Research & Innovation
Research, development and innovation is an established and strongly growing area of activity for THEA member institutions. It intrinsically linked with teaching and learning, knowledge transfer and engagement, with a primary aim to produce research-informed graduates with skill-sets aligned to enterprise and community needs. THEA member institutions are performing research at basic, applied and pre-commercial stages with a range of regional, national and international enterprise and community partners. Although long recognised for strong research and innovation capacity in STEM areas, particularly in working with enterprise, these institutions have developed and are continuing to grow capacity in arts, media, the humanities, business and social sciences. They are also an incubator of new enterprise, supporting start-up and spin-out companies, and assisting those companies to engage in research and innovation.