AGENDA for the 3rd Meeting of
RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE
Minutes for the meeting of the Research and Enterprise Committee in the 2008/09 academic session, held on Wednesday 25th March 2009 at 2.15 pm in Room 075, Queen Anne Court, Greenwich Campus
PRESENT:
Prof T Barnes (Chair)
Prof C Bailey (CMS)
Ms T Banton (GRE)
Ms W Curran (Finance)
Dr M Davies (GRE)
Prof E Galea (CMS)
Prof D Isaac (Architecture & Construction)
Dr J Jameson (Education & Training)
Prof P Maras (Health & Social Care)
Dr J Morton (NRI)
Ms C Nyandoro-Kunzvi (Secretary)
Prof S Palmer (GMI)
Prof A Reed (Vice-Chair)
Dr S Richardson (Science)
Mr J Wallace (Administrative Secretary)
Prof G White (Business)
Dr S Woodhead (Engineering)
Dr D Wray (Science)
APOLOGIES
Mr D Beazleigh (Finance)
Dr N Dasgupta (Humanities)
Prof A Mathie (Pharmacy)
Mrs L Spencer (RSAO)
Prof E West (Health & Social Care)
Prof A Westby (NRI)
ITEMS FROM THE CHAIR
1. MINUTES OF THE RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE MEETING COMMITTEE HELD ON THE 14th JANUARY. 2009
The minutes of the Research and Enterprise Committee held on the 14th January 2009 were agreed as an accurate record subject to the following corrections;
8.6.3.5 should be recorded as ‘9th January 2009’.
Action: Ms Nyandoro-Kunzvi to amend the minutes.
2. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
08.6.6 Prof Westby to update Committee at next meeting on the progress of insurance provision for students carrying out research in developing countries as the University’s insurers have requested a list of all research students, the countries involved and the type of research being undertaken.
Action: Prof Westby to report at the next Committee meeting.
3. GREENWICH RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE
3.1 Research and Enterprise Activity Reports
Prof Barnes presented to members the status of Research and Enterprise financial activity from 2006 to the end of February 2009.
Revenues for 2008/09 showed a significant increase across all schools in comparison to this time last year when revenues were static. For example, Schools such as Education and Engineering seem to be progressing well in research activity in comparison to last year. Prof Barnes congratulated all Schools on their efforts as it appears that the University’s out turn will be an overall increase in revenue this year, for the first time in three or four years. This will be an excellent contribution to fuelling the University’s research agenda. Prof Barnes reminded members that School of Pharmacy research income is processed by the University of Kent. The overall totals for revenue in 2006/07 were £10.5M and £9.6M in 2007/08 and the figure for this year is currently at £5.4M.
In terms of contracting, NRI, CMS and Science have to date secured a large proportion of projects. Contracting is currently 67% ahead of the last financial year. Excluding NRI, the University has contracted as much to date this year as it did for the whole of last fiscal year. The contracting and revenue trend for 2008/9 showed that contracting and revenue is growing more rapidly than last year and contracting is consistently ahead of revenue. Prof Barnes estimated that the University will contract £10M of research and enterprise work this year.
Prof Bailey commented on the peaks and troughs in contracting. With regards to CMS, the drop of income over specific periods was due to a cycle, where the school would focus on bidding activity, and when awarded would deliver the project on a specified timeframe. Prof Bailey queried on how growth could be maintained throughout. Prof Barnes suggested that this problem would be alleviated somewhat when overall levels of research activity were high enough that fluctuations were smoothed by new contracts starting as others were coming to an end.
John Linton commented that peaks and troughs were not a problem, research groups needed to ensure that the mean went up as well.
3.2 Research and Enterprise Activity September 2008 – February 2009
Ms Banton presented a preliminary report on research and enterprise bidding activity per School from September 2008 to the end of February 2009.
The report showed the University’s retained values of proposals submitted per School from September 2008 to February 2009. It was noted that the data did not provide a cumulative comparison as the data has been captured robustly since September 2008. Ms Banton also presented a graph on bids submitted by funders using the HEBCIS codes as defined by HEFCE. It was noted that the data also included collaborative bids with UK industry to EU and UK Government.
