Our research environment
Our research excellence is supported by state of the art major research facilities and materials. These include:
Biocentre Facility
An investment of £8m with more than £2.5m spent on equipment makes the BioCentre one of the best equipped research laboratories in Europe.
Centre for Advanced Microscopy
CfAM provides cutting edge microscopy services and solutions for the life, medical and physical sciences.
MRI Facility
The University of Reading MRI Facility is an independent part of the Centre for Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN). The Facility is designed so that it can take full advantage of the research and IT expertise of CINN, but can also be closed off to provide privacy and security as a medical scanning suite or for industry research.
Chemical Analysis Facility
Our new state of the art Chemical analytical facility is a multi-user technology platform which provides the highest quality support for our research in chemistry as well as in many of our strongest science units in pharmacy, food biosciences, soil sciences and agriculture. The facility includes investment in the latest technology for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Thermal Analysis, Molecular Spectroscopy, X-ray Analysis and Mass Spectrometry equipment.
Museum of English Rural Life
The Museum of English Rural Life is a major national repository for archives of agriculture and rural life.
Archives and special collections
The University Library holds around 140 collections of historical and literary papers and a small number of historical manuscriptsas well as alarge body of University archives and records. The Beckett Collection and the combined records of British publishing and printing have been awarded MLA Designated Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Samuel Beckett
In 2008 we significantly enhanced our Samuel Beckett archive with the acquisition of the James and Elizabeth Knowlson collection. Reading now hosts the largest collection of Becket materials in the world. The archives provide a focus for cross-disciplinary work and includes researchers from English; French; Fine Art; Film, Theatre & Television; and Philosophy.
