RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISECOMMITTEE

Minutes for the second meeting of the Research and EnterpriseCommittee in the 2009/10 academic session, to be held on Wednesday 16thDecember 2009, 2.15pm, QA075, Greenwich Campus.

PRESENT:

Prof T Barnes (Chair)

Dr A Benati (Humanities & Social Sciences)

Ms W Curran (Finance)

Dr M Davies (Research & Enterprise)

Mrs N Edwards (Information & Library Services)

Prof E Galea (Computing & Mathematical Sciences)

Prof Sue Golding (Research Ethics)

Prof D Isaac (Architecture & Construction)

Dr J Jameson (Education & Training)

Prof S Palmer (Greenwich Maritime Institute)

Prof A Reed (Vice-Chair)

Dr S Richardson (Science)

Mr J Wallace (Administrative Secretary)

Prof E West (Health & Social Care)

Prof A Westby (Natural Resources Institute)

Prof G White (Business)

Dr S Woodhead (Engineering)

Dr D Wray (Science)

Ms C Nyandoro-Kunzvi (Secretary)

APOLOGIES

Ms T Banton (Research & Enterprise)

Prof C Bailey (Computing & Mathematical Sciences)

Mr D Beazleigh (Finance)

Prof A Mathie (Pharmacy)

Dr J Morton (Natural Resources Institute)

ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR

  1. MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISECOMMITTEE HELD IN 2009 ON THE 7th OCTOBER.

The Minutes of the Research and Enterprise Committee held on the 7th October 2009 were agreed as an accurate record of the last meeting.

2. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

3.2 Research & Enterprise Activity Report

Prof Barnes informed Committee that the integrated report relating financial activity report and the bidding activity was an on-going project to be presented to Committee by the end of the academic financial year.

3.3 EPSRCUniversity of Greenwich Submission Report

The Committee agreed with Prof Barnes suggestion that a process of to provide feedback on external grant proposals be introduced atthe University. This system would be via an anonymous mentoring system and would be beneficial to the University in increasing the potential of successful bids.

3.4 Attracting & Retaining PhD Students

Prof Reed would give a detailed report on the proposed webpage content and format under agenda item 5.2.

3.7 Update on the Institutional Repository

Prof Barnes would present a brief report on the publications data gathering exercise over the last three years under agenda item 3.4.

5.3 Addressing Financial Difficulties Experienced by Postgraduate Research Students in receipt of University funded bursaries: Long Term Sickness and Maternity Leave

Prof Barnes informed the Committee that from the several institutions that had been canvassed over the last few months. He had found no formal processes in place specifically toaddress financial difficulties faced by Postgraduate students whose studies were delayed and who were in receipt of University funded bursaries. Mr Wallace would report at the next Committee meeting on the issue of funding students on long term sickness/maternity leave from an insurance point of view. The Committee would also decide on the proposal of the University top slicing some of the RAE money as a ‘hardship fund’ to address this important issue at the next Committee meeting.

Action: Mr Wallace to look into the issue of funding students on long term sickness/maternity leave from an insurance point of view.

Action: Committee would decide on the proposal of the University top slicing some of the RAE money as a ‘hardship fund’ to address this important issue at the next Committee meeting.

  1. GREENWICH RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE

3.1 Research and Enterprise Activity Reports

Prof Barnes presented to members the status of Research and Enterprise financial activity to the end of November 2009. Prof Barnes noted that the report at present did not include forecasting of revenues based on actuals as the dataset available so far for the year was not sufficient to enable reliable straight-line extrapolation. Finance were working on a forecast based on contracting to-date. Prof Barnes reported that external revenues were rising and were currently 21% ahead compared to the same reporting period last year.

Prof Barnes reported that although contracting had been down in October, it had increased in the month of November by £2.7M and now stands at £5.47M with the increase attributed to NRI who had been awarded a £2m DFID contract.