Ms Banton informed the Committee that GRE was now receiving data from NRI and would consult further with Karen Birkbeck to include NRI’s pipeline data by HEBCIS code in all future reports. Ms Banton encouraged the members to contact her with any comments and suggestions on how to better present the data in future.
Prof Barnes informed the Committee that information on hit rates was not yet available due to insufficient data. Prof Galea made a suggestion about the possibility of reports on success rates as this data should be kept with Finance. Ms Curran replied that although data may be kept in Finance, it would take a long time to retrieve. Prof Barnes added that the historical data might not be as accurate and the capturing of data from Forms 1 and 2, was now on a consistent basis over the last year.
Ms Banton also took the opportunity to remind members to encourage academics to fill in the Forms 1 and 2 and send these to GRE as this would ensure that the bidding activity reports would reflect an accurate picture of the research activity, in the University and also give GRE the opportunity to report on successes rates at future meetings.
See also Appendix 1 for further comments added to minutes as agreed by the Committee on 6th May 2009.
Action: Members to contact Ms Banton with comments or suggestions on presenting the bidding activity data.
Action: Ms Nyandoro-Kunzvi to circulate research and enterprise activity presentation to Committee members.
3.3 Research and Enterprise Funding Opportunities
Ms Banton presented the following funding calls for the Committee to note:
1. Department of Health: Children and Young People Health and Social Care Programme Board.
2. Department of Health: Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme; Future Product Development.
3. Breast Cancer Campaign: Various.
4. The Leverhulme Trust: Major Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
3.3.5 Changes to the ResearchResearch Website
Ms Banton informed the Committee of the forthcoming changes to the website which is about to be upgraded, with switch over to the new website taking place on the 20th April 2009. Changes to the system will include new alerts on funding opportunities, subscriptions to useful magazines as well as allowing members to formulate their profiles. More funding bodies will also be advertised on the website. Training sessions on how to use the website will be provided on all 3 campuses, the first will be at Medway on the 2nd April 2009. Ms Banton encouraged members to encourage colleagues to come along to the sessions.
Ms Banton informed members of the University’s usage statistics for ResearchResearch, of which the 800 university members subscribed, 298 were taking advantage of the website for new and funding opportunities. Ms Banton reiterated that the website was a useful tool to the academic community and members should particularly encourage researchers to use the site as it is a paid for subscription. Prof Bailey asked how much it was costing the University to subscribe to ResearchResearch, Ms Banton informed the Committee that it was annual fee of £8,000 for this year.
Action: Ms Banton to send copies of the switch over notification to all Schools
3.3.6 Olympics Challenge Fund.
Dr Davies announced that GRE was launching an Olympics Challenge fund to assist Schools to benefit from the 2012 Olympics through research and enterprise projects. This fund would promote the University through partnerships with key stakeholders and also prepare the University to be ready to participate in adhoc Olympics linked opportunities that might arise.
Dr Davies informed the Committee that an email would be sent out to all Heads of School and Directors of Research & Enterprise to announce the launch of the fund. Applications would be a maximum of £20K per School with funding to be spent by 2010. The closing date for applications is 15th May 2009. A seminar would be held in early May to get informal feedback from schools and all schools would be invited to attend.
Prof Galea expressed a concern for Greenwich to remain neutral in lobbying for the Olympics and Dr Jameson agreed with this and welcomed the opportunity to bid for internal funding. Prof Reed asked on how members should respond if they were approached by the press regarding the Olympics. Prof Barnes informed Committee that any press queries should be directed to Caron Jones in the Public Relations Office.
Dr Richardson extended an invitation to Dr Davies to attend an InterSchool meeting to discuss the Olympics challenge fund. Dr Davies said he would be happy to attend.
Action: Dr Richardson to inform Dr Davies of the next date of the InterSchool meeting.
Action: Dr Davies to send an email to all Heads of School and Directors of Research & Enterprise to announce the Olympic Challenge Fund.
3.3.7 Knowledge Connect.
Dr Davies gave a verbal report on the Knowledge Connect programme funded by the London Development Agency (LDA) aimed at encouraging small businesses in London that have not previously worked in collaboration with a University or college, to advise on new product and process development. Short-term initiatives can claim up to £3K and £10K for longer term projects. There are 500 grants on offer over the next 3 years.
