Nottingham Honoured for Groundbreaking Modern Slavery Research with National Education Prize

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2025 honours the university that showcases outstanding work and research in handling modern-day slavery. As this award is one of the UK’s most important honours in higher education, it celebrates universities for their achievements in excellence, innovation and the tangible, real-world impact of their research.

The Prize was awarded for the pioneering work of the Rights Lab, one of the world's largest research groups in modern slavery, which in less than a decade has become the world leader in modern slavery research and links the social sciences, alongside geography, political science, law, and business, with research aimed towards the transformation of society.

The University Achievements

1. The mapping of modern slavery sites across farms, factories, mines, and kilns using satellite imaging and data science.

2. Advanced models linking forced labour mapping with destructive environmental acts.

3. Tools for modern slavery and supply chain transparency are used to help businesses identify the risks in their global supply chains.

4. Survivor partnership that has liberated thousands of individuals, with the help of new mapping data.

5. These contributions are what earned the UK's highest education honour for Nottingham in the field of modern slavery research.

Global Contributions of the Rights Lab

The work of the Rights Lab has massively accelerated global efforts to end forced labour. In another vein of this, the involvement with governments, NGOs, and businesses has generated:

1. Prevalence estimates with the International Justice Mission to support civil society responses.

2. A sector-leading risk tool with Moody's to transform business accountability.

3. Survivor-led initiatives that applied new knowledge at scale, such as Volunteers for Social Justice.

All this exemplifies the efforts of the Rights Lab at Nottingham for its crusade against forced labour all over the world and the global impact research on slavery at Nottingham University.

Campaigning for Social Justice and Local Impact

In further support of global efforts, the university has already invested large amounts in Nottingham to show the University of Nottingham's social justice in attendance. This united endeavour across the city supports its ambition to become slavery-free, thereby encompassing Nottingham's Higher Education Social Impact UK agenda.

The award marked royal recognition number three for Nottingham. The university had already won in 2000 both for MRI technology research and for Global Food Security research in 2011, each of these events forming a cogent lamp post laying claim to the history of the University of Nottingham researching on the global canvas and invariably engaging in academic research initiatives towards humanity and policy intervention.

The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education, previously known as the Queen's Anniversary Prizes, are awarded every two years by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister. They are the most prestigious England national honours in higher education to honour university social impact initiatives that result in a positive effect on society. In the opinion of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the year 2025 is highly significant and marks 30 long years of celebrating the contribution of British universities to tackling modern slavery and other major global challenges.

Looking Ahead:

The recognition of the University of Nottingham's carried this far into the realm of fighting for human rights and policy. One also realised that fighting modern slavery on a global platform was actualised by taking advantage of the ultimate benefit of university-supported, socially oriented research towards the community and victims.

The university is calling interested partners/parties to:

1. Support modern-slavery research at the University of Nottingham

2. Engage with University of Nottingham Rights Lab programs

3. Offer humanitarian research funding in UK universities

4. Collaborate on the human rights and supply-chain studies within UK universities

5. Finance University of Nottingham social justice programs

Justice, innovation, and research fall upon the University of Nottingham at UJI. Once more, Nottingham raises the bar for university prizes by winning the 2025 award for modern slavery research in the UK. This raises the profile of how university research for advantage in real life is capable of changing lives, liberating communities, and contributing to building a fairer world.

Editor’s note:

This unprecedented honour affirms the University of Nottingham's own strategic and evidence-informed counter-modern-slavery approach via the Rights Lab. It acknowledges the systematic research-to-impact model combining satellite imagery, data science, and multidisciplinary expertise to find exploiters, quantify exploitation, and influence real-life interventions. The application of academic methods for business transparency and survivor-led liberation offers measures of impact beyond academia. The achievement, too, stands on the shoulders of previous accomplishments. It builds on Nottingham's history of high-impact research: MRI in 2000; Global Food Security in 2011; with a continuous purpose of advancing knowledge for a better living. Within this context, the Rights Lab's collaboration with governments, NGOs, and industry represents a mature ecosystem where those aspects together reinforce policy, accountability, and local action, including the city's ambition of being slavery-free. Two points stand out across the sector. First, methodological innovations (Earth Observation, machine learning, and geospatial citizen science) are reshaping what is knowable and actionable within human rights. Second, achieving sustained collaboration and funding will be key to scaling solutions from pilots to population-level impact. Universities after similar results should prioritise open data standards, cross-sector co-creation, and clear adoption pathways for practitioners.

Skoobuzz mentions that the Queen Elizabeth Prize acknowledges Nottingham's position as a national and global leader, where social justice is operationalised through rigorous research, practical tools, and accountable partnerships-setting a benchmark for how higher education can deliver tangible, rights-based change.

FAQs

1. Why did the University of Nottingham win the Queen Elizabeth Prize in 2025?

The University of Nottingham won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2025 for its pioneering research into modern slavery. Its Rights Lab has developed innovative methods such as satellite mapping, supply chain risk tools, and survivor-led partnerships that have had a real-world impact, helping to liberate thousands of people and transform global responses to forced labour.

2. What is the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham?

The Rights Lab is the world’s largest research group dedicated to ending modern slavery. Founded less than a decade ago, it brings together experts in geography, political science, law, business, and social policy. The Lab uses advanced technologies, including Earth Observation data and machine learning, to map slavery sites, analyse risks, and design practical solutions for governments, businesses, and NGOs.

3. How does the University of Nottingham’s research help fight global forced labour?

The university’s research helps fight forced labour by:

• Mapping slavery sites across industries using satellite imaging and data science.

• Creating tools for supply chain transparency that allow businesses to identify risks.

• Partnering with survivor-led organisations to apply new knowledge at scale.

Working with international partners such as International Justice Mission and Moody’s to strengthen civil society and business accountability. These efforts have accelerated global action against forced labour and improved protection for vulnerable communities.

4. What qualifies a university for the Queen Elizabeth Prize?

To qualify, a university must demonstrate excellence, innovation, and proven benefit to society. The Prize, part of the UK Honours System, is awarded every two years to institutions whose research or teaching has made a significant impact nationally or globally. It recognises work that goes beyond academia, showing tangible outcomes in areas such as health, social justice, technology, or community wellbeing.

5. Which other UK universities have won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education?

Several leading UK universities have received this honour. The University of Oxford holds the highest number of awards, followed by Loughborough University with eight. Other winners include Cambridge, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield, each recognised for outstanding contributions in fields ranging from medical research to social inclusion and global food security.