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A world-class technology spinout company from Lancaster University has raised US$30m (£22.2m) in a Series A funding round as demand intensifies around AI cyber security. Mindgard has announced it has brought in significant financing from a consortium led by Album VC, with participation from Karma Ventures and existing investors .406 Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, IQ Capital and Lakestar. The size of this round is among the largest Series A cyber security investments in a UK-based company.

Aaron Winter and Suzanne Ost Two Lancaster academics are among 74 ‘outstanding’ social scientists to be recognised for excellence in their fields. Professor of Law Suzanne Ost and Senior Lecturer in Sociology Dr Aaron Winter have been made Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences, elected for the strength of their work and their significant contributions to social science for public benefit.

Lancaster University and Sunway University are marking a significant milestone this year, celebrating 20 years of partnership that now supports more than 7,000 students. Established in 2006 with Sunway College, now Sunway University, the partnership has grown to be a globally recognised collaboration that advances impactful research, and strengthens Lancaster’s international profile across East and Southeast Asia.

Professor Elizabete Carmo-Silva and Dr Clayton Dilks with cassava plants and a model of rubisco activase As rising temperatures put growing pressure on a crop that helps sustain 800 million people, Lancaster University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are launching an ambitious effort to help cassava keep producing in a hotter world.

In an age of drone-strikes, cyber-war and the rise of military AI, a Lancaster University researcher has written a new book exploring the relationship between war and science fiction. Published this week, 'Science Fiction and the Future of War', by Dr Mike Ryder, unpacks some of the key questions that science fiction poses about the future of war, and highlights some of the risks of blurring the boundaries between the two, including the potential for the ‘gamification’ of warfare.

Lancaster University is launching a new ‘Food for Nature and Society' doctoral training programme to tackle our contemporary food system crises, while also protecting our planet. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the Leverhulme Doctoral Programme on Food for Nature and Society, which benefits from £5 million of funding from the Leverhulme Trust and with the equivalent of a £900,000 contribution from Lancaster University, will deliver 30 fully funded PhD scholarships over seven years.

In this piece for The Conversation, Dr Josiane Fernandes (Marketing) discusses how indigenous communities are responding to intrusive tourism. The article, written alongside Dr Teea Palo (University of Edinburgh), explains their new research findings, published in Marketing Theory, exploring the favela tourism market in Brazil and the Christmas tourism market in Finland.

Hannah Jarvis, Lecturer in Biomechanics at Lancaster University, demonstrates Qualisys motion technology in use to visitors from Dnipro University of Technology and Kharkiv National Medical University in Ukraine. Lancaster University researchers are working with their Ukrainian counterparts and UK amputees to make prosthetic limbs more comfortable for injured military personnel in the war.

Professor Nick Graham A Lancaster University marine biologist is to establish an ‘Island-Ocean Research Hub’, after being awarded a Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowship. The Faraday Discovery Fellowships are prestigious long-term awards that will support the most talented mid-career research leaders to undertake high-quality original research.

A Lancaster University professor has been awarded a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. Radka Newton, Professor in Management Education and Innovation at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), is one of 55 new National Teaching Fellows announced by Advance HE. Professor Newton, who is an expert in human-centred design, professional learning and educational innovation, said that teaching was her ‘lifelong calling’.