Dr Davies informed members that the application process was relatively simple and since its launch in September 2008, 30 project grants have been awarded to date. This funding would create a number of opportunities for universities in terms of securing grants for enterprise projects with business, which is counted towards the HEBCIS return. Establishing links with businesses could potentially develop into other projects, and provide academic staff with experience of working on ‘live’ business endeavours, which could inform other areas of teaching and research.
Tex Dunstan from CMS, is the main point of contact for the programme. To date, the University has received 33 project calls, of which 15 of these have been responded to, mostly led by the Business School and CMS. Of these, 4 have been awarded, and 6 are pending. A ‘fixed cost pricing’ model has been adopted for all projects involving the University, at a daily rate of £750 to give leeway for more staff members to get involved with the projects.
Prof White queried whether the internal Forms 1 and 2’s should be completed for Knowledge Connect bids. Dr Davies informed members that a simpler version will be designed by GRE for reporting Knowledge Connect initiatives.
3.3.8 GRE Calendar of Events.
Dr Davies informed Committee that events scheduled on the GRE calendar were running on schedule and that some were well attended whilst some were not so well attended. Dr Davies encouraged members to promote staff to attend workshops or events. Dr Davies also added that the Costing and Pricing workshops are included in the Staff Development Programme.
3.4 Research Excellence Framework (REF) Presentation
Prof Barnes presented slides from HEFCE shown at the Modern Research University Group, on the 19th March 2009 by Graeme Rosenberg, REF Manager. Prof Barnes informed the Committee that the key message from the Government was that economic development and supporting businesses during the recession was the top priority.
Prof Barnes shared with the Committee that the message that HEFCE seemed to portray was that the REF is progressively looking more and more similar to the RAE as HEFCE would be carrying over examples of good practice from the RAE exercise. The main elements of assessment pointed towards peer review and the impact of research on the economy, society and quality of life.
The proposed timetable for the REF was a complete bibliometrics pilot and proposals for all key elements of the REF to be expected by June 2009; consultation on REF proposals were expected in Autumn 2009. In early 2010 an announcement on consultation outcomes, including implementation plans and initial guidance to HEIs with a full REF exercise to inform funding expected from 2012-2014.
3.5 Distribution of RAE2008 within the University of Greenwich.
Prof Barnes presented slides on the distribution principles of RAE funding within the University of Greenwich. Prof Barnes gave a recap on the funding calculation that HEFCE used for the 2009/10 allocation. The 2009/10 calculations were made by applying a weighting to different percentages of research against each UoA. Prof Barnes informed the Committee that HEFCE had also funded postgraduate research students registered in the RAE rated at 2* or above. In the last RAE, the University had received £60K for research students, but for 2009/10 the University was allocated £660K for research students. Prof Barnes believed this year’s funding calculation had bought good news to most new University’s (post 1992). The new universities are doing quality research.
Prof Barnes informed the Committee that the Government had also provided a 7.7% increase in the overall RAE funding pool of which £24M would be held back as transitional funding to ‘smooth out’ the effects of the RAE exercise. The transitional funding would ensure that no University would get less funding this year than in 2008/09 but some research-intensive universities would receive less than inflation.
Prof Barnes presented a table showing the biggest percentage winners and was pleased to announce that the table showed that all post 99 universities were winners in this category. The biggest cash winners were the older and established universities received big cash injections, e.g. Nottingham University received an increase of £10M, Oxford £9M and Open University had a £3M cash increase.
Prof Barnes informed Committee that due to this change in the funding allocations for 2009/10, the University should anticipate a massive lobbying from universities over the next year or two which could fundamentally change the way HEFCE would allocate its money in the future. The biggest cash losers slide showed the list of top universities that lost money in terms of allocation for this year, Imperial College being at the top with a £5M cash decrease.
Prof Barnes announced that the net results of the allocation to Greenwich for 2009/10 would be £3.66M as opposed to £1.2M in the last RAE round. Prof Barnes pointed out that although this year’s allocation is good news; it was less than a fifth of what the University needed and it was estimated that the University would need in excess of £20M to drive the research and enterprise work of the University forward.
