Welcome to the Northern Research Partnership

The Northern Research Partnership in engineering and related disciplines has been established by the University of Aberdeen , the University of Dundee and the Robert Gordon University , with significant funding from the Scottish Funding Council. The Northern Research Partnership, along with similar groupings (The Edinburgh Research Partnership and Glasgow Research Partnership) form the Scottish Research Partnership, which aims to develop a critical mass of excellent research in engineering and allied disciplines.

The Northern Research Partnership effects the convergence of engineering research strategies and builds a research cluster with the critical mass to compete effectively nationally and internationally. While this has clear benefits for the research performance of the partner universities, all partners share a strong mission to serve their region and believe a strong and internationally recognised engineering research cluster will assist the economy of the North-East of Scotland , benefiting relevant industries nationally. Industry and other research users will be able to enter into dialogue about their specific needs with a research partnership more easily than engaging with a number of separate institutions. Because of its critical mass and longer planning horizons, a research partnership is better placed to respond to those needs.

The partnership represents a cluster of research groups in the engineering area, comprising 135 researchers, 160 research assistants and 286 PhD students.

The partner universities have established four Joint Research Institutes (JRIs). In addition to which there will be a Non-linear & Complex Systems Group, working with all JRIs.

All students who register for a higher degree or qualification in Postgraduate Research at any NRP Institution and within the disciplines which form the JRIs of the NRP will become members of the NRP Graduate School.

Building on the existing strengths at each of the universities, a multi- and inter-disciplinary research group has been established to provide fundamental research into nonlinear and complex systems that will have direct implications to each of the JRIs.