THE University of Sussex has picked up a top national honour.

It won the THE DataPoints Merit Award trophy at this year’s THE Leadership and Management Awards.

The THELMAs - now in their ninth year - recognise outstanding work across the professional services and administration of the UK’s world-leading higher education institutions.

This year THE’s DataPoints team focused on an assessment of global indicators looking at international recognition and collaboration.

The shortlist was made up of universities displaying a high percentage of international collaboration across all their published research as well as consistently high scores in THE’s Academic Reputation Survey.

Vice-chancellor Adam Tickell said: “It’s absolutely terrific to see the University of Sussex win such a prestigious award.

“Tackling issues on the global stage sits at the heart of our ambition and I couldn’t be more proud of what our community has achieved.

“Recognition must be given to everyone at two of Sussex’s research groups - the Science Policy Research Unit and the Centre for Cognitive Science - who have been singled out by the judging team.

“Congratulations to everyone at Sussex who works so hard to build our reputation in the UK and around the world which no doubt contributed to this prestigious accolade.”

The team looked at the geographical diversity of the votes meaning that universities with votes coming from an array of countries were selected.

THE’s DataPoints team said they wanted to reward a global institution tackling relevant issues from a variety of angles.

They said they awarded the University of Sussex the 2017 THE DataPoints Merit Award for its long and prolific history of research.

Of the many research groups at Sussex, the judges highlighted two which they say exemplify a forward-thinking interdisciplinary approach: the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) and the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS).

THE’s DataPoints team said: “SPRU - which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year -brings together economics, technology and policy.

“It was also ranked seventh in a worldwide list of top science and technology thinktanks.

“COGS - founded by cognitive scientist and philosopher Professor Margaret Boden - is another example of interdisciplinary research in a field that is becoming more relevant every year.

“Under the broad umbrella of cognitive sciences are gathered researchers in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics and philosophy, tackling the central issue of the nature of the mind and thought.”

THE editor John Gill said: “Once again we’ve seen examples of exceptional performance in the most important areas of university leadership, management and administration.

“Our hope is that by shining a light on these winners, institutions will learn from one another to improve the quality of what they do across the board.”