RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE

Draft minutes for the fourth meeting of 2008 of Research and Enterprise Committee, held on Wednesday 25th June 2.15 pm in Room 075, Queen Anne, Greenwich Campus

PRESENT:

Prof T Barnes (Chair)

Prof A Reed (Vice-Chair)

Dr S Ryan (GRE/Secretary)

Prof C Bailey (CMS)

Ms T Banton (GRE)

Mr D Beazleigh (Finance)

Ms W Curran (Finance)

Dr N Dasgupta (Humanities)

Mr W Goddard (Education and Training)

Prof D Isaac (Architecture & Construction)

Dr L Hyder (GRE)

Dr S Richardson (Science)

Prof M Snowden (Science)

Prof E West (Health & Social Care)

Prof A Westby (NRI)

Prof G White (Business)

Dr S Woodhead (Engineering/GRE)

Dr D Wray (Science)

APOLOGIES

Ms J Cullen (GRE)

Prof A Mathie (Pharmacy)

Dr J Jameson (Education and Training)

Dr J Morton (NRI)

Dr R Mayor (Business)

Mrs L Spencer (RSAO)

Mr J Wallace (Administrative Secretary)

ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR

Prof Barnes introduced two new members to the Committee, Dr Simon Richardson and Dr David Wray who are replacing Prof Snowden as members for School ofScience. Dr Richardson and Dr Wray will represent the School of Science in Research and Enterprise respectively and will attend Committee meetings on an alternating basis.

08.4.1 MINUTES OF THE THIRD MEETING OF THE RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE HELD IN 2008 ON THE 7TH MAY

The minutes of the Research and Enterprise Committee held on the 7th of May 2008 were agreed as an accurate record subject to the correction of two minor errors.

Action: Dr Ryan to amend the minutes

08.4.2MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

Agenda item 08.3.2: Mr Beazleigh isorganising an information session to explain the accrual accounting system for research revenues to Directors of Research and Enterprise. It will be held in Room S311, Avery Hill on the9 September 2008.

Action: Mr Beazleigh to send email with details to Committee members.

Agenda item 08.3.5.1: Mr Goddard pointed out that a candidate was missing from the PhD completions list.

Action: Dr Ryan to contact RSAO and update list

08.4.3 GREENWICH RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE

08.4.3.1Research and Enterprise Activity Reports

Prof Barnes presented figures for revenues and contracts from the Finance database for 2006/2007, 2007/2008 to 31/03/08 and 2007/2008 to 31/05/08. Revenues as of 31/05/08 compared to 31/03/08 indicate an overall rise in activity. CMS has doubled their income, this being due to delays in revenue appearing on the accounting system. However, CMS may not make revenues as last year which is related to a drop in contracting in the previous 2-3 years. Engineering has improved due to inclusion of figures for the Wolfson Centre and shows a marked increase due to auditing of accounts. NRI has continued to increase income on a steady trajectory.

With respect to contracts started this year, CMS has almost doubled contracting but has not achieved 2006/2007 levels. The NRI Gates Foundation grant has brought in around £6 million. Prof Barnes suggested that Science need to increase its contracting. Prof Snowden pointed out that the drop in contracting since 2006/2007 was due to issues in the pharmaceutical industry and acknowledged that there was a need for the School of Scienceto diversify its activities.

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Similar to report from the last Committee meeting the university continues to use more money than that which is being brought in, with the exception of NRI.

08.4.3.1.1Investment Programme

Prof Barnes took the opportunity to present the provisional outcomes for the first round of bidding forthe Internal Investment Allocations. He provided a general overview of the bidding and assessment process for RAE, HEIF 4, RCIF and BDMs (funded from HEIF 4), explaining that all staff had been eligible to apply to all funds (except for BDMs which were bid for at the School level). Proposals were considered by panels with strict conflict of interest rules and where possible an external representative on panels.

The criteria for funding included commitment to use investment to gain external funds, establish track record and research excellence and the potential to build research capacity. The Committee were provided with results for all calls except for the BDMs as results for these had yet to be finalised.

Overall for the RAE funds, there were 55 applications seeking a total of £2.2 million. Twenty-four applications were successful yielding a total allocation of £0.77 million.

For HEIF4, 39 applications were considered amounting to a total of £1.4 million of which 19 were funded for a total of 0.41million.

There were 25 applications for RCIF funding of which were14 funded for a total of £1.2 million.

