{{Short description|Northern England university consortium}} {{primary sources|date=May 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox organization |name = N8 Research Partnership |formation = 2006 |type = Consortium of United Kingdom-based universities |region_served= Northern England |membership = Durham University<br /> Lancaster University<br /> University of Leeds<br /> University of Liverpool<br /> University of Manchester<br /> Newcastle University<br /> University of Sheffield<br /> University of York |website = [http://www.n8research.org.uk http://www.n8research.org.uk] |registration_id=05920709<ref>{{cite web|url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05920709|title=N8 Limited|publisher=Companies House|access-date=27 August 2016}}</ref> |board_of_directors=Vice-Chancellors of the member universities |status=Private company limited by shares |owners=Member universities }}

The '''N8 Research Partnership''' is a partnership created in 2006 of the eight most research-intensive universities in Northern England – Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The N8 Research Partnership aims to maximise the impact of this research base by identifying and co-ordinating powerful research teams and collaborations across the North of England. Collectively, the N8 universities undertake more than £650&nbsp;million of research income per annum and employ over 18,000 academic staff.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/about-us/|title=About Us – N8 Research Partnership|website=N8 Research Partnership}}</ref> The N8 Research Partnership also works closely with industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.efficiencyexchange.ac.uk/6637/peter-simpson-of-n8-deep-collaboration-is-now-the-norm/|title=Peter Simpson of N8: 'deep collaboration is now the norm' – Efficiency Exchange|first=Rosie|last=Niven|date=20 March 2015}}</ref>

==History== The N8 Research Partnership initially focused on five areas of research: Ageing and Health, Energy, Molecular Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Water. The themes were chosen to build on existing research within the partnership which had the potential for economic and social benefit.

In March 2007, the N8 Research Partnership was awarded grant funding of £6&nbsp;million from The Northern Way Growth Fund to set up 'virtual' collaborative Research Centres around each of these themes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/news/2008/launch-of-n8-research-centres-provides-competitive-advantage-to-northern-businesses|title=Launch of N8 Research Centres}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

N8 launched a project{{when|date=November 2022}} to map the research equipment across universities in the North and has published a toolkit and a white paper to point the way to greater collaboration between universities and improved research links with industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/economic-impact/n8-efficiency/|title=N8 Efficiency – N8 Research Partnership|website=N8 Research Partnership}}</ref> A toolkit, and database, have been developed to advance this area nationally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8equipment.org.uk/|title=N8 Equipment|website=N8 Equipment}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/economic-impact/n8-efficiency/equipment-sharing-toolkit/|website=N8 Research Partnership|title=Equipment Sharing Toolkit }}</ref>

The N8's key aim of fostering greater collaboration with industry was boosted in January 2012 when the N8 Industry Innovation Forum launched. There have to date been five IIF meetings focused on topics where there is significant cross-sector, industry-led demand for new insights and research capability on topics such as advanced materials, Food Security, and Active and Healthy Ageing. New collaboration ideas emerging from these have generated £10&nbsp;million of external funding including £3&nbsp;million from industry partners.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/partner-with-us/industry/n8iif-legacy/|title=N8IIF – N8 Research Partnership|website=N8 Research Partnership|access-date=9 February 2016|archive-date=15 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315165750/http://www.n8research.org.uk/partner-with-us/industry/n8iif-legacy/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Another development was the launch of the N8 High Performance Computing facility in March 2013 (now the N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research; N8 CIR). This provides industry and university researchers with access to high performance computing alongside consultancy and e-infrastructure training. The original HPC supercomputer, hosted at the University of Leeds, was capable of performing 110 trillion operations per second, the equivalent of half a million iPads.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://primeurmagazine.com/weekly/AE-PR-04-13-62.html|title=N8 HPC showcased to boost collaboration with industry|website=primeurmagazine.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bq-magazine.co.uk/ne-2013/region-gets-access-to-super-computer|title=HPC|access-date=27 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131108235818/http://www.bq-magazine.co.uk/ne-2013/region-gets-access-to-super-computer/|archive-date=8 November 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/economic-impact/n8-efficiency/n8-hpc-and-link/|title=N8 High Performance Computing – N8 Research Partnership|website=N8 Research Partnership}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://n8hpc.org.uk/|title=N8HPC|website=n8hpc.org.uk}}</ref> In 2020 the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council granted £3.1&nbsp;million funding to a new supercomputer, the Northern Intensive Computing Environment (NICE), to be hosted by Durham University on behalf of the N8 Research Partnership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/news/item/?itemno=41097|title=Durham to host new national supercomputer|date=17 February 2020|work=Durham University|access-date=17 February 2020}}</ref> The overall cost of the new supercomputer was £8.4&nbsp;million, with the balance being provided by the N8 universities. NICE will be a tier-2 supercomputer built on 32 IBM Power 9 dual-CPU nodes, each having 4 NVIDIA V100 GPUs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://n8cir.org.uk/news/northern-intensive-computing-environment/|title=Northern Intensive Computing Environment|work=N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research|access-date=17 February 2020|date=17 February 2020}}</ref> The new supercomputer was installed in 2021, named Bede after the 8th century monk and scholar who is buried in Durham Cathedral.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19172832.new-3-8m-supercomputer-county-durham-will-help-fight-coronavirus/|title=New £3.8m supercomputer in County Durham will help in the fight against coronavirus|date=19 March 2021|author=Colin Bain|newspaper=The Northern Echo}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://n8cir.org.uk/bede/|title= Bede Supercomputer|publisher=N8 Research Partnership|website=The N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research|access-date=22 May 2024}}</ref>