Prof Barnes noted that in comparison to November 2008 contracts were up overall by 55% at £1.9M including NRI figures. Excluding NRI, contracting was down by -7% at £51K less than November 2008. Prof Barnes informed Committee that although revenues and contracting were on the rise, the University needed to increase bidding activity in order to maintain contracting. Prof Barnes also reported that GUEL had done particularly well last year with revenues of £1.47m due to an increase in consultancy activity and software sales.

Prof Barnes informed Committee members that Research Councils had sent out a call for nominations for PeerReviewColleges and that Senior Managers were invited to nominate persons to put forward to the Research Councils. Prof Barnes noted that the benefit of having a University member sitting on the Peer Review panel would provide expert quality reviews of funding proposals within their areas of expertise and also keep the University informed of ‘what was going on’ in the research field.

Action: Senior Managers were invited to nominate persons to put forward to the Research Councils to sit on Peer Review Panels

3.2 Research and Enterprise Activity Report

Ms Nyandoro-Kunzvi presented the Research & Enterprise bidding activity report for the current academic session to end November 2009. Data collected from 2009 to November 2009 showed £9.8M worth of bids submitted including NRI(£5.9M bids submitted excluding NRI). 31% of the research applications bids submitted were to European Union funders (the University being a collaborative partner), 28% to the Research Councils, and 20% to the UK Central Government (which includes proposals to the Technology Strategy Board and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships).

A comparison table showing the total number of bids submitted between September and December 2008 last year versus the same period this year showed that although the number of bids submitted was roughly the same, the value of bids submitted in 2009, has not only increased but has also doubled. A table showing the total number of bids submitted for the whole of last year in comparison to the data collected from August to November 2009 showed that over the total value of the bids submitted from August to November 2009 was already half the total bid value submitted for the academic year 2008/09.

3.3 Research and Enterprise Funding Opportunities

Ms Nyandoro-Kunzvi presented the following funding calls for the Committee to note:

3.3.1ERC: Advanced Investigator Grants/Advanced Grants

3.3.2Various: Environmental Exposure & Health

3.3.3NIHR: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and the Public Health Research (PHR)

3.4 Update on the Institutional Repository

Prof Barnes brought to the attention of the Committee the update on the publications exercise over the last three years at the University. Prof Barnes stated that the project had so far captured 70% of publications data across the Schools. Journal articles predominate followed by conference papers and then books and book chapters. The aim is to reach 100% capture for all publications for 2007 to 2009 and then ongoing. A vote on the naming of the repository had taken place in October and the repository is now officially named as Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA). A full report on the progress of the institutional repository will be provided by Ms Banton at the next Committee meeting.

Prof Golding enquired on the issue of copyright issues regarding the publications data with regards to i-tunes. Prof Barnes suggested that it would be a good idea to look at what other institutions do with regards to copyright issues. Prof West asked if there was a connection between the repository and Google. Mrs Edwards responded that the data in the repository can be ‘googled’. Prof Golding suggested that a good way for academics across the University to get their research known was to register on to the Academia.edusite which has a daily hit rate of 10-20 and this site had the benefits of allowing academics to find more people in their respective disciplines, make contacts and the website also has a nice feature that sends updates on Google searches on the academics name and research.

Prof Barnes informed the Committee that the data collection system implemented and used by the School of CMS was exemplary and could be adopted by all Schools and invited Prof Galea to talk about the system. Prof Galea explained to the Committee that CMS have two formal cycles of publication data collection per year, following a strict, transparent policy for the deposit and classification of outputs. The type of research outputs collected within the school are refereed journal articles, refereed conference proceedings and publications in professional journals. Publications are classified as: published, accepted, or submitted

The system also includes conference proceedings (not refereed) and presentations at conferences (not published). Prof Galea noted that the system recorded a clear distinction between professional journals and academic journals; accepted and published outputs and refereed papers and non-refereed papers. For papers published or accepted a hard copy is requested and only where this is provided is the information included in the Access database maintained by Francoise Barkshire. Prof Galea informed Committee that CMS would be moving the data from the Access database to a new system which would publish papers on the CMS website. Prof Galea also offered access to the in-house database to other schools who would be interested in using the database.

