University of Sheffield to use record donation from the Law Family Charitable Foundation for student support and disease treatments

The Law Family Charitable Foundation (LFCF), which was established by Andrew and Zoë Law to support charity schemes with an emphasis on education and health, has given the University of Sheffield £5.85m - the largest single gift from an individual alumnus in its history.

Andrew Law is chairman and CEO of Caxton Associates, a global macro hedge fund, and studied economics at the South Yorkshire institution, graduating with a First Class honours degree in 1987.

Mr Law said: “The Law Family Charitable Foundation is delighted to support the University of Sheffield with the grant award.

Since being established in 2011, LFCF has focused upon education and health, together with social mobility and the environment.

“The country will only prosper if all of society has the access should it wish to participate fully in leading education opportunities, and supporting the disadvantaged is central to this. I owe a large part of my success to the University of Sheffield and we would like others to have equal opportunities.

A sum of £2.85m has been donated towards the new student support scheme, named The Law Family Ambition Programme, which will run over a five-year period to help disadvantaged students from "low participation" backgrounds access university, support their success in higher education and help them develop the skills, confidence and social abilities to graduate into successful careers.

It will fund new scholarships, academic mentoring, residential summer schools, career mentoring from successful Sheffield alumni, networking coaching, work placements and employability and skills workshops with businesses.

The "landmark donation" will also enable the university to expand and enhance its Discover outreach programme, which widens access to professions for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds throughout the north of England.

Meanwhile, £3m will also fund innovative research that could lead to the development of medical therapies for a range of rare genetic diseases.

The university is already part of a new consortium which aims to accelerate the development of advanced therapies allowing potentially transformative treatments to reach patients sooner.

However, the donation will enable the university to develop more partnerships with biotech and pharma companies to help accelerate gene therapy programmes and clinical trials for rare diseases, at the same time as supporting regional economic growth and job creation, it says.

The university said "the donation presents a real opportunity to drive innovation and excellence in the area of gene therapy and to catalyse the creation of new start-up companies to facilitate commercialisation in the North".

Mr Law added: “It is imperative that more leading UK universities expand their research, exploit their immense expertise for the greater good, and commercialise their success thus creating further growth. The University of Sheffield is developing a national and global reputation in gene therapy.

"Investing in new medical technology is very capital intensive but is critical to combat rare genetic diseases and cancers."

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the university, said: “We would like to thank Andrew, Zoë and The Law Family Charitable Foundation for making such a generous gift to the University.

"This donation will make a huge difference to the work we do here at Sheffield. It will drive the next crucial step in research to tackle a range of diseases for which there is currently no cure, as well as provide vital support to students and young people who are considering applying to university. The gift will have a real impact and we are extremely grateful.”

For more information on the Law Family Charitable Foundation, visit https://www.lawfamilycharitablefoundation.org/