2019–20 Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 | Contents
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ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2019–20 Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 | Contents OUR STRATEGY FOUNDATIONS Imperial College London’s mission is to achieve • We will continue to specialise in science, engineering, medicine and business. This is the foundation on which we build our future. enduring excellence in research and education • We will maintain world class core academic disciplines. All research and education must be underpinned by a deep understanding of the fundamentals. in science, engineering, medicine and business • We will encourage multidisciplinary research. Only by bringing together expertise from different disciplines can we solve today’s global challenges. for the benefit of society. • We will embed our educational experience in a vibrant, research-led, entrepreneurial environment. By learning alongside researchers who are experts in their fields our students gain the practical, entrepreneurial and intellectual skills to tackle societal problems. PEOPLE Independent • We will build a supportive, inclusive and highly motivated staff community across all disciplines, functions and activities. This will help us to attract Imperial in 2019–20 Auditors’ Report and retain the talented and diverse staff we need to achieve our mission. • We will enrich the student experience. Providing a broad range of activities, services and support for our students beyond their studies helps them 04 President’s foreword 48 Independent auditors’ report to the Council to develop wider talents and to be successful. • We will build strong relationships with our alumni and friends. 06 Imperial’s benefit to society This lifelong exchange of ideas and support benefits all of us. 14 Managing risks 18 Our remuneration policies and practices PARTNERS • We will strengthen collaboration with business, academia, and non-profit, healthcare and government institutions across the globe. No university can achieve excellence Financial Statements or realise the full benefits of its work by itself. • We will inform decision makers to influence policy. Our excellence, breadth of knowledge, Financial Review 2019–20 connections and London location allow us to bring together and inform key decision makers in governments and industries for the benefit of society. • We will share the wonder and importance of what we do. Collaboration with the public, 24 Finance foreword 52 Statement of comprehensive income schools and our local communities fosters a shared passion for and understanding and expenditure of our work. 25 Five-year consolidated summary of key statistics 53 Statement of financial position 26 Financial review 54 Statement of changes in reserves ENABLERS 55 Consolidated statement of cash flows • We will strengthen and diversify our revenues. Delivering our mission 56 Statement of principal accounting policies requires investment in our staff, students and facilities. 62 Notes to the financial statements • We will provide professional support, consistent processes and appropriate Corporate technology for all of our staff and students. The pursuit of excellence in research and education requires excellence in all that we do. Governance • We will act courageously and innovatively when pursuing new opportunities. We need to take academic and financial risks to sustain excellence in research and education. 39 Our governance structure 42 Responsibilities of the Council 44 Council and Council committees On the cover: The Sir Michael Uren Hub at the White City Campus. 01 IMPERIAL IN 2019–20 Dr Apostolos Voulgarakis and visiting PhD student, Yawei Qu, discuss the influence of Californian wildfires on air pollution and cloud formation using high resolution satellite images at the Global Data Observatory in the Data Science Institute. Imperial in 2019–20 | Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 | Imperial in 2019–20 PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD Researchers working on machine learning to teach robots to complete everyday tasks. When we wrote the College strategy Strong foundations for global challenges Great people: our College community 2015–2020, we hoped that it would be The COVID-19 crisis has showed, more than We will build upon our accomplishments improving an enduring guide. It has held up well, ever, the value of a strong strategy, the ability our supportive, inclusive and highly motivated staff even in the face of unprecedented crisis to take risks and the need to act courageously. community. This year the Race Equality Charter and societal change. Right across College, our people have risen to team interrogated policies and procedures, and the challenges bringing expertise and discovery the outcomes of these. We were assessed to have The foreword to the College strategy in 2015 in epidemiology, diagnostics, therapies, clinical achieved Disability Leader status; the highest was prescient: practices, policies and economic impact to address level of accreditation. This is indicative of an the pandemic. New partners have emerged, organisation which anticipates needs, rather one PROFESSOR It is 2015 and we can be confident that in ten new levels of courage have been mustered. which simply responds. As a result of improvements ALICE P. GAST years the world will be quite different from today. We have known that universities had to made we successfully jumped up four places in the PRESIDENT OF International relations, social structures and trade change to adapt to societal evolution and our increasingly challenging Stonewall Equality Index. IMPERIAL COLLEGE patterns will alter. There will be new approaches community has adapted swiftly to a rapidly changing We remain committed to the Athena SWAN A second initiative brings together our expertise LONDON to dealing with epidemics, shortages of natural environment. While we might not have predicted Charter as a means of driving improvements in and infrastructure, from molecular synthesis to AI, resources and environmental crises. New a global pandemic shifting us to remote working gender equality. The number of departmental to revolutionise how we create new molecules, challenges will arise. and online teaching and learning, our strategies awards has increased to 18 (out of 21 departments) from new drugs to more effective catalysts, had prepared us to seize opportunities and in the past year as a result of several successful to meet a wide range of societal needs. Unprecedented challenge abounds in 2020 face challenges. submissions; a Gold renewal in Chemistry and Making the most of these ambitious projects and beyond. Our mission, to achieve enduring We have accomplished a lot outside of this Silver for Physics, Surgery and Cancer and will require collaboration with partners in industry excellence in research and education in science, unprecedented event. Our core disciplines are Bioengineering among them. and research and higher education institutions engineering, medicine and business for the benefit stronger than ever leading to new discoveries in across the UK and internationally. Investment of society, is more important than ever. every field. Our Academic Strategy is based on these must optimise outcomes for the UK as a whole. Our strong foundations, great people, excellent strong foundations and leads to tangible benefits Informing, influencing, inspiring partners and enablers still frame what we aim for. to society. It builds on the way Imperial reaches We have accomplished quite a bit since 2015 and across disciplines and embeds the educational The changes in the UK over the past year have Enablers: the way forward we have new and daunting challenges ahead. experience in a vibrant, research-led, entrepreneurial given us opportunities to be seized and challenges environment. We focus on the ways we are helping to be met. There are risks to be taken and bets Our ability to try new things, to provide an society become more sustainable, healthy, smart to be made. We have been at the heart of efforts environment supporting individuals to be bold and resilient. These attributes have never been to persuade government of the value of science, and take risks, and to work across disciplines more pressing. research and education to the future of the UK. should give us confidence to seize opportunities. We and our partners across the country in higher One such opportunity is in the government’s education, research and industry, successfully proposal to experiment with new funding made the case for the UK investment in Research approaches, giving researchers greater freedom and Development to rise to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. to pursue long-range projects to tackle some We are now poised to take advantage of this of the world’s greatest challenges. This is called immense opportunity, and we must be proactive. UK Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Our Academic Strategy creates new opportunities which is modelled on the US version. This approach to do just that. The first two initiatives in the strategy will be even more beneficial if its founders take illustrate this well. a lesson from jazz and encourage improvisation In the Towards Zero Pollution initiative, and collaboration with trusted partners within our world leading research and education the UK and abroad. comes together with strength and purpose to systematically address the problems of pollution. This complements the way our community is rising to the challenges posed by climate change through Sustainable Imperial’s work to help our campuses and every member of our community to reduce Professor Alice P. Gast their carbon footprint.