in 2019. Lancaster now provides teaching in media, sport, business and psychology at a new campus in Trafford, Greater Manchester. The project was set up by the 'class of 92' Manchester United soccer players Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. Lancaster wanted a base in Manchester. Subtext, Lancaster's in house critical newsletter, asked: "Why are we taking a 40% financial stake and a 100% reputational share of what is essentially a new university set up with a group of retired footballers?" Local opinion on the project was also divided as reached the planning application stage. Programmes abroad In October 2013, Lancaster University announced the opening of a branch campus in Accra, Ghana, to serve the population of Ghana and all of Africa, providing a British university-level education locally to those students. The campus is operated in partnership with Transnational Academic Group Ghana Limited, and offers undergraduate and graduate programmes in management, business, Economics & international relations, Politics & International Relations, Accounting & Finance, Marketing, computer science, law and psychology along with an EMBA programme. In 2020, Lancaster opened a new branch campus in Germany, Lancaster University Leipzig. The campus is operated in partnership with Navitas. Programmes offered in Leipzig are equivalent to their counterparts in Lancaster, and students receive their degree from Lancaster University upon graduation. Lancaster opened the Joint Institute for Environmental Research and Education (JIE) in Guangzhou, China in 2016, in partnership with the South China Agricultural University (SCAU). A joint Environmental Science undergraduate degree began in September 2016 with students spending two years at each institution. The Chinese Ministry of Education gave permission in April 2016 for Lancaster to establish Lancaster University College - Beijing Jiaotong University in Weihai, Shandong province. Research Lancaster's research income for 2015-16 was £38.3 million. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment, Lancaster was ranked 18th out of 128 UK universities, including 13th for the percentage of world-leading research. The university places a particular focus on interdisciplinary research, encouraging collaborative research across academic departments. In 2012, Lancaster University announced a partnership with the UK's biggest arms company, (BAE Systems), and four other North-Western universities (Liverpool, Salford, UCLAN and Manchester) in order to work on the Gamma Programme which aims to develop "autonomous systems". According to the University of Liverpool when referring to the programme, "autonomous systems are technology based solutions that replace humans in tasks that are