AWE publishes Partnering for National Defence 2025/26 report
AWE has today published its Partnering for National Defence 2025/26report, celebrating the partners and people who support its work in keeping the UK safe through nuclear science and technology.
In the last year alone, AWE has engaged with more than 30 UK universities, supporting over 120 postgraduate and postdoctoral research contracts across physics, material and analytical science, engineering, and nuclear security. Within industry and the public sector, AWE has strategic partnerships with a significant number of organisations, including innovation centres, national laboratories, and governmental bodies.
The report provides a deeper insight into these collaborations – and why they matter to AWE’s vital mission in national defence and role in protecting the UK as part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. It explores how AWE has advanced its strategic ambitions over the last year and built new relationships to remain at the forefront of nuclear defence engineering, science, and technology.
Other highlights of the report include:
- The addition of The University of Manchester and the University of Strathclyde to AWE’s network of Strategic Alliance university partners.
- Collaboration with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network to progress AWE’s R&D capabilities and nuclear skills agenda.
- AWE is collaborating with RAICo to support the development of robotics and AI technology solutions for the nuclear sector.
- Partnership with the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to explore opportunities to support innovations that can meet AWE’s unique needs.
Alongside its technical programme, the report covers AWE’s work towards building a diverse workforce and talent pipeline through investment in its community and future skills. Last academic year, AWE reached over 50,000 young people with its STEM outreach initiatives and recruited more than 150 apprentices and graduates.
The report also reflects on the achievements of AWE’s own people, including its three colleagues that were recognised in The King’s Birthday Honours List 2025 for services to engineering and defence. Several colleagues were also appointed to prestigious positions at universities across the UK, further strengthening AWE’s ties with academia.
Looking to the future, the report outlines AWE’s commitment to establishing five new Centres of Excellence that will support critical research and innovation. These centres will enable AWE to deliver strategic and collaborative R&D across scientific computing, future systems materials technology, quantum computing and sensing, actinides research, and nuclear data.
Toni Lilly, Head of AWE’s External Technical Partnerships said: “This report showcases many great examples of how we are working with our strategic partners across academia, industry, government and the wider public sector. These partnerships add immense value to the work that AWE delivers in support of the National Endeavour.
She added: “It is vital that we continue to invest in building and strengthening our external collaborations across nuclear science and technology to deliver our mission. During a period of huge transformational change at AWE, we rely on the continued success of our strategic partnerships and their contribution to nuclear skills and the UK economy.”
The full Partnering for National Defence 2025/26 report is available here.