All Schools will be notified of the outcomes from the internal Investment fund by the 27th June. It is expected that in mid-Julycontracts will be issued to all successful PIs and accounts will be opened by Finance in the last two weeks in July. Prof Barnes acknowledgedthe tremendous effort of the panel members in this process.

Prof Bailey recommended that the process for internal funding begins earlier next year as there is a need for sufficient lead time to employ postdoctoral researchers. Under the current system the average postdoctoral appointment would be for 10 months. Prof Bailey asked if it would be possible to pay the salary beyond 10 months for the full twelve months.

Action: Dr Ryan to contact Finance to seek clarification on this issue.

Prof Barnes brought the Committee’s attention to the Strategic Research Funding Round which is subject to approval by Court on the 30th June 2008 and a call is expected on the 1st or 2nd of July. The amount has yet to be confirmed, but the prime criteria are research and enterprise excellence and ability to generate external funding.

08.4.3.1.2General GRE Updates

Prof Barnes also updated the Committee on the Research Prizes initiative: for the

Business Development Prize, three proposals were received. The Early Career Research Excellence Award had 7 nominations. Decisions will be made in the next two weeks and the prizes will be presented at a function to be arranged in October 2008.

Prof Barnes circulated a THES article: “Negotiating contract for Knowledge Transfer: the position of the academic institution”, for information

Prof Barnes informed the Committee that interviews for Director of Research and Enterprise had been completed and was confident that a suitable candidate had been identified. Dr Steve Woodhead is the current interim Director.

08.4.3.2REF Update

Prof Barnes highlighted two main developments in the REF system. Firstly, the assessment of STEM and non-STEM subjects will be more closely aligned. Secondly, there will be a delayto the introduction of REF by a year to 2010 and the first pilot on bibliometric assessment will be in Spring 2009. The university decided not to take part in the pilot study as it did not meet the requirement to have an adequate electronic publications database. The university will be implementing an open repository to enhance the probability of citation.

08.4.3.3HEIF 4 Funding Allocations, Institutional Strategy

Prof Barnes presented a letter from HEFCE outlining positive feedback from the HEIF 4 Institutional Strategy. Prof Barnes acknowledged the work of the group who put the strategy together and in particular thanked Mr Neil Cormack from GRE who wrote a large part of the strategy.

08.4.3.3Research and Enterprise Funding Opportunities

Ms Banton presented the following funding calls for the Committee to note:

08.4.3.4.1National Institute for Health Research: Research For Patient Benefit

08.4.3.4.2Leverhulme Trust: International Networks for Academic Collaboration

08.4.3.4.3UK-India Education and Research Initiative

08.4.3.5Proposal to Undertake a Mass Upload of Academic Staff Details on to researchresearch.com

Ms Banton sought the Committee’s agreement with a proposal to create a profile for every academic on the researchresearch database. This profile will include first name, surname and email.

The Committee agreed that this mass upload should go ahead

08.4.3.6 Information on JeS Workshop

Ms Banton brought the Committee’s attention to an upcoming workshop atQueenMaryCollege aimed at researchers to create and account on JeS. Ms Banton requested that members disseminate the information to researchers in their school.

Action: All to disseminate information on JeS workshop within their Schools.

08.4.3.7Trac EU-FP7 Costing Guidance:

A paper was prepared by Finance in response to an article by Paul Drath in THES which warned that universities may have to return portions of their FP7 funding because they have used wrong costing system for calculating overheads. Finance has since confirmed that this is not the case. However, in January 2010 the overhead changes to 40%.

Mrs Curran reminded Committee members that timesheets need to be completed for Interreg projects.

08.4.3.8Expanding the KTP programme

Dr Hyder gave a presentation on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and their importance as a funding stream to the university. She explained that the University of Greenwich had been successful in attracting KTPs mainly in Science and Engineering and would like to expand the programme to Schools who had not traditionally engaged with the scheme..

Action: Dr Hyder to send email regarding KTPs to all Committee members outlining the basic facts surrounding KTPs. In addition, she will attach a copy of the presentation.

