A hard hat with the text 'The Future Says reap the rewards'
A hard hat with the text 'The Future Says reap the rewards'

The Future Says reap the rewards

Teaching spaces

With our acclaimed Advanced Technology Institute and our unique Fluor Pilot Plant, we already offer cutting-edge facilities. We want that to continue.

What’s the problem?

At Surrey, we create and innovate to build a better world. Here are a few examples:

  • Professor Alf Adams made the high-speed internet possible with his semi-conductor laser.
  • We pioneered 5G and we’re doing the same with 6G.
  • We helped launch the UK’s small satellite industry.
  • We developed a rapid blood-based PCR test for meningococcal meningitis.
  • Our music and media graduates have won 2 Oscars, 9 Baftas, 8 Grammys, 5 Emmys and 1 Mercury Music Prize.

We do this by nurturing students and staff who contribute to society. To ensure this continues, we need the best facilities where both can employ the latest technology – and ensure tomorrow’s breakthroughs happen today…

What we’re trying to do?

Surrey has amazing academics and we nurture great graduates. Our Gold Teaching Excellence Framework rating and our 2022 University of the Year for Graduate Employment award from The Times reflect these facts.

But the speed of technological advance can outstrip our budgets. This hampers our ability to teach students equipped for industry and our capacity to innovate at scale. And that doesn’t only affect us. Graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths are vital to UK economic growth if pioneering technologies capable of benefiting society are to come online at speed.

By renovating our teaching spaces, we’ll ensure every Surrey student can build careers and develop new ideas at the cutting edge of industry.

Our acclaimed Fluor Pilot plant is a good example of this. Funded by Fluor and Surrey alumni Neil and Elizabeth Chapman, this is a fully operational chemical process plant.

This means undergraduates train on industry-standard equipment and are sector-ready by the time they leave.

It’s so good, in fact, that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, used the facility to train its inspectors.

Other key facilities at Surrey

Other areas where Surrey is using the latest facilities to teach and nurture game-changing pioneers are:

Why we need your help

At Surrey, we’ve always nurtured the inventors, leaders and innovators of tomorrow. In the next few years, we’re looking to upgrade, expand and even build the following facilities:

  • Aerospace and Environmental Wind Tunnels: To test vehicles and dispersal of airborne particles and pathogens.
  • Clean Energy Research Laboratory: To accelerate teaching and research in our Department of Chemistry in clean and renewable energy sources.
  • Environmental Engineering Suite: To increase sustainability learning for students in our Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
  • Food Innovation Hub and Kitchen Facility: In 2017, Surrey won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for research in Food and Nutrition for Health. To build on this success, we’ll create a Food Innovation Hub and Kitchen Facility. This will enable us to increase our research and teach a greater cohort able to tackle health issues related to diet. These cost the NHS an estimated £50 billion per year.
  • Physics Radiation Teaching Laboratories: To train the next generation of physicists.
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Cutting-edge facilities will allow students and staff to employ the latest technology – and ensure tomorrow’s breakthroughs happen today.
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