Prof Barnes also informed the Committee that for Greenwich, the RAE monies, at the levels announced by HEFCE were unfortunately still only at seed-funding levels thus creating a need for the University to invest on building capability to attract larger external support.
Prof Barnes informed the Committee that a funding allocation model had been proposed for the University. The allocation model would be fair and transparent and would be forward-looking, and seek to stimulate new activities across the University. The allocation model would be implemented on a best practice basis. The London weighting and QR mainstream funding will be combined and the University will take 70% of that amount to go to the formulaic component, the research degree students’ funding will include, with the remaining funding amount allocated on a peer-review basis. Prof Barnes noted that by using the best practice model, a transparent internal contract system would be established. A peer-review group would be set up to evaluate research plans and provide feedback. Prof Barnes announced that 15% of total allocation would be top-sliced to cover part of the indirect costs incurred centrally by the University.
Prof White enquired on how the monies would be allocated, the main concern being that the Business School in the previous RAE submission had used research clusters as opposed to research groups. Prof Barnes replied that the University was aware of which individuals went into which UoA, and as such the information presented by HEFCE would be disaggregated and attached to schools or research groups.
Dr Jameson queried that given the considerations surrounding REF, was there likely to be another RAE before REF was implemented. Prof Barnes responded to say he did not yet have an answer to this, but the University should look at building research capability and quality wherever it can.
Prof Reed asked if the allocation model methodology would be applied to future REF funding. Prof Barnes responded to say that since allocations would be for a year only, there would be a need to review the process at the end of the programme and decide whether to continue the proposed methodology or otherwise. Spending would start on August 1st 2009 and Dr Davies was working on a monitoring report process on the financial activities of the programme.
Concern was expressed by Dr Richardson and Dr Wray regarding the HEFCE timeframe of a year as there would be a need to recruit research students, and employing one for a year did not seem viable, not to mention the University’s internal process to recruit being long and cumbersome. Prof Barnes informed the Committee that Dr Davies and himself had discussed this milestone at length and discussions were underway with Personnel to expedite the recruitment process, to allow for submission of standardised job descriptions for post docs. Dr Davies was also looking into the possibility of creating a template that schools could then append details.
Dr Woodhead expressed concern about the lack of continued funding as the School of Engineering would like to recruit a number of PhD students with the monies received, but at the end of the year the school would run the risk or carry the load whilst seeking funding for the remaining 2 years. Dr Woodhead asked if it was possible to approach the University’s Court to guarantee a proportion of the funding. Prof Barnes agreed that the Committee should prepare a paper to present to the University to underwrite funding in these uncertain times.
Prof Bailey asked the Committee if there was any indication that HEFCE would give more money as in the case of CMS, the school had always wanted to use the RAE monies to fund students. Prof Barnes responded to say that at present, there was no indication from HEFCE on continued funding mainly due to uncertain economic times and as such there was a possibility that HEFCEs budget line could be reduced.
Prof Galea queried the purpose of discussing the paper at committee as it was understood that the paper had already been approved at VCG and Executive Committee. The figures presented a 15% reduction for CMS in comparison to the 2001 exercise. Whilst it was understood and agreed by CMS that the new allocation model was promoting fairness, CMS was not comfortable with the distribution. Prof Galea suggested that the model could have included an increased formulaic allocation to those with the higher RAE grading, and they would then be limited in their applications to the competitive pool.
Prof Barnes informed members that out of 10 universities canvassed, Southampton were the only university adopting a formulaic model. In others, the allocation basis did not appear to be clear and many were adopting competitive processes. Prof Barnes pointed out that it was important to have a system that was transparent and forward thinking and would be happy to review the allocation model in the next round and would also convey Prof Galea’s concerns to the Vice Chancellor.
Dr Linton informed Committee that NRI was happy with the proposed allocation model. The competitive pot would allow for applications from groups who are not RAE active and would like to be RAE active to bid, so that they could do more research and the competitive pot would help bring more research activity into the University. Prof Palmer agreed that the allocation model conveyed a message that the University was serious about research by rewarding research, and the competitive pot was emphasising this point. In her opinion the proposed allocation model was a good move for the University.