08.4.4ITEMS FROM SCHOOLS

08.4.4.1Directors of Research and Enterprise Presentations on Successes, Opportunities and Challenges in Research and Enterprise activities in each School

08.4.4.1.1Prof Bailey: CMS

Successes:

  • 2 Successful TSB proposals:
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey): LED’s for Displays. Collaboration with GE-Aviation & Ray Marine, (£80k to Greenwich)
  • CSEG (Prof K Pericleous): Titanium Processing. Collaboration with PSI Limited (Value to Greenwich £170k)
  • 1 Successful FP7 Proposal:
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey): Microwave Curing of Electronic Materials (220,000 Euros to Greenwich) currently at contract negotiation stage.
  • IeMRC (Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Centre) which CMRG (Prof C Bailey) are members has received confirmation that it will receive Tranch-2 funding from 2009 to 2013. This could be worth £10m to the Centre.
  • Consultancy:
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey): DSTL (UK) and DSG (France) and MBDA on a Feasibility study worth £25k
  • FSEG (Prof E Galea): Lloyds worth £15k
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey) Successful application to Prime Ministers Initiative to support collaboration with Japan (KyotoUniversity) Value to Greenwich: £37k

Opportunities:

  • KTP’s: Seeking funding for four new programmes, two with the Computing Group (Dr Petrides) and four with FSEG (Prof E Galea).
  • ESPRC Programme Grants
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey): POWERCORE 2020 in collaboration with Nottingham Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle. £6m outline proposal received favourable feedback from EPSRC. Requested to proceed with full proposal.
  • CMRG (Prof C Bailey): DfX Cluster for Micro-Nano Technologies in collaboration with Southampton, Oxford, Lancaster, Heriot-Watt. Outline proposal to be submitted.
  • EPSRC/AHRC: Heritage Science Programme: CMRG (Prof Bailey) will build upon Cutty Sark work by submitting proposals to this initiative.
  • EPSRC: FESG (Prof E Galea) have submitted a large proposal based on the outputs from a sandpit exercise.
  • EU: FSEG (Prof E Galea) have submitted two new proposals.
  • ESTC-2008 (Electronics System-Integration Technology Conference) and Exhibition: 1st – 4th September 2008 at the Greenwich Maritime Site. Large international attendance (400+ academics plus industry). Opportunities for CMRG (Prof C Bailey) plus University to promote what we do.

Challenges:

  • Difficult to being Visiting Professorial Staff for short term visits of 1-6 moths (lack of accommodation at reasonable prices, etc)
  • Difficult to bring high quality PhD students to Greenwich.
  • Running Conferences at Greenwich (lack of support, facilities). FSEG (Prof E Galea) lost a Human Behaviour conference to CambridgeUniversity (who have no expertise in this area) as the conference organisers/sponsors did not see a turnkey solution at Greenwich.
  • Difficult to run short courses (lack of labs at suitable times of the year)
  • Joint award of PhD’s between Greenwich and other institutions (i.e. Grenoble, Hong Kong, ImperialCollege…)

08.4.4.1.2Dr Dasgupta: Humanities

Success:

  • Interreg conference in Boulogne regarding historical legal and illegal liaison between France and Kent. As a result of conference for the project received £35,000 issemination.

Opportunities:

  • A bid has been made to the EU to continue the project which involves Kent County Council.

Challenges:

  • Difficulties in recruiting quality PhD students

08.4.4.1.3Prof Snowden: Science

Successes:

  • David Wray Analytical Consultancy Business has grown by approximately 40% in the past year. Value of business to end of April 08, £400k.
  • The School of Science continues to lead the Inter-School Collaboration Group. The membership of this group increases with each meeting.
  • £5k has been awarded to Dr. Mike McGibbon and Fakhar Khalid from the Chatham World Heritage Bid Steering Group
  • The publication of the second edition of Dr. Lauren Pecorino’s book: The Molecular Biology of Cancer: Mechanisms, Targets, and Therapeutics. (2008). Oxford University Press

Opportunities:

  • The School of Science will be holding a Spotlight on Science event in July 2008 where a number of external individuals will be invited into the School to see what it is doing in terms of Research and Enterprise.
  • Grant applications have gone forward to the BBSRC from Dr. Simon Richardson and Dr. Milan Antionijevic to TEMPUS IV.
  • Professors Snowden and Mitchell are optimistic that a proposal put forward to Pfizer should result in the funding of 3 new post-doctoral researchers.
  • The School of Science chaired an inter-School funding opportunity event in April. The objective was to identify multi-disciplinary projects for which funding could be sought
  • Overall the School is making positive strides to encourage grant applications and income generation. This is reflected in e.g. the recent “Master class” on grant writing which was held in the School led by Professors Chowdhry and Leharne (March 2008)

Challenges:

  • The School of Science has approximately 10 early career researchers. The School is looking to help support the development of the research interests. Three PhD studentships have been made available to this group in conjunction with GRE. Further work will be required to help these emerging researchers fulfil their potential.