Action: Schools to contact Prof Galea should they be interested in using the CMS in-house publications database.

Action: Members to encourage academics to register on Academia.edu to get their research known.

Action: Prof Barnes/Mrs Edwards to look into the issue of copyright issues regarding publications data.

3.5 REF Consultation

Prof Barnes reported that the REF Steering Group that had been setup at the last meeting had met twice and consulted by email. The draft institutional response had been circulated to Committee members for comments and all feedback received was included in the final response which was submitted on Monday 14th December to HEFCE. Prof Barnes thanked the Steering Group for their help in putting the proposal together and also thanked the Committee members for their feedback. The final institutional response had been circulated to all members and other REF submissions such as the MURG and AURIL response had also been circulated to members.

Prof Barnes informed the Committee that he had received a copy of the Million+ response prior to the meeting and would circulate to all members at the end of the meeting. Prof Galea asked if Prof Barnes was aware of any comments that stood out from other institutions response in comparison with the Universities. Prof Barnes and Dr Woodhead explained that there was no significant difference with the exception that the older more established universities were concerned about shifting 10% from ‘impact’ to ‘environment’ and that the newer universities did not seem bothered about this.

Action: Prof Barnes to circulate Million+ response to Committee members.

3.6 Impact and What it means to the University of Greenwich

Dr Davies bought to the Committee’s attention the issue of ‘impact’ and its significance to Research Excellence Framework (REF). Dr Davies informed Committee that impact would remain significant for some time, and as research councils were including an impact statement in all applications for funding, there was a need for the University to embrace this new model and start to gather evidence of impact and also look at acquiring an additional skill set in order to support academics.

Dr Davies noted that as funding was becoming tighter, there was a need for the institution to help researchers to secure more funding and brought to the attention of the Committee some suggestions highlighted in the report in order to assist colleagues to maximise the benefits from the ‘impact agenda’ for their research and enterprise activities. Some of the suggested activities that were welcomed by the panel were thatregular workshops be held on ‘what makes a good impact plan and statement’, with invited speakers and that informal discussion panels with research groups be set up and chaired by an external facilitator with experience of project evaluation, as well as setting up an inaugural University annual Research and Enterprise conference in 2010, with ‘impact’ as a main theme and launching the University of Greenwich ‘Impact and Public Engagement’ awards.

The Committee felt that Dr Davies suggestion on introducing a short impact statement section into the ‘Form 1’, would deter the academics from filling out the Forms 1 and Prof Barnes and Dr Davies offered to look at these options again to bring back to the panel at the next meeting. Other suggestions made by the members were that the University contract and pay someone to do impact (peer review), and agreed with Dr Davies suggestion that regular impact meetings/forums be held at School meetings was good and that the University start to prepare case studies to demonstrate the measure of impact from our research.

Action: Prof Barnes and Dr Davies to look at the list of suggested activities in Dr Davies impact report and present to the panel at the next meeting.

3.7 Research Website Developments

Dr Davies presented to the Committee the new GRE research website which was redesigned to appeal to external businesses and act as a shop window to non-experts. Dr Davies noted that the new website would go live in the New Year. Dr Davies explained that the new site would have a welcome page, and a section on the business services offered at the University in terms of knowledge transfer, research and consultancy as well ascompelling and dynamic case studies to celebrate our successes. The site would also provide links to relevant UniversityResearch Groups pages.

Dr Davies also noted that some research group pages across the University had very good webpages and layout whilst some needed improvement and suggested that the GRE layout be used as a template. Prof Galea appreciated the new site and suggested that more research related pictures be incorporated on the site. Dr Jameson noted that the website was admirable and had been developed well. Prof Barnes thanked Dr Davies and his team for a job well done in getting the website up and running.

