Swansea is a research-led university with 52 Centres of Research. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise rankings for Swansea showed a doubling of world-leading research and the largest increase in internationally excellent research in the whole of the UK, resulting in Swansea University climbing 13 places in the UK rankings from 2001 to 2008. Almost 50 per cent of all research at Swansea University was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent - 4* and 3*- the top two categories of assessment.

For every £1 million of funding awarded in the research grant by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Swansea University raised another £2.5 million from other bodies.

Recent research interests include being part of the Bloodhound SSC land-speed record attempt in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamic design. The university was also a key partner in the successful Thrust SSC land-speed record attempt.

The university has a connection with CERN. At CERN, university staff were part of the first team to create antihydrogen and later trapping it. The current leader of the Large Hadron Collider project is a Swansea University alumnus Dr Lyn Evans.

Staff at the Clinical Haemorheology Laboratory, next to Morriston Hospital’s A&E department, have been working with Haemair and the University’s Complex Fluids Group in the Department of Engineering on developing a patented prosthetic lung and respiratory aid It has been showcased in the Science Museum in London. It is likely to be of huge benefit to patients with chronic lung diseases including emphysema, Cystic Fibrosis and severe asthma, and could be an alternative to a lung transplant in some cases. It could also play a major role in short-term care for patients suffering temporary lung failure.The lung could be available for patients within five years.

The breadth of research carried out at Swansea University can be seen in the Research as Art competition, organised by the Swansea University Research Forum (SURF). Researchers from across different subjects submit an image and accompanying abstract to illustrate their work. http://www.swansea.ac.uk/research/surf/art-competition/