The University of Birmingham was established in 1900 by Royal Charter as the first civic university in the UK. The university has active research activities in nuclear irradiation and material degradation and has been developing some unique irradiation and post-irradiation examination facilities, including a recently commissioned accelerator-based high flux neutron beam, a range of in-situ irradiation end stations and a hydra-laser tri-beam system.

The University enjoys active research collaborations with a range of industrial partners and international academic researchers. As part of the RaDIATE collaboration, the university experiments with proton and neutron irradiation, with an additional potential in-situ irradiation degradation study of materials and the relevant PIEs.