R&Ec-15-4-1 Items from the Chair
Minutes for the fourth meeting of the Research & Enterprise Committee for the 2015/16 Academic Session, held on Wednesday,13thApril 2016, 2.00pm inS309/10, Avery Hill Campus
PRESENT:
Prof JBonetProf A Westby
Prof A Reed
Dr M Davies / Chair, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (R&E)
Vice Chair, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (R&E)
Director of Postgraduate Research
Director of Research & Enterprise (GRE)
Prof NSpiller
Prof C Bailey
Prof B Cronin / PVC (ACH) Nominee
PVC (ACH) Nominee
PVC (BUS) Nominee
Prof P Maras
Prof A Lambirth / PVC (E&H) Nominee & uREC Chair
PVC (E&H) Nominee
Prof D Wray
MsTBanton
Mr J Wallace / PVC (E&S) Nominee
Head of Research Services (Acting Secretary)
Director of Governance & Compliance (invited)
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:
Prof BBennettMrs W Curran
Mr P Angelo / PVC (E&S) Nominee
Finance Manager
Secretary
R&EC-15-4-1 ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR
R&EC-15-4-1.1 / University of Greenwich Research & Enterprise Strategy 2016-2021The Chair provided the Committee with an update as to the latest position with regards to the new Research & Enterprise Strategy 2016-2021. Since the last meeting the four workgroups that were established had all met twice to address the objectives, targets and actions. In addition, there were a couple of follow-up meetings to finalise some of the content, and as a result, the strategy document has been developed further and is now in the form presented. The Chair pointed out that this is still a draft,but that it had been presentedat University Executive as well as VCG. It is scheduled to go to Academic Council later this month before final sign off at Court in early May if there are no delays.Three more roadshows have been scheduled in the next couple of weeks to present the strategy as it stands to academic/support staff to encourage any final feedback or minor corrections.
The Committee discussed this latest version of the strategy at length and offered some minor corrections which the Chair will address. The Committee agreed that once the final version of the strategy has received final approval that a detailed set of actions should be compiled with appropriate timescales to ensure the successful delivery of the plan. Progress would then be regularly reviewed at future Committee meetings.
The Chair also took the opportunity to briefly talk about the PGR loan support scheme that has been introduced to attract additional home PGR students starting in 2016/17.The aim is for them to complete their PhD by August 2020 in time for the next REF submission and this has been agreed by both VCG and the Director of Finance. Numbers will be limited so this will be a competitive process with maybe 2 or 3 students per Faculty. They must enrol as an MPhil student and satisfy all the eligibility criteria. The Chair requested the Director of Postgraduate Research to distribute this information as soon as possible via the PGRO.
ACTION: DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH
R&EC-15-4-2 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
R&EC-15-4-2.1 / Minutes of the thirdmeeting of the Research Enterprise Committee for the 2015/16 academic sessionheld onWednesday,10thFebruary 2016Theminutes of the Research Enterprise Committee held on Wednesday, 10thFebruary 2016 were agreed by the Committee to be a true and accurate record of the meeting.
R&EC-15-4-3 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
R&EC-15-4-3.1 / Please refer to the action sheet attached.All the actions other than those mentioned below are now complete or are to be discussed in more detail at this meeting.
Action points still in progress from previous meeting:
R&EC 14-4.4 The Director of Postgraduate Research has drafted a paper with some proposals relating to the matter of sanctions for PGRs in proven cases of research misconduct. This has been done in consultation with the Director of Governance & Compliance and will now be circulated to Faculty Directors of Research & Enterprise for their feedback. Progress on this will be reported on later in this meeting so that some final recommendations can be agreed.
R&EC 15-2-7.4The item relating to moving towards a Doctoral ‘entity’ remains ‘in progress’but has now been incorporated under the ‘Research Training’ strand of the new Research & Enterprise Strategy as discussed in detail earlier.
R&EC 15-3-4.1 The action on Faculty Directors of Research & Enterprise to establish the Faculty REF working groups by 1st May 2016 is still outstanding as we are yet to reach that date but good progress has been made.
R&EC 15-3-7.6 The Director of Postgraduate Research is still to draft some regulations to reflect the proposed changes to the PGR timescales for completion but this will be mentioned later in the meeting.
R&EC-15-4-4RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK 2020 PREPARATIONS
R&EC-15-4-4.1 / Update on the GREAT RoadshowsThe Chairthanked everybody for all their input into the roadshows that have now taken place. These were well attended across all four Faculties and feedback has been very positive. The next stage is to invite academics to submittheir best two outputs (GREAT1/GREAT2) via GALA, together with an outline of no more than 100 words highlighting the significance of the papers by 1st May 2016.The Chair encouraged the Faculty Directors of Research & Enterprise to remind staff of this 1st May 2016 deadline. Any potential impact case studies also need to have their abstracts written and submitted via the form on the portal by this same deadline.
ACTION: CHAIR/FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-4-5 GREENWICH RESEARCH ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-4-5.1 / Research Enterprise Financial Summary ReportTheCommittee noted the financial summary report by Faculty from 1stAugust 2015 to 29thFebruary 2016.
TheDirector of Research & Enterprisereported on the main headline that revenues continue to grow and are in line with targets for 2015/16.There were no other significant developments or concerns from the previous meeting and the Committee duly noted the report.
R&EC-15-4-5.2 / Research EnterpriseBiddingSummary Report
The Committee noted the bidding activity summary report by Faculty from 1stAugust 2015 to 29thFebruary 2016.
