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Centres of Excellence

Our Centres of Excellence are the University’s pillars of research strength. They help us drive progress for our planet and its people – and inspire us to see that a challenge is only impossible until it's done.

Achieving the impossible

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Explore our Centres of Excellence

Our Centres of Excellence each undertake highly innovative and potentially transformative research.

They have been created to provide an environment and culture where researchers can truly believe a challenge is only impossible until it’s done.

Explore our Centres below.

More from our Centres of Excellence

Hear from the world-leading researchers within our Centres of Excellence. Learn about the impossible challenges they are taking on and how each Centre is driving progress for our planet and its people.

 

• Transcript for video one: Transforming lives by protecting children, preventing exploitation, and creating mental health tools

  Professor Paul Statham: We tend not to see things as being impossible.

  [Intro MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into plucked strings]

  [TITLE CARD ‘Impossible until it’s done’]

  Professor Julie Weeds: Whenever I’m told that something’s impossible, I’ve viewed it as a challenge.

  Dr Liam Berriman: It’s thinking about how we can go beyond, thinking about what comes next.

  Professor Paul Statham: Something seems to be impossible you try and do it.

  [MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into building strings]

  [TITLE CARD: ‘Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth’

  Dr Liam Berriman: Voices of children remain amongst the most marginalised in policy and decision making in the UK.

  [MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into old detuned piano playing nostalgic chords]

  Dr Liam Berriman: How children and young people experience society in this data driven and digital era is a key element of our work. We need to explore their perspective on the world and to do that in a very creative and innovative way.

  [ON SCREEN TEXT: ‘Dr Liam Berriman Director, Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth’]

  [MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into staccato piano twinkling]

  Dr Liam Berriman: My research involves gathering the voices of children and young people, as well as their families and carers and those who work with them, to improve how they’re treated, how they can access specialist services and how policies can be developed to best meet their needs.

  Since so much of their lives involves data being gathered about them, we’re also concerned with how this information is used, particularly for the purpose of safeguarding. At our centre we can make the world a better place in terms of wanting meaningful change in their lives.

  [MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into impact hits]

  [TITLE CARD: ‘Sussex Artificial Intelligence’]

  [MUSIC: Brooding mysterious music]

  Professor Julie Weeds: To ensure that AI is used for the good of humanity, we need to make sure that we understand what it is and how it is being used to make decisions. It’s not going to go away, AI, we can’t put it back in the box. At Sussex AI it’s about understanding how to use it in a way that benefits everybody. Being part of it, rather than letting it scare you.

  [MUSIC: Whoosh and flutter sound effect with new mysterious electronic music]

  [ON SCREEN TEXT: ‘Professor Julie Weeds Co-Director, Sussex AI’]

  Professor Julie Weeds: I’m collaborating with a company that’s developing a mental health app for social media users. Through monitoring the language of posts, the app aims to identify young people who are struggling. And like many applications, it’s critical to keep human experts in the loop. So rather than replacing us, AI is there to support us.

  [MUSIC: Whoosh sound effect into moody, inspiring string music]

  [TITLE CARD: ‘Sussex Centre for Migration’]

  Professor Paul Statham: There’s kind of the politics of migration at the moment, but then there is actually the facts of migration.

  [MUSIC: Inspirational ambient orchestral music]

  Professor Paul Statham: Sussex set up a centre for migration research 25 years ago, when migrants and refugees moving across the globe wasn't so talked about.

  [ON SCREEN TEXT: ‘Professor Paul Statham, Director of Sussex Centre for Migration Research’]

  Professor Paul Statham: Now we're still at the cutting edge and still doing things differently. We focus on the relationship between migration and development and how we can help the groups and communities affected.

  [MUSIC: Triumphant and uplifting music begins with a keyboard synth]

  Professor Paul Statham: Through our relationship with Mahidol University in Thailand, we've highlighted how mass tourism, annually 40 million people move in and out of Thailand, has led to the exploitation of low paid women who have no social protection. We've also shown how marriage migration can adversely affect their families, their children and their own fate further down the line. Our focus on gender and sexualities extends to LGBTQI+ migrants and asylum seekers in our own region too, who also face prejudice and discrimination. All of this is creating a greater understanding of one of the key topics shaping our world today.    

  [MUSIC: A final positive chord plays on a keyboard]

  [END CARD: ¿ìèÊÓƵ logo ‘Impossible until it’s done ’ with URL sussex.ac.uk/impossible]

• Transcript for video two: Unlocking potential with education for all, fairer trade policy and understanding consciousness

  Professor Michael Gasiorek: When somebody says impossible to me, I always think. But is it really impossible?

  [Intro MUSIC: Light and upbeat instrumental]

  [TITLE CARD ‘Impossible until it’s done’]

  Professor Linda Morrice: We just need the right approach and to ask the right questions.

  Professor Michael Gasiorek: There are usually solutions to what you might think is impossible.

  Professor Anil Seth: With