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Strategic Partnerships and Relationships

The University has a number of strategic partners and relationships with organisations across the UK. Below you can view each partnership, along with the objectives both parties wish to achieve.

Built Environment and Construction

For more information on our construction and sustainability partnerships, contact Katrina Woodward, Strategic Partnership Manager.

Morgan Sindall Construction (MS) offers national design construction and infrastructure services to private and public sector clients.  They are part of the Morgan Sindall Group. The Group consists of: Overbury, Morgan Lovell, Lovell, Morgan Sindall Property Services, Muse Developments, Morgan Sindall Investments and BakerHicks.
The company vision and values are at the heart of everything. They are based on the company culture, and represent both who they are and what they stand for.

NTU enjoys a rewarding relationship with Morgan Sindall, exploring unique ways to support the strategic priorities of both organisations to promote talent, skills, innovation and research. Priority focus areas are currently: Teaching and Learning, Work Experience and Employment, Research and Development, Business Planning and Strategic Alignment.

Morgan Sindall is keenly engaged with NTU to drive this ambition, running panel assessments, offering student placements, providing real-life project content and providing assessment insight, along with a host of other activity.

Speaking at our Women in Built Environment Event, co-producing a pod-cast on “Building a Future Fit Workforce” and sponsoring an award at a recent graduation ceremony are among the highlights of the partnership.

With focus on developing the workforce and encouraging innovation in the construction sector, NTU can provide an alternative approach and insight to a thriving and industry, sharing knowledge and expertise.

VolkerFitzpatrick is one of the leading engineering and construction companies in the UK and provide specialist building, civil engineering and rail expertise to a range of markets to provide a truly integrated service to clients. They possess proven experience and deliver successful projects in a wide range of industries, including commercial, industrial, education, rail infrastructure and depots, airports, waste and energy. VolkerFitzpatrick is part of VolkerWessels UK, a multi-disciplinary construction and civil engineering group operating across the UK in six operating companies.

VolkerFitzpatrick have had great internal, student facing presence for the past 17 years. Regularly taking part in jobs fairs, employing our graduates and providing placements for our Built Environment students, they give them a fantastic opportunity to experience compliment their studies with practical elements, while gaining a fresh prospective to the industry.

The VolkerFitzpatrick vision is to collaborate effectively to create profitable, sustainable growth throughout VolkerFitzpatrick. Exploring new ways to support the strategic priorities of both organisations, the future aspirations of the partnership include working together to produce and retain talented employees while exploring diversification, social mobility and inclusivity in the workforce. This will be underpinned by VolkerFitzpatrick’s business drivers and in line with NTU’s four underpinning areas; Teaching and Learning, Work Experience and Employment, Research and Development, Business Planning and Strategic Alignment.

Arc Partnership deliver property services that connect people with their environment across Nottinghamshire, the East Midlands and beyond

Creative and Digital

For more information on our creative and digital partnerships, contact Maggie Burnett, School Academic Showcase Manager.

The Nottingham Post is published by MGN Ltd, part of Reach PLC.

The Nottingham Post is an English tabloid newspaper which serves Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. The Post is published between Monday and Saturday each week, and is also available via online subscription. It was formerly “Campaigning Newspaper of the Year”.

Founded in 1878 as the Nottingham Evening Post, the Nottingham Post has long been acknowledged as Nottingham’s main news publication.

NTU entered into a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Nottingham Post (NP) in November 2017, when it was owned by the Trinity Mirror publishing group. The partnership comprised two main elements; a commercial focus with identified campaigns and sponsorship opportunities, and collaborative value-adding activities and opportunities for mutually beneficial engagement. These are aligned to the strategic pillars of developing talent, skills, innovation and research.

Initiatives and successes include the development of work experience, live projects, and news coverage opportunities with students in the NTU Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism (CBJ). Also, NP journalistic collaboration with Notts TV student activity; a marketing consultancy project with the Nottingham Business School (NBS); collaboration on the annual journalism awards hosted by the CBJ, and an NBS consultancy project based on Nottingham's top 200 companies.

In 2018, Nottingham Post was acquired by Reach PLC, Britain’s largest newspaper, magazine and digital publisher (comprising 150 newspaper titles and 80 websites). The future focus of activity with NP and partnership review will also seek to identify, and incorporate the wider opportunities that this recent change can facilitate. This includes involvement from other subject areas and schools within NTU, and the interface with digital audiences and skills requirements.

