Philanthropy for Cambridge

The University of Cambridge’s determination to enhance research capacity across Africa, and to engage in collaborative research with African partners, has been given a significant boost following the announcement of a major gift.

A couple who met at Downing as undergraduates are supporting their College’s outreach work in the South West of England. 

American husband and wife philanthropists are to make a multi-million pound gift to the University of Cambridge to enhance the teaching and research of its prestigious Economics Faculty.

The Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, has officially opened an exciting new £3 million development at Cambridge Veterinary School.

A benefactor of the University of Cambridge, Leonard Blavatnik, has made a multi-million pound pledge to provide funding for Israeli scientists of outstanding ability to study in Cambridge.

A significant gift will make a major contribution to ensuring no student is deterred from studying at Cambridge due to their financial circumstances.

The origins of Darwin’s theory of evolution – including the pages where he first coins and commits to paper the term ‘natural selection’ – are being made freely available online today in one of the most significant releases of Darwin material in history.

A new scholarship programme has been established at the University of Cambridge in memory of a former student, Amy Li.

A £1.1m campaign by Cambridge University Library to secure one of the most important New Testament manuscripts – the seventh-century Codex Zacynthius – has been a success.

The James Dyson Foundation has donated £8m to create a technology hub at the heart of Cambridge, providing the University of Cambridge’s brightest engineers with some of the world’s most advanced engineering laboratories.

Fifty-five of the world's most academically brilliant and socially committed young people from 27 countries have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars and will begin their postgraduate courses at the University of Cambridge this October.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £1.8 million to the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. This funding will support ambitious plans to completely redevelop the Museum of Zoology with displays showcasing the wonders of the animal kingdom, and new stores to preserve its outstanding collections for the future.

The Scott Polar Research Institute has launched an appeal to save Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ‘lost’ polar negatives. A last minute stay of execution means it now has until 25 March to save the negatives for the nation.

Forty of the most academically brilliant and socially committed young people in the USA will take up a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge this autumn as the programme continues to expand to a diverse range of institutions across North America. 

Inspired by the way open source data has stimulated innovation in computing, a new UK centre will create a climate of openness in synthetic biology, helping young researchers and entrepreneurs develop and share new tools and libraries of plant DNA.

Cambridge University Library plans to raise £1.1m to purchase an outstanding Biblical manuscript. Dating from the 6th or 7th century, Codex Zacynthius is a palimpsest that offers scholars a key to understanding the way in which the text of St Luke’s Gospel was transmitted as Christianity spread.

Robin Franklin has been appointed Professor of Stem Cell Medicine with effect from 1st January 2014.

University of Cambridge museums are among those highlighted as examples of best practice in a new report focusing on the outstanding contributions made by the University Museums Group UK.

Dr Frederick Sanger, recognised by many as the “father of genomics”, died yesterday at the age of 95. The founding member of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and the person after whom the Sanger Institute is named, he was known as an extremely modest and self-effacing man whose innumerable scientific contributions have had an extraordinary impact on molecular biology.

Prathiba M Singh, an Indian alumna of the Faculty of Law, has donated a scholarship that will allow other Indian students to complete an LLM at the world-renowned Cambridge Faculty of Law.

A new building on the Institute of Astronomy site off Madingley Road will complete the consolidation of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology on a single site in Cambridge.

Goats, game show hosts, eyeballs and pirates are going to help the next generation of engineers win places at leading universities, thanks to a new website launched today by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering in partnership with The Underwood Trust.

An unveiling of a special commemorative pavement marker takes place today  on the Sidgwick Site at 12 noon to commemorate the Bicentenary of the birth of a painter and poet known widely as Ukraine’s “cultural godfather”.

A new method for developing stem cells enables the production of liver and pancreatic cells in “clinically relevant” quantities for the first time, paving the way for regenerative therapies.

Insect pollinators provide a service worth an estimated £430 million to food, farming and retail sectors in the UK. How can we protect them, and enhance the sustainability of the UK food production system?

The Vice-Chancellor marked the start of the new academic year this morning by giving his annual address to the University in the Senate House.