REF 2014 - Chemistry ranked first in UK for 4* and 3* research

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Chemistry has ranked 1st in the UK for 4* and 3* research (world leading and internationally excellent), doubled % of 4* research in the REF2014 Research Excellence Framework.

In the Times Higher Education subject rankings Chemistry at the University of Liverpool ranked 1st for outputs, 2nd overall and 3rd for impact.

Research in Chemistry is organised into five closely interlinked research themes, Materials Chemistry, Medicinal and Bio-nano Chemistry, Energy and Catalysis, Functional Interfaces, and Theoretical and Computational Chemistry.

Investment in the new, cross-disciplinary Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy has allowed us to target new research opportunities in areas of future societal importance.

We have attracted £33 million of research income over the past six years and have started new research grants totaling £43 million, while continuing to increase the impact of our research papers.

We have a strategy of strong engagement with industry - our Centre for Materials Discovery, an open access facility for academic-industry collaboration and knowledge exchange, is being expanded by the creation of the Materials Innovation Factory. This £68 million project, part funded by one of the first UK Research Partnership Infrastructure Fund grants, will add a new 11,000 m2 wing to the Chemistry building, allowing us to co-locate academic research in materials with industrial research partners.

Our research underpins commercial impacts that include, heterogeneous catalysis for the environmentally friendly production of ethyl acetate, homogeneous catalysis for a radically new manufacturing process for methyl methacrylate, and powerful new methods for DNA sequencing based on chemically modified DNA.