Dr Jameson agreed with Prof Palmer but also expressed a great concern on how the University awards or recognises excellent work undertaken at the University. Dr Jameson queried on whether there was a way to address how the University could reward staff for achievements and therefore encourage staff to stay on at the University. Prof Barnes responded to say that this was one of the issues tasked to him upon joining the University and as a start to addressing this issue; the following had been introduced across the University, e.g. prizes, publicity on the research and enterprise campaign. Prof Barnes stated that he would like to see a Research Professor status and a Distinguished Professor status being introduced at the University. The promotion process to professor was also being looked at.
See also Appendix 1 for further comments added to minutes as agreed by the Committee on 6th May 2009.
Action: Ms Nyandoro-Kunzvi to put the remit of R&E Committee on the agenda for the next meeting of the Committee.
Action: Prof Barnes to convey Prof Galea’s comments to the Vice Chancellor
4. 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: Dr Jill Jameson
School: Education and Training
SUCCESSES
• A Professional Development and Research electronic survey has been sent out to all staff in the School to fill in regarding professional development and research plans in preparation for appraisal/timetabling meetings for next year. 44 staff have filled this in so far; the closing date is in early April.
• Professor Patrick Ainley, forthcoming chapter on Education in Feelbad Britain ed Pat Devine, London: Lawrence and Wishart.
• Professor Patrick Ainley, with M. Allen: A New 14+ : Vocational Diplomas &the Future of Schools, Colleges &Universities, sponsored by Ealing Teachers’ Association (NUT) & supported by Greenwich UCU, London: Radicaled.wordpress.
• Professor Patrick Ainley, editorship: ‘Twenty Years of Schooling..’ Student reflections on their educational journeys, with introduction for the Student Experience Network of the Society for Research into Higher Education, 2008, 122 pages.
• Professor Ian McNay, journal publication, 'The crisis in higher education: the views of academic professionals on policy, leadership, values and operational practices', Higher Education Review, 40[2].
• Professor Ian McNay, invited to speak at a new series of lectures as a visiting professor at South Bank, 2009.
• Leadership Academy workshop held January 2009 in King’s Hill, University of Greenwich, with Charles Leadbeater as Keynote on Leadership, Innovation and Engagement, with c.45 attendees, organised by Dr Jill Jameson: feedback positive.
• Learning and Skills Research Network London and South East (LSRN LSE) seminar held at the Institute of Education, University of London, with Keynote speaker Emeritus Professor Michael Young on What is Vocational Knowledge? organised by Dr Jill Jameson, Chair of LSRN LSE, with 14 attendees: excellent feedback.
• Dr Jill Jameson, invited keynote speaker: ‘Critical Friends Benefits Realisation’, with Prof Peter Chatterton & Gwen van der Velden, March 10th, JISC Users & Innovations Next Generation Technologies in Practice conference, Loughborough University.
• Dr Jill Jameson invited chapter on e-learning for the international book of Cases on Technological Adaptability and Transnational Learning: Issues and Challenges to be published 2009 by IGI-Global (USA).
• Dr Jill Jameson – invited paper submitted, ‘Distributed Leadership, Trust and Online Communities’, HCII 2009 Expert Session: User Innovation Networks, HCII International Conference to be published by Springer (23rd July, 2009, San Diego)
• Dr Jill Jameson – delivered invited EC VET expert presentation on Leadership Standards in the UK Lifelong Learning Sector to TTNet DVET Conference at CEDEFOP in Thessaloniki, Greece, February, 2009.
• Dr Jill Jameson, Yana Tainsh and Simon Leggett: invited participants in a Leonardo EC bid (c. Є300,000 total: Accreditation Centre for Electronic Learning Provision (ACELP) led by Krisztina Mihalyi, ACVCD Coordinator, Observatory for Educational Development, Hungary, for Є28,486 (UoG allocation).
• Ken Marsh – delivered invited EC VET expert presentation to TTNet DVET Conference at CEDEFOP in Thessaloniki, Greece, February, 2009.
• Janet Taylor – delivered invited EC VET expert presentation to TTNet DVET Conference at CEDEFOP in Thessaloniki, Greece, February, 2009.
• Yana Tainsh – appointed as a Committee Member and Reviewer, has had a paper accepted for the ECEL 2008 conference (November, Cyprus).
