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Arup University

Arup University prepares our clients, collaborators, and global membership for the future. We are committed to raising technical standards across the natural and built environment sectors.

Our focus is on resolving complex problems and preparing for the future. Our remit includes partnering with academic institutions and professional bodies globally to ensure our own technical expertise is without equal.

We also offer foresight and research services and solutions to clients, partners, and key industry stakeholders. Maintaining technical excellence – and, in many cases, defining excellence in our fields of expertise – is at the heart of Arup University’s work. We create programmes of innovation and expertise development, ensuring continuous evolution of our knowledge, tools, and techniques.

Navigating change and complexity

Arup University is home to our strategic foresight, research and innovation capability, and our learning function. Established in 2009, we focus on future needs, preparing both our own membership and our clients for the opportunities and challenges of a complex world, and the markets we operate in.

Arup University hosts our global skills networks. These are discipline-specific communities of experts, working together in pursuit of technical excellence. Our global skills networks are a fundamental mechanism ensuring our clients and partners benefit from the latest innovations, insights, and expertise – wherever in the world they or their project is based.

A computational design 'hackathon' organised by Arup University in our East Asia region. Our skills networks are a key mechanism for promoting learning and development.

Foresight: future shaping, horizon scanning

Arup University’s foresight experts work with clients as well as with internal Arup teams to explore possible futures – from social trends like urbanisation and ageing populations to how climate impacts will test the resilience of critical physical assets to the impact on communities of technologies like robotics and automation. Our Foresight team applies a broad range of established and experimental methods, from trend analysis and scenario planning to facilitated planning and design futures. They use these techniques to advance research, strategy, policy, innovation and risk programmes.

Foresight helps us and our clients to look ahead and imagine plausible, tangible futures. This is what will allow us to make better decisions about tomorrow, today.

Find out more about our foresight services.

Research: investing in new knowledge

Every Arup member has the opportunity to participate in discipline-specific research. Each year, we invest in research that pushes technical boundaries, pursuing new ideas for our clients and enhancing our own understanding. We care deeply about the challenges our clients and society face, and this drives our commitment to industry transformation and sustainable development. We collaborate with a global network of leading research organisations and universities, combining creative thinking and analysis to drive organisational and technological innovations.

Find out more about our research services

Arup Fellows

Our fellows programme is run by Arup University. This is a small, unique cohort of Arup members whose industry knowledge and experience represent the highest technical accolade achievable within Arup. By awarding ‘fellow’ status, we enable our most exceptional practitioners to share their insights with those within our organisation, and beyond. Their remit is to inspire and unlock creativity and innovation in the work of their colleagues and peers. Fellowship is awarded in recognition of individuals’ visionary leadership, willingness to explore the boundaries of what is possible, and their commitment to technical brilliance and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Meet the Arup Fellows and explore their expertise.