In 2015, multimillion-pound funding was awarded to N8 Research Partnership, to advance AgriFood Resilience, and Policing, research areas across N8 institutions and with partners.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/news/2015/3/multi-million-pound-funding-secured-for-food-security-research-programme|website=N8 Research Partnership|title=N8 Research Partnership - Multi-Million Pound Funding Secured for Food Security Research Programme|access-date=13 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406074624/http://www.n8research.org.uk/news/2015/3/multi-million-pound-funding-secured-for-food-security-research-programme|archive-date=6 April 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/news/2015/2/major-funding-announced-for-n8-policing-research-partnership|website=N8 Research Partnership|title=N8 Research Partnership - Major funding announced for N8 Policing Research Partnership|access-date=13 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406042731/http://www.n8research.org.uk/news/2015/2/major-funding-announced-for-n8-policing-research-partnership|archive-date=6 April 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,103800,en.html|title=Minister announces funding award}}</ref>

In 2023, the N8 became the first coalition of British universities to coordinate policies on open access, issuing a statement calling for academics to retain rights to their work under a CC BY licence, which some publishers reject. Publishing under this licence would allow work to be placed immediately in an institutional repository, rather than the intellectual property being transferred to the publishers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/open-access-accord-weaken-publishers-negotiating-position|title=Open access accord 'to weaken publishers' negotiating position'|first=Jack |last=Grove|work=Times Higher Education|date=23 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.n8research.org.uk/n8-research-partnership-rights-retention-statement/|title=N8 Research Partnership stands up for researchers with new Rights Retention statement|date=24 January 2023|website=N8 Research Partnership|access-date=6 February 2023}}</ref>

In 2025, the ''Financial Times'' reported that the N8 were discussing closer collaboration in language degrees, including sharing resources and best practices amid the financial crisis facing British universities. Nigel Harkness, deputy vice-chancellor and professor of French at Newcastle University, said that they were not looking at shared degree provision but at other forms of practical collaboration.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.ft.com/content/d949c6d4-6071-49d6-a10e-7e6111f02a69|title=UK universities explore merging language courses as enrolment falls|date=12 August 2025|author1=Laura Hughes |author2= Amy Borrett |work=Financial Times}}</ref>

==Research== {{As of|2024}} the N8 Research Partnership's main research themes are: Net Zero North, Child of the North, Computationally Intensive Research and Policing Research Partnership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.n8research.org.uk/research-focus/|title=N8 Research: Overview|accessdate=22 May 2024|publisher=N8 Research Partnership}}</ref>

