Research Centres and Networks

We have two Research Centres and participate in a number of formal research networks. We also have strategic links, locally, nationally and internationally.

  • STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training

    The STOR-i (Statistics and Operational Research) Centre for Doctoral Training is a pioneering doctoral training centre with a ground-breaking approach to statistics and operational research. It aims to develop a new generation of researcher capable of making a real impact in both academic and industrial fields. STOR-i is backed by a £4.3million award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and benefits from considerable, committed support from leading industry partners including BT, Shell, Unilever and the Met Office.

  • Medical and Pharmaceutical Statistics Research Unit

    The Medical and Pharmaceutical Statistics (MPS) Research Unit develops and evaluates novel statistical methods of study design and data analysis for use in the pharmaceutical and medical research community. We work with partners in health care, the public sector and the pharmaceutical industry. MPS offer several services, including advice on design and analysis of clinical trials, development of novel methods for clinical and pre-clinical studies and Professional Development Courses.

  • Clusters and their Applications in the North (CLAN)

    Cluster theory is a significant mathematical success story, with its study having permeated many subjects in mathematics and mathematical physics despite its relatively recent introduction at the turn of the millennium. Indeed, the combinatorics of exchanges, central to Fomin and Zelevinsky’s definition of cluster algebras, has incarnations in contexts as diverse as topology and complex analysis (Skein relations), algebraic geometry (flopping curves) and representation theory (mutations of tilting and silting objects). In recent years, the north of the UK has become a hotbed of research groups interacting with different aspects of cluster theory.

  • Algebraic Quantum Field Theory in the UK (AQFTUK)

    An LMS Joint Research Group of researchers across the UK (currently at Cardiff, Lancaster, Leeds, Nottingham, York) working on Algebraic Quantum Field Theory.

  • Functor Categories for Groups (FCG)

    Functor Categories for Groups is a joint research group, funded by the London Mathematical Society. Its partners are Lancaster, National University of Ireland, Galway, and Royal Holloway, University of London. Modern advances in group theory utilise categories to study properties for finite and infinite groups alike. Results obtained using categories such as fusion systems have allowed significant progress in the local-global study of finite groups, while Mackey functors and Bredon cohomology have been a major feature of the functorial study of groups, leading to major advances also in neighbouring areas such as algebraic topology, representation theory and K-theory in particular. These functorial techniques, mainly developed for finite groups to date, have emerged in the study of infinite groups, and more recently in the study of profinite groups. This Research Group aims to bring together researchers representing the various subjects touched by functor categories for groups to incentivise future advances and stimulate new collaborations in the UK and Ireland.

  • Algebra and Representation Theory in the North (ARTIN)

    Algebra and Representation Theory in the North (ARTIN) is a research network encompassing the universities of Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lancaster, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and York. ARTIN is funded by the London Mathematical Society and the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust. ARTIN typically meets four times a year at one of the network's member institutions, with one meeting a year dedicated to providing an opportunity for early-career researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) to present their work.

  • North British Functional Analysis Seminar (NBFAS)

    The following universities are regular participants in the North British Functional Analysis Seminar: Aberdeen, Queen's University Belfast, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Lancaster, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, York. The seminar normally meets three times per year, holding a one- or two-day meeting in one of its member institutions at which distinguished mathematicians, usually from overseas, are invited to lecture.

  • Additive Combinatorics

    Department members co-organise the LMS Joint Research Group in Additive Combinatorics and Analytic Number Theory and the Webinar in Additive Combinatorics.

Other strategic links

Internally to Lancaster, we have active links with the operational research group based in the Management Science Department - including co-running of the STOR-i doctoral training centre - and the CHICAS group from the Medical School.

Further afield, we have strategic links with Science for Innovation in Norway and the Naval Postgraduate School, University of Washington and Northwestern University in the US as well as a range of collaborators from other scientific disciplines and from industry.