Minutes for the second meeting of the Research & Enterprise Committee for the 2015/16 Academic Session, held on Wednesday,9thDecember 2015, 2.00pm inQA075, Greenwich Campus

PRESENT:

Prof JBonet
Prof 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 / PVC (E&H) Nominee & uREC Chair
Prof D Wray
Prof BBennett / PVC (E&S) Nominee
PVC (E&S) Nominee
Ms T Banton
Mrs WCurran
Ms K Southgate / Head of Research Services (GRE) – Acting Secretary
Finance Manager
PGRO Senior Student Finance Manager (invited)

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:

Prof A Lambirth
Prof C Birch / PVC (E&H) Nominee
PVC (BUS) Nominee
Mr P Angelo / Secretary (GRE)

R&EC-15-2-1 ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR

The Committee welcomed the new Chair who thanked the previous interim Chair and members for all their efforts during this transitional period. The format of the meetings will remain the same but a few standing items will be added to the agenda for discussion at each Committee.

R&EC-15-2-1.1 / Nurse Review/Comprehensive Spending Review/Green Paper
The Chair presented a paper summarising the recent Nurse Review report commissioned by cabinet ministers following the publication of the Government’s Science & Innovation Strategy. It proposes the formation of a new body ‘Research UK’ (R-UK) that will house the current 7 Research Councils (and potentially Innovate UK) and willact as a public body with budgetary control and accountability for science and research expenditure. The paper was for general discussion and comment and the proposal is currently at a consultation stage which is open until 15th January 2016. The University is expected to provide some input and as such have been tasked with answering some questions set out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Chair asked members of the Committee to consider these questions and send himany brief comments so that a University response can be formulated. The deadline is tight so the Chair asked if any feedback could be provided before the Christmas break or by early in the new year at the latest.
ACTION: CHAIR/DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH/FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-2-1.2 / University Alliance Doctoral Training Centre
The Chair stated that he had recently attended a meeting with the Alliance institutions where a proposal for a new ‘Alliance Doctoral Training Centre’ was agreed in principle relating to the field of Energy. One already exists for Biosciences where the University provides a number of funded places but the hope is that this will be in place by Easter with students potentially being able to enrol for the start of academic year 2016/17.
R&EC-15-2-1.3 / Regius Professorships
The Chair provided an update with regards to the recent Regius Professorships that the University were invited to apply for. There are currently two draft proposals being prepared (one in the area of Fire Engineering and the other in NRI) but the Chair will seek clarification on whether the University is permitted to submit more than one application and report back on this at the next Committee meeting.

R&EC-15-2-2 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

R&EC-15-2-2.1 / Minutes of the firstmeeting of the Research Enterprise Committee for the 2015/16 academic sessionheld onWednesday,14thOctober 2015
Theminutes of the Research Enterprise Committee held on Wednesday, 14thOctober 2015 were agreed by the Committee to be a true and accurate record of the meeting.

R&EC-15-2-3 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

R&EC-15-2-3.1 / 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 A small working group including representation from Student Affairs is to be established to address the matter of sanctions for PGRs in proven cases of research misconduct. The Director of Postgraduate Research will report on this at a future Committee so that a recommendation can be agreed.
R&EC 15-1-4.4There have been some different responses amongst Faculties with regards to the appointment of Chairs at transfer from MPhil to PhD assessments. Some are in favour while others are not. The Chair would like some more time to familiarise himself with the academic regulations before any decisions are taken. This is to be discussed again at the next Committee meeting.

R&EC-15-2-4RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK 2020 PREPARATIONS

R&EC-15-2-4.1 / Strategy, Principles and Overview
The Chair explained that this will be a new standing item on all Committee meetings and will deal with the monitoring of progress towards the next REF exercise currently scheduled for 2020. A paper has been drafted outlining some of the background/guiding principles/governance of the process as it is clear that the University needs to develop a methodology and preparation timetable in order to achieve the best possible outcomes and improve on the results from 2014.
The next stage is to discussthe draft paperand to start thinking about timescales when certain objectives can be met. The process from start to finish will be inclusive and will involve a lot of people but one of the first tasks is to formulate the REF Strategy Working Group as the senior body with strategic responsibility on behalf of the University.
The Chair pointed out that this will be a continuous process and expects to run at least one cycle of REF preparation every year (which will be called GREAT cycles) with the first of these starting on 1st January 2016. These GREAT cycles will have three strands which will cover outputs/environment/impact case studies. The current plan is that by 1st May 2016 research active staff will be able to submit what they consider to be their best two outputs via GALA to help to start inform strategy.
The methodology/timescales will be similar for impact case studies but details will be forthcoming in due course. In terms of environment, at this stage the Chair would prefer that discussions are held in identifying research groups rather than which potential UoA’s should be submitted.A healthy discussion followed as to what is being proposed and this will be elaborated on at the next Committee meeting.

