University of Lancashire to become founding member of the Defence Universities Alliance

The University of Lancashire has become a founding member of the Defence Universities Alliance (DUA), a partnership between academia, defence, and the national security community.

The university will join 34 others in the partnership, aimed at growing research and promoting careers in the defence sector. 

MP Luke Pollard, minister for defence readiness and industry,  officially announced the formation of the DUA on Monday (13 July) at an event in Manchester, saying it will help address defence and national security challenges, create a thriving network of defence research expertise and drive a skilled workforce across the UK.

The university's Altitude facility is an example of how the DUA can translate national ambition into regional delivery. Altitude is an interdisciplinary air and space innovation facility housed at Aero Tech NW Warton Enterprise Zone near Preston, which is being used to bring together industry experts, entrepreneurs, academics and government institutions to develop game-changing new air and space capabilities.

University of Lancashire vice-chancellor Prof Graham Baldwin said: “Through Altitude, the University of Lancashire is already partnering with regional companies to grow talent, strengthen the local ecosystem, and create high-value career opportunities for graduates.

“Our added focus via the DUA will be to promote the wide range of defence-related careers available including medicine, humanities, engineering and computing. I am confident the DUA will help enable us to provide more courses which will deliver the skills, resilience and economic growth we require for defence and civic society at large.”

Via the DUA, universities will provide the ideas, expertise and talent to address complex research and development challenges, supporting technological advancement and national resilience through collaboration with the defence sector.

The Defence Universities Alliance is a collaborative, strategic network of universities who are publicly committed to partnering with the Ministry of Defence, the UK Armed Forces and the wider defence sector. The intent is that it will:

• Form a more strategic relationship between the defence and the higher education sectors.

• Build on existing connections between academia and the defence industry to support careers in the defence sector.

• Encourage and support defence and security research.