Our research is strongly collaborative, with staff active in a number of the University’s institutes and centres, including:
We are part of the larger School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, where we partner on research with other departments including our world-leading Department of Meteorology.
We have had significant recent success in securing funding both for early career researchers and established staff, and are a partner in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Mathematics of Planet Earth with Imperial College London. Although no longer open to new applicants, this joint initiative provides PhD training in the mathematical and computational techniques needed to understand, predict and quantify risk and uncertainty for extreme weather and climate change.
External collaborations
Recent collaborative grants and consultancy agreements include:
Low carbon network solutions
Together with Scottish and Southern Energy, Honeywell, General Electrics, Bracknell Forest Council, EA Energy and DNV-GL, the University of Reading is a full partner in the Thames Valley Vision project demonstrating next generation low carbon network technology and solutions.
Our work includes the identification and analysis of energy usage patterns from smart meter data; forecasting and inference of short- and long-term demand on local networks that can be used by distribution network operators for planning and energy storage management; and modelling of future uptake of low carbon technologies.
Smart analytics
Counting Lab Ltd is a University of Reading spinout company providing smart analytics by developing data driven models and applications for customer/public-facing sectors. Starting in December 2010, and exploiting know-how and prototypes developed in mathematics and statistics, Counting Lab is providing solutions through translational projects to many clients including Walmart, Net-a-porter, and the Centre for Defence Enterprise.
Large network analysis
We have undertaken collaborative research with Unilever Research and Development on mathematical models of spread of mood through social networks and consultancy on modelling and analysis of large networks. A research project with Counting Lab for Centre for Defence Enterprise considers the dynamics of collective sentiment using large data-sets of Twitter mentions.