  1. ITEMS FROM SCHOOLS

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

Name: David Wray

School: Science

SUCCESSES

  • Prof Pat Harvey: ACP Project: Capacity building in South Africa, Namibia and Ghana to create sustainable, non food bio-oil supply chains. Managed via SoS. Total revenue €857k, to UoG €251k
  • Dr Milan Antoijevic: TEMPUS IV; Postgraduate qualification in pharmacy: the way forward. With the School of Pharmacy, Belgrade. €20,125 to UoG (total project €675.473).
  • Dr John Spencer: collaboration with Nanoporetech, £98k to support a 1-year postdoc
  • Prof Pat Harvey: SEEDA / ERDF: Zerowise sustainable food waste solutions. Project managed by Remade SE (total value £800k), value to UoG £72k over 2 years.

OPPORTUNITIES

  • Dr John Spencer: Selcia; talks held with a view to providing contract synthesis. Estimated 10-25K may be generated subject to contract.
  • Prof Pat Harvey: two EOIs for algae based research submitted to The Integrated Biorefinery Technology Institute / BBSRC, total value to UoG £400k.
  • Dr Bruce Alexander & others: FP7 Space 2010-1 Long Lasting Light 30 month project to improve laser performance for space applications. Led by CILAS (France) Value to UoG £235k (total project >£1M).
  • Dr Dennis Douroumis: Interreg IVa Development of a multifunctional drug eluting stent. Value to UoG €139k.
  • Dr Joshua Boateng: EPSRC: Bioactive Wound Healing Drug Delivery Systems £125k.
  • DrColinHills: Canadian Government: stabilisation / solidification of coal tar contaminated soils. $130k (Canadian)

CHALLENGES

  • Financial restructuring within companies due to the general economic situation is displacing or removing industrial contacts and causing uncertainty relating to R&E funding streams.

Name: Alessandro Benati

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

SUCCESSES (September-December)

Update on recent research activities

  • Launch of ICAS and related activities.
  • Maria Arche was one of the winners of the 2009 Early Career Research Excellence Award.
  • Reports from the RAE investment programme.

Global innovative programme with a commercial value

  • Commercialisation of a new module for language teachers (Greece, Turkey, Malta, Japan, China).
  • Japanese enterprise programme generated an income of approximately 54K.
  • In-sessional language short-courses/modules generated an income of approximately 48K.

Update on recent publications

  • Emma Hanna published a monograph, The Great War on the Small Screen:
    Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain, Edinburgh University Press.
  • Alessandro Benati published a monograph, Processing Instruction and
  • Discourse,London: Continuum.
  • Zoe Pettit published a book chapter, ‘Connecting cultures:
  • cultural transfer in subtitling and dubbing in Jorge Diaz-Cintaz (ed.). New
  • Trends in Audiovisual Translation(Topics in Translation). Clevedon:
  • Multilingual Matters.
  • John Morton published a book chapter. ‘T. S. Eliot and Tennyson' in Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and Seamus Perry (ed.). Tennyson Among the Poets: Bicentenary Essays, Oxford: OUP.
  • Maria Kaspersson published a book chapter ‘You always hurt the one you love:
    Homicide in a Domestic Context’, in Nancy Loucks, Sally Smith Holt and Joanna R Adler (eds.). Why we kill. Understanding Violence Across Cultures and Disciplines, MiddlesexUniversity Press.
    Mary Ferrell published an article in the Journal of European Public Policy.
  • Steve Kennedy published a journal article ‘A Sonic Economy’ in C-Theory.
  • Susan Rowland published a journal article ‘Ghost and Self: Jung’s Paradigm Shift and a Response to Zinkin’, in the Journal of Analytical Psychology.
  • Rosamund Davies and Gauti Sigthorsson secured a contract for a book Introducing the Creative Industries. London: SAGE.
  • Alessandro Benati secured a contract for a singly authored book Key issues in Second Language teaching. London: Continuum.

OPPORTUNITIES