Thank you
Your Support Shapes the Future
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2024/2025 Heriot-Watt University Impact Report. Each year, this publication brings to life the extraordinary stories of our global community of donors and friends through inspiring interviews, compelling profiles, and powerful reflections. I hope this year’s edition captures your imagination and fills you with pride.
The past year has been an incredible one for Heriot-Watt University. Our commitment to sustainability propelled us 277 places in the 2025 QS World Rankings: Sustainability, putting us at 211th globally and 42nd in the UK. Meanwhile, our pioneering researchers pushed boundaries across the board: our scientists advanced to clinical trials with a new prostate cancer detection method, achieving a 94% success rate, while our physicists made a breakthrough that could unlock access to a global-scale quantum network by overcoming interference (or “daylight noise”). Elsewhere, we secured three awards to drive innovation in the photonics sector and developed technology to significantly improve the safety of public water supplies.
“One of my proudest moments was the launch of our Shaping Futures campaign in October 2024. The campaign will drive our ambition to lead with purpose and deliver solutions to society’s most pressing challenges.”
Paul Stephenson
As Head of Development and Alumni Engagement, one of my proudest moments was the launch of our Shaping Futures campaign in October 2024. The campaign will drive our ambition to lead with purpose and deliver solutions to society’s most pressing challenges. I am especially passionate about the Empower through Education campaign theme, which is expanding our Access Bursaries programme, supporting students from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds. Having grown up in a low-income environment, I know first-hand how access to education can transform lives.
Shaping Futures owes its first year of success to you. The passion and generosity of our community of friends, alumni, and supporters have been extraordinary. This report features a few of the incredible stories made possible by your support. I hope you’ll find them as inspiring as I do. Several of these stories focus on donors from North America who gave via the American Friends of Heriot-Watt University, and so I want to say a special thanks to the Board of Directors of the organisation for their ongoing support and advocacy of philanthropy across the pond.
A personal highlight for me was meeting so many of you at our various events in cities from Edinburgh to New York to Kuala Lumpur. This year’s programme of events is just as exciting, far-reaching, and lively, and I’m looking forward to thanking more of you in person.
Thank you for being part of our journey, and I truly hope you enjoy reading this year’s Impact Report.
Paul Stephenson Head of Development and Alumni Engagement