These again were just for noting by the Committee and there are no real issues with the bidding totals. The University has had some recent successes that were reported on and results are generally positive.
R&EC-15-4-5.3 / Implementation of Research Data Management at the University of Greenwich
The Director of Research & Enterprise presented to the Committee slides outlining expectations required for adhering to the EPSRC framework on Research Data Management and its accessibility. Members were reminded that the University Research Data Management Policy was approved by Academic Council last year. Much progress has been made to date, but there are still a number of areas where the University has some work to do, such as implementing resources like staff and an IT system to manage the research data profile of the University.
After some general discussion, the Head of Research Services informed members of the current state of compliance with the EPSRC expectations with a caveat that it was likely Research Councils would mirror this approach. Currently open access to Research Data Management is a requirement of the grant terms for a number of charitable research funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The University was found to be less than 40% compliant with the nine expectations. Members agreed that the University should implement the required systems, services and processes to ensure compliance with the EPSRC framework on Research Data Management and open access expectations immediately.
ACTION: HEAD OF RESEARCH SERVICES
R&EC-15-4-6ITEMS FROM FACULTY RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE COMMITTEES
No items were brought to the attention of the Committee.
R&EC-15-4-7 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH MATTERS
R&EC-15-4-7.1 / PGR Completions – Recommendations for Academic CouncilThe Committee noted the list of postgraduate research degree awards recommended by examiners and considered at recent meetings of Faculty Research Degrees Committees.
The Committee confirmed these recommendations and the Secretary will pass this information on to Academic Council for ratification.
ACTION: SECRETARY
R&EC-15-4-7.2 / PGR Completions for 2015/16 to date
The Director of Postgraduate Research presented the most recent data showing the total PGR completions by Faculty so far for academic year 2015/16. The Committee agreed earlier in the year that a pan-university figure of 65 completions was a realistic minimum expectation for the current session, and noted that good progress was being made towards this expectation with a total of just under 50to date. There are still a number of awards pending corrections in the systemso the figures for this academic year are promising.For future Committee meetings the way this data is presented will be amended slightly with a focus on targets building up to the next REF submission rather than comparisons with the last 5 years.
R&EC-15-4-7.3 / Summary of PGR related business by FRDCs for 2015/16 to date
The Director of Postgraduate Research presented a table providing a summary of FRDC activity in terms of submissions of various RDA forms to date in 2015/16 across all four Faculties.The main area for concern relates to the number of registrations for this academic year which is considerably down on last year. Numbers are not only down on 2015/16, but of those new registrations, there appears to be a heavy reliance on the VC PhD Scholarship programme. This is a concern as there are no guarantees in the future about University supported programmes and it is clear that different approaches are required to sustain and grow PGR endeavour.
R&EC-15-4-7.4 / Postgraduate Research Experience Survey
R&EC-15-4-7.4.1 / HEA PRES 2015 – Faculty Outcomes
The Director of Postgraduate Research mentioned that following thepan-university report on the outcomes of PRES 2015 discussed at the last Committee meeting, Faculties had now been provided with a further breakdown of their own data. As a result, the Director of Postgraduate Research suggested that Faculty action plans be developed and presented at the next meeting scheduled in May.
ACTION: FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-4-7.4.2 / Creation of UoG mini-PRES in alternate years
The Director of Postgraduate Research spoke about the fact that since PRES is now referred to in the new Research & Enterprise Strategy, it may be a good idea to hold a mini-PRES in alternate years between the main HEA exercises to give the University a measure if they are moving in the right direction. This was a suggestion of one of the working groups (Aim 3) and was open for discussion but would involve creating an internal mechanism with PAS. The Chair asked the Director of Postgraduate Research to pursue this idea with PAS to see what was possible, but results would need to be made available quickly for this to be of any benefit.
ACTION: DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH
R&EC-15-4-7.5 / Review of Academic Regulations
R&EC-15-4-7.5.1 / Regulations Governing Suspected Research Misconduct
The Director of Postgraduate Research provided the Committee with a comprehensive set of regulations for students that hadbeen written with significantinput from the Director of Governance & Compliance who had been invited to attend this meeting. These were discussed at length by the Committee and the Chair asked members to send any comments/potential amendmentsto the Director of Postgraduate Research before the next meeting as ultimately these regulations will need to go to Academic Council for final approval.
ACTION: DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH/FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-4-7.6 / Postgraduate Research Teaching Assistant Handbook
The Director of Postgraduate Research has drafted a Postgraduate Research Teaching Assistant Handbook as a guide for PGR students when engaging in supporting the teaching function for UG/PG taught students. This was discussed by the Committee and the Director of Postgraduate Research requested any comments/feedback from members as soon as possible so that any amendments could be made to the handbook before it is made available online later in the year.
ACTION: DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH/FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-4-8ITEMS FOR INFORMATION
The Director of Research & Enterprise informed the Committee that some temporary support will be made available to Research Services in the coming months to assist with the costing and pricing of bids as a number of the BDMs are currently away for various reasons. This support will hopefully be in place by the start of next month and keep any potential disruption to a minimum.
R&EC-15-4-9 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
No other business was discussed and the meeting was duly closed.
R&EC-15-4-10 DATES & TIMES OF 2015/16 MEETINGS
MeetingMay 25th 2016, Medway Campus, Room B028, 2.00pm
July 6th 2016, Greenwich Campus, Room QA075, 2.00pm