• Ade-Ojo, G. O. (2009) accepted paper on: Practitioners’ perception of the impact of the vision of policy makers on practice: The example of the recommendations of the Moser Commission' Research Papers in Education (forthcoming).
• Accepted presentation: Ade-Ojo, G.O. (2009) Socialising literacy learners into a discourse of failure: Dominant discourses in the teaching and assessment of litearcy. To be presented at the 7th BCES Conference, June 2009.
• New Research and Enterprise webpages for the School have been updated: further developments are on the way.
OPPORTUNITIES
• £60,000 Bid being prepared for Third round of British Council Funding for Education UK-Africa Partnerships –global leadership and e-learning, with the University of South Africa (UNISA), supported by UNISA PVC and SANPAD (South Africa-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development). Dr Jameson currently exploring links with Science and Technology Minister in Zimbabwe for potential South-South-UK partnership, plus discussions with Elluminate conferencing system.
• UK-Africa Partnership R&E development bid is being submitted by the University of South Africa (UNISA) for internal R&E funding supported by SANPAD.
• Dr Jennifer Patterson – preparing new research bid on education relating to Breast Cancer patient narrative analysis of case histories.
• CHALLENGES
• Responses from staff to the Professional Development and Research survey indicate that a major barrier to research is the allocation of sufficient time to carry out R&E activities: many staff have teaching timetables that are too full to enable an active R&E schedule.
• A drift of research active staff away from Greenwich to other Universities during 2001-08 has been recorded, with numerous former Greenwich E&T research active staff now appointed to professors/ readers/ fellowships elsewhere (Roehampton, Institute of Education, London Metropolitan, Southampton, Brunel, Middlesex) – this had a negative effect on RAE results in UoA Education: a large % of loss of RAE research ‘power’ relative to other institutions as a result of this has been noted. It is important to recognise remaining research-active staff at Greenwich more positively.
• Doctoral supervision overloads: being sorted out with the invitation of a range of new supervisors for PhD and EdD, but this continues to be a challenge in view of the large number of doctoral students in the School.
• The initial EdD Review meeting was held in March, 2009: overall, a positive overview of course provision was reported by the External Examiner and EdD students, but it was agreed that a second meeting should be held in April to enable updating of paperwork.
• There continue to be delays and problems with reporting R&E financial data, but the School is continuing to work with University (GRE) and School Finance staff in 2009 to address these issues to achieve improvements in the submission of Forms 1-2, recording and tracking of all financial data for R&E.
Name: John Linton and Dr John Morton
School: NRI
SUCCESSES
• Since December 1st 2008, NRI has contracted business worth £940,000 or which £510,000 is retained income.
• Of this £850,000 was new business.
Significant contracts include:
• Programme learning study using case studies in M & E, RIUP (£6.9k retained)
• Food Price Instability (AFD) (£13.6 k total; £10.5k retained)
• Gender-based guidelines on biofuel development (FAO) (US$25k retained)
• Global evaluation of UNIDO support (£44k total; £34k retained)
• Fisheries Reform, Ghana (World Bank) (£15k total; £12k retained)
• Support to fisheries laboratories in ACP countries (approx €200K retained)
• Food Safety Training Course – Abu Dhabi (£30k retained)
• Rural and Territorial Dynamics in NE Brazil - ESRC (£85k gross, £60k retained)
• Technical Support to the McKnight Foundation (£80k gross, £50k retained)
• Fair trade study - Fairtrade (£50k gross, £20k retained)
• Pastoralist Information Notes, DFID (£20k retained)
• CA Stored apples (HDC) (£35k total, £20k retained)
OPPORTUNITIES
• Contracts under negotiation for:
o DFID Fair Trade labelling (£0.3 million)
o MDC land tenure Mozambique (£1 million)
o Caribbean – Promotion of Horticultural Exports (£0.15 million)
o DFID- NEPAD Partnership for African Fisheries (£0.1 million)
o All-ACP grant for support food safety (Grant value €30 million – NRI target participation approx €1 million)
o Support to climate change research, UNDP Vietnam (£12,000)
o Research on climate change and rural urban linkages, DFID/IDRC, agreed subject to meeting reviewers’ comments, NRI share C.£58,000
o Additional case study for Fairtrade, £11,000
• Significant Contract opportunities include:
o Three grants for the EC Science & technology programme – Bids submitted, gross value €3 million
o EC Framework contracts for lots 1 (agriculture), 6 (Environment), & 10 (Trade & Private Sector – Bids under preparation , gross value unknown, but NRI target value = approx €100K per year for 5 years.
