The department engages widely with organisations outside academia, including agencies such as Fera Science Ltd and CEFAS, professional bodies such as the IFA, and industrial partners such as Barclays Investment Bank, BAE Systems and BT.

Ways to collaborate with us

Our staff are always interested in collaboration and consultancy. If your organisation has a mathematical or statistical problem and would like to explore the possibility of solving it together with us, please contact our Impact and Engagement Coordinator Dr Jess Hargreaves or the Head of Department Professor Martin Bees.

Examples of ways to work with us include:

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) connect forward thinking businesses with knowledge bases to deliver business led innovation projects. They are developed to solve a specific, strategic innovation challenge faced by the business partner.

Case study

With funding from Innovate UK, Mathematicians at York collaborated with Croda International plc to develop methods to objectively and quantitatively compare the similarity of speciality chemical ingredients. The project was awarded the highest grade of "Outstanding" by the KTP Grading Panel for its achievement in meeting the KTP’s objectives.

Case study

Short term funding from Innovate UK allowed the use of multivariate statistics and pattern recognition to be investigated for the detection of counterfeit spirits, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals in a collaboration with Eluceda Ltd.

Case study

The ‘Pyramids of Life’ project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) aims to interrogate complex relationships between different species, human behaviours, and marine ecosystems for a sustainable future. The research combines expertise in socio-economics and human behaviour (University of East Anglia), ecology and detailed spatio-temporal datasets (Cefas) with mathematics and marine ecology (University of York). Partners Seafish and Waitrose bring expertise in market dynamics, consumer behaviour and fishing effort, as well as commitment to long-term sustainability.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funds industrial Cooperative Awards in Science & Technology (CASE) doctoral studentships where businesses and related organisations take the lead.

Case study

Protein crystallography is of fundamental importance to structural biology and drug design, but producing crystals is a major bottleneck in the pipeline. A PhD student, co-funded by AstraZeneca UK, is using machine learning and statistical pattern recognition methods to investigate relationships between protein properties and the experimental conditions in which they will crystallise, in order to accelerate the drug discovery process.

During the final year of their undergraduate degree, Mathematics students carry out a research project. We aim to enhance students’ experience by offering projects in collaboration with external partners.

There is no financial cost to the company and final year projects can produce useful, even publishable results. Students carry out the projects at the University with an academic supervisor providing mathematical expertise. Confidentiality agreements can be arranged where necessary.

Recent project partners include The Whitby Lobster Hatchery, Sky Betting and Gaming, Fera Science Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, UST, Improbable and TaraCares.

IAA funding awarded to the University by UKRI research councils can provide pump-priming funds to kick-start projects in collaboration with industrial partners. 

Case study

A suite of mechanistic spatial models of industrial scale anaerobic digestion has been developed in collaboration with Yorkshire Water.

Other possibilities include MSc by research projects, MSc dissertation projects and summer studentships.