08.4.4.1.4Prof E West: Health and Social Care

Successes:

  • SWOP day (Building Research Capacity in Social Work) funded by Higher Education Academy held on Friday 20th June. A good 30 people from the SE attended and 2 distinguished speakers made the day a great success.
  • South East Coastal Communities. One project (nearly) funded, and discussions on several more have been initiated e.g. a meeting with Councillor from Swale was held to discuss an alcohol and drug addiction prevention programme.

Published papers

  • Stewart, J. and Habgood, V. (2008) The Benefits of a Health Impact Assessment in relation to Fuel Poverty: assessing Luton’s Affordable Warmth Strategy and the need for a national strategy, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 128 (03), pp. 124-130.
  • Wright K (2008) 'Why do we teach the nursing drug calculation formula to calculate drug dosages?' Nursing Standard 22(36):40 – 42
  • Wright K (2008) Alternative Methods to the Nursing Formula; Calculating Drug dosages in clinical practice Nursing Standard 23(37):42-44
  • Wright K (2008) Numeracy skills for Nurses: revision and review Nursing and Residential Care 10(2):85 - 89
  • Bowden, J (2008) "Why do student nurses who consider leaving stay on their courses" Nurse Researcher 15 (3) 45-58.

Forthcoming Conference Presentations:

  • Stewart, J. (in preparation July 2008) Evidence Based Healthy Housing Interventions, Decent and Safe Homes (DASH) in the East Midlands 14th Local Authority Conference: Health and Regulation, Nottingham 1-2 July 2008.
  • Wright K. September 3rd 2008 The Assessment and Development of Drug Calculation Skills in Nurse Education – A Critical Debate. Nurse Education Today Conference Cambridge
  • Wright K. June 6th 2008 Is focussing on numeracy alone the right direction for nursing practise? Innovations in Numeracy Support for health care conferenceUniversity of Glamorgan
  • June 4th 2008 So what if students are poor at numeracy? Shift HappensUniversity of Greenwich
  • Jill Stewart involved in ongoing negotiations (next meeting 11th June) to develop an online housing evidence base, acting in a consultancy & editorial capacity. This should contain direct link to Greenwich (SHSC research) website.

Opportunities:

  • Expression of interest sent to SDO for project on social networks in clinical directorates.

Challenges:

  • High level of exhaustion among staff means that research capacity building is an up hill struggle at the moment, but we expect this to pass.
  • Few high quality applications for the PhD programme.

08.4.4.1.5 Dr Woodhead: Engineering

Successes:

  • Award of one EPSRC CASE studentship - value circa £60k.

Opportunities:

  • Two KTP bids now submitted to first stage of assessment, total value circa
  • £200k;
  • EPSRC bid to be finalised and submitted in August, value circa £120k;
  • Bid to Centre for Sustainable Engineering close to submission, value circa

£125k.

Challenges:

  • Lack of availability of Finance briefing on accrual accounting system;
  • Possible downturn in business environment.

08.4.4.1.6Prof White: Business

Successes:

  • Small grant won (£9,500) by Julia Munday from the CIMA to conduct research on inter-organisational relationships in relation to management accounting

Opportunities:

  • Bid to Leverhulme Trust on microfinance institutions to the value of £197,190 has been submitted and await the result.
  • Dr Robert Mayor has met with Gay Harrington (Easy London Business Place) to discuss the potential for the BusinessSchool jointly developing courses with them for SMEs wishing to gain contracts from the 2012 Olympics.
  • Dr Mayor has also met with Caroline Lumb from the Institute of Business Consulting to discuss joint development of of short on-line training packages for business advisers, small consultancy practices and corporate consultancies.
  • Contact has been established with Ray Gerlach (Chief Officer Greenwich Unit for the 2012 Games at London Borough of Greenwich). The BusinessSchool has alerted Ray Gerlach to the potential research resource within the BusinessSchool for the council and are meeting with him to display our portfolio of research areas.

Challenges:

  • The BusinessSchoolare still keen to establish some KTPs and are actively seeking partners.
  • Some Business School staff still appear unclear of the university procedures for external bidding for funding, including the requirement for all bids to be fully economic costed.It is planned to both alert all staff to the university procedures again (via email) and to organise a workshop to explain the process and the forms to be completed.

08.4.4.1.7Dr J Jameson: Education and Training