Areas of opportunity

We have internationally leading strengths in artificial intelligence and data analytics for security, law enforcement and cybersecurity through CENTRIC, our Centre for Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research. CENTRIC is a multidisciplinary security-focused research centre, collaborating with academic, law enforcement, government and industry partners to solve some of the world’s most pressing security challenges. 

The Centre’s activities are underpinned by an emphasis on citizen perspectives, engagement with end users, and societal and ethical issues. CENTRIC’s programme of research is supported by major funding awards from UKRI and Horizon Europe. We are delivering the AP4AI (Accountability Principles for Artificial Intelligence) Project in partnership with Europol to create a global framework for AI accountability for policing, security and justice. 

Across other areas of the University, our research in robotics is multidisciplinary, with a focus on healthcare applications and links with our Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre. In the last five years, the Department of Computing has led interdisciplinary work to create new courses aligned with our research strengths in AI and robotics, with two programmes currently offered and two more in development, including an MSc in Healthcare Analytics and AI in collaboration with our health and social care departments.

We are now looking for established research leaders to help grow our research and taught programmes across these fields. We have identified the following areas of priority for applications:

• Cybersecurity
• Data analytics
• Computer science
• Digital health
• Robotics

Sheffield Hallam has a significant portfolio of health-related research, with a strong focus on lifelong health and wellbeing challenges. Our interdisciplinary work brings together research groups across multiple centres and departments including the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre, Lab4Living and the Centre for Applied Health and Social Care Research (CARe). This activity extends into other areas including computing, engineering and psychology.

Following a £14 million investment from the Department of Health, the AWRC is a world-leading research and innovation centre for physical activity. The Centre provides business, industry and the public sector with access to state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor laboratories, with a multidisciplinary team of over 70 researchers. The AWRC is also the research hub for the National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine. 

Sheffield has one of only three standalone Children’s Hospital NHS Trusts in the UK, and a national and international reputation for child healthcare. The Trust has secured capital funding to build the National Centre for Child Health Technology on the Olympic Legacy Park alongside the AWRC, where we will work together on innovative research into child health technology. This campus represents a truly porous innovation ecosystem, co-locating further and higher education, research, NHS, business and community engagement in state-of-the-art surroundings.

Across the disciplines of biosciences and materials, the Sheffield Multi-Modal Imaging Centre brings together academic expertise with new scanning, imaging, advanced microscopy, and related analytical technologies to test, innovate and improve existing and new products, primarily in the health and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Within the theme of lifelong health and wellbeing, we have identified the following areas of priority for applications:

• Digital health
• Child health technology
• Exercise oncology
• Imaging

Multidisciplinary research at Sheffield Hallam addresses challenges of energy, environmental sustainability, and climate action through teams working across the Department of Engineering and Mathematics, the Department of Natural and Built Environment, the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE), Materials and Engineering Research Institute, the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR). This activity expands into other areas including design, applied psychology, business and education- and aligns with our overarching Climate Action Strategy.

Our work on energy includes new materials for energy generation, transfer and storage; low-carbon approaches to materials production and processing; modelling and simulation, control systems for power networks and microgrids; industrial energy management and heat-recovery systems.

Launched in 2019 with the opening of a £10.5 million industry-facing pilot production and R&D facility, NCEFE has established itself as a catalyst for innovation in manufacturing processes and energy management. NCEFE and CRESR are partners in the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre, which brings together world-leading experts and regional partners to support organisations in the region to decarbonise the agri-food sector and facilitate a ‘just transition’ to net zero. 

Researchers from NCEFE are working with regional business partners to examine ways to reduce the environmental impact of food manufacturing, while improving energy efficiency in the region’s food processing sector. CRESR academics are working with community and voluntary groups to support workers and SMEs in the transition to net zero.

We have identified the following priority areas where we are looking for applications:

• Energy management
• Electrical systems 
• Materials
• Modelling and simulation
• Behavioural science

A commitment to inclusion, equity and justice is at the heart of our mission to transform lives. Our world-leading research and innovation in this area is in education, inclusive economies, housing and place, sustainable futures, reducing inequalities in health care and social justice. Our research in these fields is delivered through the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR), the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP),  the Centre for Applied Health and Social Care Research (CARe), and Sheffield Institute of Education Research and Knowledge Exchange Centre (SIRKE).

These centres have strengths in applied research and innovation which impacts directly on patients and the public, policy and practice and is delivered through cutting edge methodologies in participatory research, behavioural science, evaluation, action research and data analysis. Our research is of direct benefit to research users, and we are also looking to grow our expertise in patient and public involvement in research across the institution to support our engagement with under-served communities and improve inclusion.

One of the UK’s leading policy research centres, CRESR has developed a sustainable model of applied empirical research and impact activity which influences policymaking at the highest levels. CRESR is an internationally recognised centre for research into housing and place, socioeconomic governance of localities and regions, welfare reform and sustainable built and natural environments.

CeBSAP, launched in 2018, is the leading centre for excellence in applied behavioural research in the region, pioneering the use of behavioural science across health and social policy areas. As well as providing access to new funding streams, the centre enables us to focus on interdisciplinarity.

SIRKE is a leading education research and innovation centre working within Sheffield Institute of Education, with expertise across age phases, curriculum areas, policy, social justice and professional learning. SIRKE is developing its nationally leading trials and related process evaluation expertise into wider social policy fields, working with CRESR and CEBSAP.

Within the theme of an inclusive and just society, we are particularly interested in applicants with a track record of research leadership in:

• Social and economic policy analysis
• Implementation and process evaluation
• Social statistics in education
• Patient and public involvement
• Applied cognitive psychology