Cultural

For more information on our cultural partnerships, contact  Amy Bere, Director of Culture, NTU.

NTU and Nottingham Contemporary have been working together since the Contemporary’s inception in 2008. Nottingham Contemporary is ‘the most inspiring gallery in the UK’ (The Guardian). Its exhibitions, events, learning programmes and research are designed to stimulate discussion and debate, and they attract audiences from across the city, the region, the country, and the world to experience the most exciting contemporary culture.

Our partnership with Nottingham Contemporary reflects NTU’s goals to create opportunity, enrich society, and value ideas. It comprises collaborations across the university’s schools and professional services. Together we offer valuable work experience for NTU students through placements, project briefs, challenges, and volunteering. We work together to support each other’s research agendas and when possible, we collaborate on funding bids and studentships.

We are collectively interested in supporting the challenges faced by the wider cultural sector and are currently exploring projects that look at sustainability, digital technology, and equality and inclusion. We involve our partners in NTU Knowledge Exchange activity, including European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) funded projects designed to share NTU specialist knowledge for the benefit of business.

Nottingham Playhouse has been working in partnership with NTU for many years, with strong links forged between the theatre design course, including the annual Playhouse Prize. The Playhouse is one of the country’s leading producing theatres, and it was awarded the Regional Theatre of the Year 2019 by The Stage. It creates a range of productions from timeless classics to innovative family shows and adventurous new commissions.

Our partnership with Nottingham Playhouse reflects NTU’s goals to create opportunity, enrich society, and value ideas. More recently it has extended beyond theatre design to comprise collaborations across the university’s schools and professional services.

Together we offer valuable work experience for NTU students through placements, project briefs, challenges, and volunteering. We work together to support each other’s research agendas and when possible, we collaborate on funding bids and studentships. We are collectively interested in supporting the challenges faced by the wider cultural sector and are currently exploring projects that look at sustainability, digital technology, and equality and inclusion.

We involve our partners in NTU Knowledge Exchange activity, including European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) funded projects designed to share NTU specialist knowledge for the benefit of business.

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature (NUCoL) has been working in partnership with NTU since its foundation in 2015.  One of a global network of cities of literature, NUCoL’s mission is to build a better world with words.

Our partnership with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature reflects NTU’s goals to create opportunity, enrich society, and value ideas. It comprises collaborations across the university’s schools and professional services.  Together we offer valuable work experience for NTU students through placements, project briefs, challenges, and volunteering.  We are collectively interested in supporting the challenges faced by the wider cultural sector and our local communities. We involve our partners in NTU Knowledge Exchange activity, including European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) funded projects designed to share NTU specialist knowledge for the benefit of business.

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature works closely with the NTU Culture Team to support the NTU Writing Reading and Pleasure Programme (WRAP)

ChalleNGe is the local cultural education partnership. It strives for a Nottingham whose diverse population of children and young people are imaginative, innovative, and creative. ChalleNGe partners with the city’s cultural sector and works with educators to champion creativity in schools and communities.

Since 2019 NTU has hosted the small ChalleNGe team whose work is guided by a steering group comprising members of the city’s cultural sector and other key stakeholders. NTU’s Director of Culture is a member of the steering group.

Our partnership comprises collaborations across social sciences, including the Institute of Education, and other schools at NTU and Confetti. With a focus on evaluation and evidence building, and with ChalleNGe acting as a central hub in the city, there is much scope for partnership working for mutual benefit and gain.

New Art Exchange (NAE) is a ground-breaking, award-winning and internationally recognised creative space in the heart of Hyson Green, Nottingham. It promotes excellence in culturally diverse contemporary arts through exhibitions, events and engagement initiatives.

NAE presents a changing programme of exhibitions, public programme, creative activities for families and young people, film screenings, festival days, and live performances. It is also the executive producer of Nottingham Mela, the oldest Mela in the UK and supports emerging artists and creative practitioners of the future through a range of talent development initiatives.

The BBC Concert Orchestra’s partnership with the Universities for Nottingham was announced in June 2023. The partnership supports the mission of the Universities for Nottingham to amplify the development of the existing culture, arts and heritage offer within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and create impactful connections between students, academics and local communities in Nottingham.

