Queen Mary has a long and distinctive history of supporting its local communities and is a founder partner of the UK’s Civic University Network.
Our growth and regeneration interventions impact major socio-economic challenges faced by our local communities, including supporting social mobility, addressing the skills needs of local businesses, providing direct support for start-up SMEs, innovation activities, and provision of infrastructure and facilities.
A key component of Queen Mary's knowledge exchange activities is its SKETCH programme (Student Knowledge Exchange Through Community Hubs). This brings together six different student knowledge exchange pillars across the university: qLegal, Queen Mary's Legal Advice Centre, the Student Consultancy Project, qNomics, SBM Social Enterprise, and qTech.
Each of these has an impressive track record of supporting local businesses. Collectively, they offer an even wider range of services and support, reflecting the fact that business concerns often span different subject areas.
qLegal is Queen Mary’s award-winning commercial law clinic in which postgraduate law students provide free legal advice and support to start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs. The students are supervised by City lawyers who volunteer their time. Everyone wins – students learn by doing, external lawyers show their commitment to pro bono, and clients receive expert help they could not otherwise afford, delivered in a clear and accessible way.
qLegal’s focus is on tech and innovation – in law, business and education. qLegal has been recognised within the legal sector for making law more user-friendly for clients.
The team have helped hundreds of clients make sense of a range of complex issues including intellectual property matters such as copyright and trademarks, business structures, data protection compliance and non-disclosure agreements.
qLegal
The collaboration between Newham College, Queen Mary, and a wide range of employers delivers bespoke higher technical education and apprenticeships with a focus on high-demand Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, such as digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering that will provide employers with the skilled workforce they need.
In 2022, it welcomed more than 200 students after opening its doors in late September.
The Institute will play a vital role in delivering the technical skills that employers need to survive and equip students with the high level, practical skills in STEM subjects which are, critically, in short supply.
The Institute of Technology and the apprenticeship work it delivers is not currently included within the Knowledge Exchange Framework, but remains a vital component of our approach to working with the local community.
Opening the London City Institute of Technology
Whether it’s cleaning up London’s air, developing new medical technology, or tackling ingrained poverty, entrepreneurship allows researchers to implement innovative ideas in a new way. But without support, structure and capital, many new social ventures struggle.
That’s why Queen Mary University of London and UCL are leading a coalition of London universities and others to develop the London Social Venture Fund.
The project, led by Amir Rizwan, is a new initiative aimed at supporting social ventures emerging from universities, with initial funding from Research England. It seeks to support new startups with a social purpose, will build a pipeline of new ventures and develop a London-wide network of legal support, business model development and mentoring.
Supporting social ventures