Allied Health Professions, Art and Design, English Language and Literature, History, Geography and Environmental Studies, and Education. Research, consultancy and knowledge transfer at the university are centred on a number of cognate research groupings. It carries out internationally renowned research into lift engineering and technology, using the Express Lift Tower in the town, reflecting the town's historic role in lift manufacturing. The Landscape and Biodiversity Research Group is within the universities' School of Science and Technology. The university provides numerous other business support schemes and programmes for new companies. These are often run through the university's Sunley Management Centre. Other schemes run by the university include an art loan facility for offices or conferences. The university provided lab facilities for the Channel 4 programme How Clean Is Your House. Student life Students' Union The Students' Union operates out of the redeveloped Engine Shed location on the Waterside Campus, which also operates as a daytime cafe and food outlet. The Union also operates a venue in the town centre, The Platform. During the day the venue operates as a cafe and conference centre. At night the venue also operates as a nightclub with three floors and staffed by student staff. During the midweek, all events held at the venue are student only while the venue opens up the locals during the weekend with a number of different events held throughout the year. The Union was awarded a national Gold award, as well as 'Best Club', in the national NUS Best Bar None awards 2011. This award confirms the Union as being a safe venue with effective policies on drink and drugs, crime prevention, fire, security and first aid. The Students' Union is led by five full-time Sabbatical Officers, backed by hundreds of volunteers including an extended Elected Officer Team of Part Time Officers and supported by almost 200 staff – both student and career staff. Sports The Students' Union has 35 sports clubs and enters 24 teams in Wednesday BUCS Leagues each week, with the SU currently ranked 99th in the BUCS ranking. The Students' Union operate on a policy of free sports membership, meaning all teams are free to join with no membership fee and offers a wide variety of sports including rugby league (Gremlins RL), football, netball, basketball, hockey and lacrosse. They are also one of a select SUs to offer equestrian as a sports club for their students.