R&EC-15-2-5 GREENWICH RESEARCH ENTERPRISE

R&EC-15-2-5.1 / Research Enterprise Financial Summary Report
TheCommittee noted the financial summary report by Faculty from 1stAugust 2015 to 31stOctober 2015.
The Finance Managerreported on the main headlines which were that revenues are currently at £3.6m for the year which is slightly down on 2014/15 but that contracting totals were only at £2.9m which is a significant drop from the figures at the same stage last year. This pattern was worrying and the Chair invited comments from the Committee as to why this might be the case. This has been particularly noticeable with EU/H2020 projects which are becoming more competitive but the hope is that some of the Faculty plans to help increase contracting totals that were discussed at the last Committee meeting will beeffective in due course.
R&EC-15-2-5.2 / Research EnterpriseBiddingSummary Report
The Committee noted the bidding activity summary report by Faculty from 1stAugust 2015 to 31stOctober 2015.
The Head of Research Services reported that bidding was up to just over £10m at this stage of the year compared to £5m for last year. The total number of bids are about the same but the emphasis so far in 2015/16 appears to be on larger bids which would appear to be a strategic decision and is encouraging.
R&EC-15-2-5.3 / Distribution model for RCIP Income
The Chair decided to take this agenda item together with the next one and stated that there was a small but significant amount of unspent RCIP and HEIF money that has now been made available. The Chair proposed that these monies are allocated proportionally to the Faculties at the original sources of this funding. These are calculated using a formula and will be fed into Faculty accounts but the Chair stressed that these funds must be spent by 31stJuly 2016.
R&EC-15-2-5.4 / Distribution model for RAE/HEIF Income
Please see above.

R&EC-15-2-6ITEMS FROM FACULTY RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE COMMITTEES

The Chair stated that this will be a new standing item for this Committee and will provide Faculties with the opportunity to raise any issues from their own Research & Enterprise Committee meetings that they would like discussed. Any such items should be sent to the Secretary well in advance so that they can be added to the agenda under this section. As this process is new there is nothing to discuss now but this will serve as a marker for the next meeting.

R&EC-15-2-7 POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH MATTERS

R&EC-15-2-7.1 / PGR Completions – Recommendations for Academic Council
The 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-15-2-7.2 / PGR Completions for 2015/16 to date
The Director of Postgraduate Research tabled a document showing the total PGR completions by Faculty so far for academic year 2015/16. The Committee agreed at the previous meeting 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 27 to date.
R&EC-15-2-7.3 / Summary of PGR related business by FRDCs for 2015/16
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. It was noted that FES had performed particularly well with new registrations (RDA1) and that they also led the way with award recommendations and completions (RDA 7/8/9/10). There had been 10 withdrawals so far in 2015/16, which was about in-line with previous years, but disappointing given the approaches to lessen such withdrawals discussed at previous meetings. Overall, the figures set out in the table are encouraging, but it is clear that performance is not consistent across the Faculties.
The final point made related to external representation at the various FRDC meetings, as this is now being closely monitored, which currently stands at only 57%. Faculty Directors of Research &Enterprise were reminded of the importance of external representation at FRDCs and were requested to take steps to improve attendance rates.
ACTION: FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-2-7.4 / Moving towards a Doctoral ‘entity’
TheDirector of Postgraduate Research presented a paper informing the Committee of progress in working towards the requirement set by Academic Council to develop a model for a pan-university Doctoral School/College and what form such an entity might take to create a vehicle for addressing various issues surrounding the University’s postgraduate research endeavour. The Chair thanked the Director of Postgraduate Research for all of his work on this front and invited comments from the Committee on the best way to take this initiative forward. After some general discussion the Chair stated that he would like some more time to reflect on this matter, with a view to possibly incorporating it under the ‘Research Training’ strand of the new Research Strategy that will be developed early in the new year. This matter would be discussed at a future Committee meeting before being presented to Academic Council. The Chair asked for any comments/recommendations to be sent to him outside of this meeting to assist with this initiative.
ACTION: CHAIR/DIRECTOR OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH/FACULTY DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE
R&EC-15-2-7.5 / Santander University Partnerships Initiative Update
The Director of Postgraduate Research provided the Committee with an update regarding the Santander University Partnerships Initiative. Santander have made some £70k available to the University this year through this initiative, which has a focus on facilitating international mobility and networking for students, with the Vice-Chancellor allocating £35k of the total amount to PGRs for these purposes. To date,only £700 of this money had been used, and the Director of Postgraduate Research wanted to highlight this as students need to be made more aware of the scheme. Faculty Directors of Research & Enterprise were encouraged to direct any interested students to the ‘Santander’ element of the PGRO web pages.

R&EC-15-2-8ITEMS FOR INFORMATION

ThePVC (E&H) Nominee & uREC Chair briefly mentioned that invitations for the ECR (Early Career Researcher) Awardshave recently been sent out and would like to remind everybody of this. There are three awards (two are for Excellence and one is for Impact) but nominations are welcome from PVCs/Faculty Directors of Research & Enterprise.

R&EC-15-2-9 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

The Committee asked the Chair what the latest position was with regards to the VC PhD scholarship programme for 2015/16. It was still unclear as to how many each Faculty will get and when they will be starting. The Chair will raise this at VCO/VCG and report back at the next Committee.

No other business was discussed and the meeting was duly closed.

R&EC-15-2-10 DATES & TIMES OF 2015/16 MEETINGS

Meeting
February 10th 2016, Medway Campus, Room B028, 2.00pm
April 13th 2016, Avery Hill Campus, Room S309/310, 2.00pm
May 25th 2016, Medway Campus, Room B028, 2.00pm
July 6th 2016, Greenwich Campus, Room QA075, 2.00pm