o WHO research in recycling insecticide impregnated mosquito nets – Invited to express interest, value US$ 150K
o Accountable grant for global fisheries governance and trade – DFID, value £1.5 million.
o DFID Climate and Development Centre (total value £40 million)– second-tier partner on EOI submitted by IDS/Hadley Centre-led consortium, negotiating role on research management component
CHALLENGES
• Concern over capacity to convert opportunities when our project winners are focussed on business delivery
• Maintaining quality of delivery with increasing levels of work.
• Medium term pipeline needs care and attention
Name: Dr Nandini Dasgupta
School: Humanities
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
• ERC: Postcolonial bid Sorbonne has definitely agreed to partner it with cologne and us. Group: Sue Golding, Carolyn Brown, Nandini Dasgupta, Linnell Seacomb, Steve Peacock, possibly Anne Cormack.
• HERA: lead: Steve K, S. Golding and Nunno Salihbegovic. Zeros and Ones: Media Arts Philosophy, Practice and the New Science (this is the research cluster); the bid will be called something like: Motorcity Soundscapes: Detroit and Coventry
• AHRC: Beyond the Text (Nuno, with JG, SK, CS): Theatre-Light-Opera: Art in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction.
• Leverhulme Research Network: (JG/NC): The Planetarium: Strategic Network in the Media-Arts Philosophy, Communications Literature and Design.
• AHRC studentship: we are applying for all 5: three PhDs and 2 MAs (core supervisors: JG, SK, JB)
• Leverhulme Artist in Residence: SK (almost done)
• Leverhulme Research Bid (Steve Kenedy /Sue Golding): Motorcity Project
CRIMMINOLOGY
• Rebecca Harrison is working on a bid to the Economic Challenge Innovation Fund to develop short courses.
• Stacey Banwell is negotiating with a publisher to have her thesis published.
• Richard Wild is awaiting the publication of his Death Penalty in Russia report for FIDH.
• Maria Kaspersson will have a chapter on domestic homicide published by Middlesex University Press in the spring.
• No consultancy undertaken.
SOCIOLOGY – CURRENT RESEARCH
• All members of the Sociology Program are currently involved in research. This ranges from submissions for large-scale research funds, to the development of book proposals, to submission and publication of papers and presenting of papers at conferences and seminars. Research areas covered by members of the program include: Romani studies, vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, Christian feminism, drugs, second generation Ghanaians and education, sociology of emotions, and enlightenment and mission.
THOMAS ACTON
• Papers in planning for conferences
• 2009
• 17 April British Sociological Association, Cardiff “The Marginalisation of Romani Studies within the Academic Community”
• 22 April Montehermoso Cultural Centre, Vitoria, Spain: “Building a new common gaze: lessons from the new English Roma/Gypsy/Traveller art.” *
• 21 May Humanities School Postgrad and Research Conference. Abstract offered on "Has cultural studies sounded the death-knell of classical sociology prematurely?"
• 11-14 June, Organising Session at International Institute of Sociology Congress in University of Yerevan, Armenia on “The sociology of Roma/Gypsies/Travellers – between mainstream and specialisation”, and giving paper. Abstracts also to be submitted to other sessions.
• 23 June, London College of Fashion: Day Conference for Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month: TA to give paper on relevance of history to Romani Cultural Studies, exact title in negotiation *
• 27-29 August, Gypsy Lore Society Conference, University of Helsinki, Finland, Abstract has been offered: “A new international Romani aesthetic?”
• TA is secretary of the International Gypsy Lore Society
• 4-7 November Södertörn University College, 141 89 Huddinge, Sweden, Seminar in preparation for Book on Romani Pentecostalism: Paper on
• “New Religious Movements among Roma Gypsies and Travellers: Placing Romani Pentecostalism in historical and social context.”*
2010
• 25-29 January, University of Austin at Texas, Paper to Seminar on Romani Studies, topic in negotiation*
• 14-16 August University of Atlanta, American Sociological Association: Working title “Romani migration and the bankruptcy of citizenship theory.”
