is an endorsement of our research culture and our research environment and I would like to thank the university for its continued investment. I would also like to congratulate all my colleagues, from post-graduate research students through to the principal investigators, all our support staff and technicians, on this amazing achievement.”
Queen’s University also scored highly in other disciplines in REF 2021, including health and biomedical sciences which both made the Top 10, along with law.
The university’s vice-chancellor, professor Ian Greer said: “We are delighted with our overall performance, particularly with our research being ranked first in the UK for agriculture, veterinary and food science, fourt for health and biomedical sciences and eighth for law.”
Among the IGFS and SBS projects assessed for REF 2021 were an assurance scheme for authenticity in animal feed developed and run by IGFS for the UK and Irish agrifood industry, accredited by DAERA and the Food Standards Agency (NI); and an investigation into the causes of a food-poisoning outbreak in the UN's World Food Programme.
