Research, skills, collaboration: how universities power UK security

When the Ministry of Defence set out to build a more strategic relationship with higher education, it planned to name 20 founding members of the new Defence Universities Alliance (DUA). It has since named 35. With this higher number the result of almost 100 high-quality applications from across the UK Universities, the importance of work already underway within the sector is plain to see, providing a strong foundation for the plans to expand beyond this first 35.

The announcement is welcome at a time the Ministry of Defence has outlined how it can make the UK “secure at home, strong abroad”, whilst backing British jobs, British industry and British innovation, in its 2025 Defence Industrial Strategy and Strategic Defence Review.

Alongside this, £80 million through the Defence Strategic Priorities Grant will fund 2,500 new student places in engineering and computer science, signalling a vote of confidence that the university and defence sectors can work together to provide graduate talent, skills and jobs.

The Defence Universities Alliance (DUA) is a strategic partnership between UK universities, the Ministry of Defence, and the wider defence and national security sectors. Its founding members will work to shape the alliance, its governance and its agenda. 

Three aims sit at its core: 

• advancing defence and national security-related research and development
• building the high-level skills and careers the sector needs
• deepening collaboration across government, academia and industry

Universities UK has helped shape the alliance from the start. As a strategic partner, we have hosted roundtables, gathered views, and will hold a seat on the alliance's steering committee. That role continues as the alliance develops, with Universities UK representing institutions beyond the founding group to help deliver on our defence and security ambitions. If we are to deliver on the three aims of the DUA and the Defence Industrial Strategy, the whole sector must continue to work together.

In this piece, we explore examples of how UK universities are already working to achieve these aims.

New analysis from Elsevier, produced with Universities UK, demonstrates this position. Part of this analysis measures the strength of UK university research for each of the eight Industrial Strategy growth sectors. It looks at how much the UK produces and how often that work is cited compared with the global average. These show the quality and influence of UK university research. In defence and security, UK universities lead across a number of areas:

Radar and secure communications is the technology that lets systems sense their surroundings and communicate at the same time, often sharing the same signals and hardware. It underpins everything from radar to secure military networks. This is one of the UK's largest defence research field by volume, with more than 400 studies published in five years, cited nearly twice the global average.

Autonomous and safer shipping research examines how vessels, including uncrewed and autonomous ships, can navigate safely, avoid collisions and manage risk at sea. It is increasingly important as navies move towards a mix of crewed and uncrewed platforms. UK work here is cited more than twice the world average.

Device security develops ways to identify and authenticate wireless devices using the unique characteristics of their radio signals. This helps keep networks safe from unauthorised or hostile devices. UK research in this field is cited three times the global benchmark, the highest of the three.

Fuller analysis from the collaboration between UUK and Elsevier follows later this year.

Defence is a growing source of skilled employment. The Defence Investment Plan is forecast to support nearly 60,000 additional direct and indirect jobs by the end of the decade. This would take the total number of defence-related jobs supported across the UK to more than half a million. Many of these roles, particularly in engineering, computing and advanced technology, depend on the graduates that universities are well placed to supply.

The sector already trains much of this workforce, but demand in key subjects is outpacing supply. The Defence Strategic Priorities Grant, with its 2,400 new places in engineering and computer science, is an early sign of what government and universities can build together.

The ongoing collaboration between defence and higher education also aims to strengthen the routes between study and defence careers. That means giving students a clearer view of the opportunities in the sector, and encouraging more graduates to consider roles in defence and national security.

Strong defence research rarely happens in isolation. It draws universities, industry and government together. The Elsevier analysis shows UK universities already collaborate with industry at rates well above the rest of the world.

The clearest example is in advanced thermal coatings, the heat-resistant materials that protect jet and gas turbine engines. More than a third of UK research in this field is produced with industry partners, nearly 30 percentage points above the global average. In quantum-secure communications, the technology behind tamper-proof military networks, around a quarter of UK research involves industry collaborators. This is 16 percentage points above the global benchmark.

This collaboration is rooted in places across the UK, tying local strengths to employers and skilled jobs. Radar and secure communications is anchored in London, with further strength across the South East and in Scotland. Maritime and autonomous shipping research clusters in the Liverpool City Region and across the North West, as well as in Scotland. Quantum-secure communications draws on strengths in the West of England and across Yorkshire. Each cluster links a university to the businesses and communities around it.

The Defence Industrial Strategy, 'Making Defence an Engine for Growth', recognises this link between defence research, innovation and regional economies. The Defence Investment Plan echoes this, pointing to high-value jobs and stronger local economies across the UK. By formalising these connections, building upon the local defence growth deals, the alliance, and the ongoing work of UUK, can help collaboration go further.

The alliance will create a more strategic relationship between our world-leading universities and the UK’s defence industrial base, providing a strong foundation for the work between UK Universities and the defence sector to expand beyond the initial announcement of 35 founding members. For the sector, it means a clearer voice with government, closer ties to industry and stronger routes for students into defence careers. For the country, it harnesses the potential of UK universities more directly to defence and national security priorities.

Over the first year, founding members of the DUA and Universities UK will work with government to design the alliance's governance and agenda. Membership will then reopen to a wider group of institutions. Over the longer term, the alliance aims to build new and lasting partnerships that will drive progress across the skills pipeline, research, defence and national security communities and students and industry partners to help UK higher education become a global leader in defence innovation.

Universities UK will continue to represent the full breadth of its membership as this work develops to widen the benefits of the alliance. This includes unlocking further opportunities with the Ministry of Defence and partners to ensure institutions across all four nations can contribute and benefit.