==Universities== {{Location map+|Northern England|alt=Map of the UK with location of Russell Group universities highlighted|caption=Locations of N8 Research Partnership universities.|float=right|width=388|places= {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=53.47|long=-2.23|position=top|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;left:-20px;">Manchester</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=53.81|long=-1.55|position=top|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;left:-10px;">Leeds</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=53.38|long=-1.49|position=right|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;">Sheffield</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=53.41|long=-2.97|position=bottom|label=<div style="position:relative;top:-2px;">Liverpool</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=54.98|long=-1.62|position=top|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;left:-15px;">Newcastle</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=53.95|long=-1.05|position=top|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;left:10px;">York</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=54.77|long=-1.57|position=left|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;">Durham</div>}} {{Location map~|Northern England|lat=54.05|long=-2.80|position=left|label=<div style="position:relative;top:4px;">Lancaster</div>}} }}

The eight universities in the Partnership are all located in Northern England. One is a pre-Victorian collegiate university founded in the first half of the nineteenth century, five are civic universities founded as university colleges in the second half of the nineteenth century, and two are collegiate plate glass universities founded in the 1960s. They range in size from around 13,000 students to just under 40,000, and in annual income from a few hundred million pounds to over a billion pounds. Seven of the universities (all except Lancaster) are members of the Russell Group, and all were in the top 25 of Times Higher Education's research power ranking based on the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and Research Fortnight's research power table based on the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.<ref name="THE REF 2021">{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/content/ref2021mainonlinetable|title=REF 2021 Main Online Table|newspaper=Times Higher Education|date=12 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="Research Fortnight 2014">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2014/dec/18/university-research-excellence-framework-2014-full-rankings|newspaper=The Guardian|title=University Research Excellence Framework 2014 – the full rankings|date=17 December 2014}}</ref>

The three N8 institutions in Yorkshire (Leeds, Sheffield and York) also collaborate in the White Rose University Consortium.

Between them, the N8 universities educate over 230,000 students, including 17,000 studying for a research degree, and have a combined research income of over £1.2&nbsp;billion. A report in 2016, commissioned by the group, demonstrated that they bring in £12.2&nbsp;billion to the regional economy each year and generate 119,000 jobs across the North of England.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n8research.org.uk/economic-impact/the-power-of-8/|title=The Power of 8|publisher=N8 Research Partnership|access-date=8 March 2017}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" !University ! Undergraduate students ({{HESA year}})<ref name="HESA citation">{{HESA citation}}</ref> ! Postgraduate students ({{HESA year}})<ref name="HESA citation"/> !Total students ({{HESA year}})<ref name="HESA citation"/> ! Total academic staff ({{HESA staff year}})<ref name="HESA staff citation">{{HESA staff citation}}</ref> ! data-sort-type="currency" | Total income<br />(2024/25, &nbsp;£ millions)<ref name=thefindat>{{cite news|url=https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/income|title=What is the income of HE providers?|work=Higher Education Statistics Agency|access-date=21 March 2026}}</ref> !Research income<br />(2024/25, &nbsp;£ millions)<ref name=thefindat/> |- |colspan=7|'''North East England''' |- |Durham University | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007143}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007143}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007143}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007143}} |534 |63 |- |Newcastle University | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007799}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007799}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007799}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007799}} |619 |134 |- |colspan=7|'''North West England''' |- |Lancaster University | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007768}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007768}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007768}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007768}} |428 |49 |- |University of Liverpool | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10006842}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10006842}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10006842}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10006842}} |723 |126 |- |University of Manchester | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007798}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007798}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007798}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007798}} |1,422 |303 |- |colspan=7|'''Yorkshire and the Humber''' |- |University of Leeds | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007795}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007795}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007795}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007795}} |991 |186 |- |- |University of Sheffield | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007157}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007157}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007157}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007157}} |845 |204 |- |University of York | {{HESA undergraduate population|INSTID=10007167}} |{{HESA postgraduate population|INSTID=10007167}} |{{HESA student population|INSTID=10007167}} |{{HESA academic staff population|INSTID=10007167}} |539 |107 |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.n8research.org.uk N8 website] *[http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/press_releases/current/n8.htm Leeds press release on the N8 Group] *[http://n8hpc.org.uk/ N8 High Performance Computing capability] *[http://www.regener8.ac.uk/ regeNer8 – the N8 Centre for Translational Regenerative Medicine] *[http://www.n8prp.org.uk/ Policing Research website] *[http://www.n8agrifood.ac.uk N8 AgriFood] {{N8 Group}} {{University associations and groupings in the United Kingdom}}

* Category:University research consortiums in the United Kingdom Category:Organizations established in 2007 Category:2007 establishments in England Category:Northern England