Founded in 1845 as Queen's College Belfast, one of three Queen's Colleges in Ireland, it became an independent university in 1908. Queen’s is a member of the Russell Group, combining excellence in research and education with a student-centred ethos. Queen’s is ranked 8th in the UK for Research Intensity (REF 2014/ Times Higher Education) with over 75% of its research assessed as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ in REF 2014. The University has created four flagship Global Research Institutes in the areas of: Global Peace, Security and Justice; Cyber Security; Health Sciences; and Food Safety. Queen’s is ranked 22nd in the world for international outlook (THE World University Rankings 2020) and ranked 9th in the world for research collaboration, A partnership with China Medical University has led to the creation of the China Queen’s College (CQC) in Shenyang. Queen’s is ranked number one in the UK for commercialising research’ (Octopus Venues 2019) with 1954 people employed in 37 active spin out companies. It is also ranked number one in the UK for its participation in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP). External recognition includes the award of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize on seven occasions - the most recent being for world-class achievement in shared education and global cyber security. The University has also been honoured by Northern Ireland’s first Regius Professorship for excellence in electronics and computer engineering. Over the last 10 years the University has invested £350 million in developing world-class facilities with ambitious plans to invest further over the next decade.