President Hugh Brady calls for internationalism in annual address
Global uncertainty and crisis push the College to look outwards.
Imperial College President Hugh Brady said Imperial can no longer “just participate in global conversations,” and instead “must lead” and “shape” them following global economic and political instability.
Following “Brexit… the defunding by the US Government of large population health programs in the Global South…, and recent events in the Middle East,” Brady emphasised the need for the Imperial community to be “more proactive and more strategic than ever before,” in order to effectively deal and find “transnational solutions” to the problems of the 21st century.
Citing both sci-fi writer H.G. Wells and French President Emmanuel Macron on the necessity to use science to solve societal problems, Brady stated that Imperial’s position as a STEMMB school provided a unique advantage for students, staff, and alumni alike to tackle the “challenges we face as a species” but also “to unlock possibilities we never dared to imagine.” He put emphasis on the university’s new Imperial Inspires programme, which will provide scholarships for the international student community. Support for transnational and collaborative research was also reiterated, with Imperial seeking to find “new multi-institution and transnational network opportunities that offer potential for greater scale, and greater impact.”
However, he also acknowledged that some contemporary threats, ranging from “drones, to hypersonics, to cyber-attacks,” are based on cutting-edge research such as that conducted at Imperial. Brady said that the university aimed to act in a “principled and pragmatic way when it comes to security and defence related research,” and looked forward to “engaging with our academic leadership and our wider community” on how to approach Imperial’s “positioning”.
