Astrophysics achieves 'outstanding' results in REF2021

LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute will be rated the top five in the UK in space science based on the REF2021 results published today.

Research in Physics was adjudged to be 97% ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’ by the Research Excellence Framework, a national audit of university quality.

Professor Ian McCarthy, Head of Research at ARI said: ““We’re absolutely over-the-moon about the result, which firmly establishes LJMU among the elite in this discipline and is a credit to the hard work of our research community.”

The top five ranking is based on the fraction of ‘world leading’ (4*) research outputs.

'Strongly collaborative'

Ian says the outstanding result reflects how the institute excels in ‘three pillars of astrophysics’; observations, theoretical research and the development of technology and instrumentation.

“We have a strongly collaborative environment which has enabled us to produce some of the most highly-cited articles in all of space science and attract competitive external grant income.

“Plus, we have a very high PhD completion rate with doctoral students going on to great careers in research, both in academia and in industry.”

“I must pay tribute to our PhDs, post-docs, permanent and technical staff and our public engagement groups, all of whom have been consistently excellent over the years.

“REF 2021 is the culmination of a decade of work for more than 100 individuals and we couldn’t be more proud of the result.”

Ambitious plans

He added that an outstanding REF2021 now lays a foundation for ambitious plans, including the development of a new high performance computing facility and the new robotic telescope.

For more information about REF, research projects and doctoral study at ARI, please contact Professor Ian McCarthy i.g.mccarthy@ljmu.ac.uk.

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