A university with impact

We were founded to make real impact on the city's economy and to improve health. A century later, we are still doing this.

The University of the Year award noted the opening of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience with donations of £8m from local benefactors and patients' groups. The centre carries out cutting edge research into neurological conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Judges also visited the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the UK's leading university-manufacturing industry collaboration. Alongside Boeing and Rolls-Royce, 60 partner companies work with 200 University staff (75% are postgraduates) and 150 Prince's Trust apprentices.

A carbon-neutral Factory of the Future sits on reclaimed colliery land, symbolising local regeneration, and the AMRC was named Boeing Supplier of the Year against competition from 17,000 companies globally – the first time this title has gone to the UK.

Project Sunshine aims to harness the power of the sun to tackle the biggest challenge facing the world today: meeting the increasing food and energy needs of the world's population in the context of an uncertain climate and global environment change.

Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) brings together leading international researchers in the social sciences, policy makers, journalists and opinion formers to reassess and develop substantive proposals to respond to the political and economic challenges posed by the global financial crisis and its legacy.