Page 4 - Research and Innovation Strategy 2024-2029

RESEARCH STRATEGY OBJECTIVES
INTRODUCTION
he RVC’s research mission is
to create, communicate and
apply scientifi c knowledge in
order to improve the health
Tand welfare of animals and
people and the environments in which they
live.
The scope of the RVC’s research and
innovation is defi ned by this mission – we
aim to conduct world-leading research
and discovery in veterinary medicine,
comparative biomedicine, One Health,
disease biology, animal welfare, and allied
disciplines.
The past two decades have seen
sustained growth in the scale, range and
impact of research at the RVC. In the
2021 Research Excellence Framework,
RVC ranked fi rst in the UK for research
power and impact in the veterinary,
agriculture, food and sciences.
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The QS World University Rankings, which
measure academic reputation and citation
of published research, have placed RVC
as the world’s leading veterinary school for
four consecutive years (2020-24).
The RVC was awarded full University
status in 2023, providing a new
opportunity to consider how research and
innovation is governed and fostered.
UK bioscience research has in recent
years been supported by relatively steady
levels of funding, and the association of
the UK to Horizon Europe ended a period
of uncertainty. The UK government’s
10-year Life Sciences Vision, published
in 2021, includes an aim to maintain
and grow investment in life sciences
research and to support the UK’s rapidly
expanding bioscience and MedTech
industries. However, fi nancial pressures
are increasing at UK’s universities,
leading to a growing focus on the cost
recovery of research activity, which is
estimated to average 70% across the
higher education sector.
The biological sciences are experiencing
a period of discovery and rapid
advancement, driven by the development
and availability of new technologies in
multiple fi elds. In the next decade, animal
and veterinary sciences have the potential
to be transformed by the application
of tools such as genome sequencing,
biosensing, gene editing, robotics,
bioinformatics, and artifi cial intelligence/
machine learning. Directed investment in
people and skills will be needed to realise
this potential and to enable the RVC to
fulfi l its responsibilities to animal and
human health in a rapidly changing world.