Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) is the fourth largest of the Colleges of the University of London, with around 10,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic and support staff of around 2,600, and research strengths across: Arts; Engineering and Mathematical Sciences; Law and Social Sciences; Natural Sciences; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Queen Mary has strong research traditions in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Since October 2003 a major interdisciplinary alliance has been developing, drawing together research teams across these disciplines, with links to other units in engineering, linguistics, computer law, open and distance learning, and drama.

Two thematic interdisciplinary research areas have emerged:

• QMaths: focusing on research underpinned by mathematics and statistics in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

• QMedia: focusing on technologies to support the creative arts and has its own website.

Altogether the research teams involved in the interdisciplinary research across the three disciplines comprise around 250 academics, postdocs and research students, with current funding of around 9 million, including 5.6 million from the UK research councils, and industry involvement, from both major ICT vendors and QMUL generated start-ups. They demonstrate international leadership across a broad range of activities aiming at producing a concentration and scope with few equals in the UK.

These activities are supported by QMUL through significant institutional commitment, including a new interdisciplinary chair in Computer Science and Mathematics, 6 institutionally funded PhD studentships per year reserved for interdisciplinary collaboration, and dedicated space and support staff.