The partnership will:

  • Give students regular access to one of the UK’s most highly rated professional broadcast orchestras so that they can develop their skills and gain industry experience that will increase their employability.
  • Develop new pathways to highly skilled technical roles in the broadcast industry.
  • Create new research and development opportunities, focusing on areas such as the social impact of music, digital technologies in music practice and audience engagement.
  • Support music-making with young people across curricular and extra-curricular settings.

The BBC Concert Orchestra will work closely with NTU Music and Confetti at both the Nottingham and London campuses.

Healthcare

For more information on our healthcare partnerships, contact Dr Padraig Mulcahy, Strategic Partnerships Manager & Research Lead (STEM & Health).

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) have been strategic partners since 2017. EMAS and NTU has worked on co-developing and co-delivering a range of professional accredited education to support the recruitment and development of EMAS Staff. The developments to date have been included developing new Ambulance Medical Technician Courses alongside Ambulance driving courses.

The partners are working to identify innovative areas of research to support service delivery and patient care. There is work underway to develop further professional training and development to support staff career development and recruitment and retention of staff working for EMAS. This will include further accredited courses to broaden the career development framework.

There will be a focus on joint research opportunities, to develop innovative ways to improve patient care. Alongside the Partnership and system will work in partnership to develop new roles in response to local health and social care needs.

Nottingham University Hospital Trust have been a strategic partner since 2015. The strategic focus of the partnership has been developing and co-delivering Continuing Professional Development Frameworks for Nursing, including specialist modules and a leading and innovating nursing degree. The developments to date have been in response to needs identified by the Trust in specific services. Work is underway to design and deliver apprenticeships in partnership including the Associate Nurse Apprenticeship.

The range of specialist modules continues to expand in response to the Trust identified priorities, with work underway to expand the career development framework across multi-professional boundaries and to encompass a wider range of staff. The partners are working together and with the wider system to develop new roles in response to local health and social care needs.

NUH and NTU are working together to identify innovative ways to raise awareness of students and graduates to explore careers in health. The partnership is exploring wider partnership opportunities around research projects and innovative ways to improve patient care.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been a strategic partner since 2016, There have been a range of evaluations undertaken with the Trust with NTU Academics, including the evaluation of a bespoke development programme for middle management. There have been placements and internships that have been extremely successful in a small range of areas. The partnership has successfully created joint funding bids to develop innovative partnership work to support the work of the local health and social care system.

The Partnership is working on developing new and innovative roles, which are reflective of the needs of the service users and patients and which will have system applicability. Alongside the organisations are working in partnership to develop a framework for continuing professional development for the Trust reflecting key priorities for staff and patients.

The partnership is seeking to increase the breadth of placements and internships at the Trust as one of the ways to raise awareness of students and graduates about exciting careers in health. In addition, there is further evaluation work planned for distinct programmes of work to support how initiatives are embedded and to identify whether there is a need for associated staff development and training as an enabler.

There is work as a Trust and as part of the systems to design new roles and innovative ways to access those roles in conjunction with increasing placements and developing research opportunities.

Business and Digital

For more information on our business and digital partnerships, contact Fiona Smith, Strategic Partnership Manager.

Santander Universities has been a key partner to NTU since 2012 and the partnership has gone from strength-to strength in this time.

Santander have provided funding opportunities for hundreds of NTU students to gain valuable work experience and to drive enterprise benefitting both the local and wider regional economy, but also internationally in addition.

NTU and Santander collaborate on a number of different fronts from technological innovation to workforce skills development. Through the three pillars of Education, Employability and Entrepreneurship the partnership has a strong focus on delivering opportunities for widening participation or economically disadvantaged students to help further level the graduate level employability playing field.

The Partnership leverages Fujitsu’s ecosystem approach that aims to make a positive impact on people and wider society through strategic partnerships. The Partnership significantly and positively addresses some of the issues and challenges faced by customers, employees and students, aligning to Fujitsu’s global purpose to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.

The Partnership is focused on projects which support Wellbeing, Culture and Workplace themes. Some examples of joint projects include:

  • a Knowledge Transfer Partnership looking at culture change, with NTU’s Business School
  • the co-development of a mobile app solution focused on helping employees plan and manage mental health challenges in the workplace, with NTU’s School of Science and Technology
  • exploring the impact of interactive virtual reality in a post-pandemic working environment with Nottingham Business School