2 Publication Plans
2.i Papers
• One Paper on Romani Social Policy is currently in submission, and various book reviews are well over due.
• The intention is to bring together one substantial paper on Romani Aesthetics from the work above, and one substantial paper on Romani historiography (possibly co-authored with Adrian Marsh, and hopefully one on the collision of Romani Studies with sociological theory, possibly starting from a re-consideration of Weber’s “Soziologie als beruf”.
2.ii Books
• 2009 Cambridge Scholars Press, co-edited with M.Hayes “From Russia with Love – the Autobiography of Alex Smith.” Edited oral reminiscences of an English Gypsy with a Russian mother.
• 2010 “New Perspectives on Romani history” to be edited with Damien LeBas Jr. and include papers from the 2008 Romani History Seminar at Univ of Greenwich and other work from Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month (possibly 23 June conference above?)
• 2010 Book with Adrian Marsh bringing together our 2007 ESRC research on Roma in Turkey with subsequent developments.
• 2010-2011 “Mainstreaming Romani Studies” to include papers from the Romani Studies Streams at IIS Congresses, to be edited with Dr M J M Casa Nova (Minho) and Dr M Kovats (Birkbeck)
• 2011. “Managing a Clash of Cultures – the History of Gypsy Education in Britain” to be co-authored with Kalwant Bhopal, (Reader, U of Southampton) and Martin Myers (Open U.) Proposals being put to Publishers
• 2011. “Core texts in Romani Studies” to be edited with Prof IFH Hancock. Contract has been offered by Routledge for their Major Works Series.
• 2012 Festschrift for 70th birthday of Prof I.F.Hancock.
• H – On back burner – Book Proposal on Sociology of Religion
Visits by Foreign Scholars to UK/Greenwich being hosted by TA
• Dr. Maria José Manso Casa Nova, U of Minho, Portugal 6-13 April, Paper on “Citizenship, ethnicity and dialecticity of power in gender relations in a Portuguese Romani Community” QM 268 7th April. And to discuss Book plan D. above
• Prof IF Hancock, visiting for 23 June conference at London College of Fashion, and to discuss Book plans G and H. Seminar at UoG in negotiation.
Current PhD Students
4.i Internal
• Adrian Marsh: Turkish Romani History: Awaiting ratification of Award of PhD by Research Degrees Committee
• Rachel Goldstein: Radical Jewish movements Resubmission due 2009
• Blaine Robin: Experience of Lupus Sufferers Resubmission due 2009
• Gwen Rose: Spiritual Healing Submission due 2009-10
• Eime Tobari: Civic Engagement of Older People Submission due 2009-10
4.ii External
• Madeleine Midgeley: Cornish and Romani Nationalisms Resubmission due 2009
• University of Exeter
• Nidhi Trehan: Romani Organisations in Hungary, Resubmission due 2009
• London School of Economics
Funding, Consultancy and Expert Witnessing
• Conference attendance not paid by the organisers is either financed by expert witness/consultancy fees, of which is expected of between £1000 and £2000 this year, or privately. Such work is mainly in the fields of child protection, immigration, planning or criminal trials, and is related to Romani Studies expertise.
• Funding proposal for EU funds awaiting results, jointly with Wera Grahn of the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage research on “Cultural Diversity and Policies – The Heritage of Roma Women”.
• Application for a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 2009-11, to cover those scholarly activities that I aspire to complete in those years, has been unsuccessful.; modifying this proposal to submit to other funders.
• In discussions with Adrian Marsh over a large-scale application in the near future to the Council of Europe for research on Romani Organisations, and in longer term discussion with Prof. Yaron Matras of the University of Manchester to put together the outlines of a general bid for when the Economic and Social Research Council next has a competition for a 10-year Research Centre.
TERRY CANNON
• Currently setting up a large (5 year, 5 million dollar) action research project on the social and economic construction of vulnerability to climate change in rural Bangladesh: ARCAB - Action Research on Climate Adaptation in Bangladesh. This will involve six international NGOs and their local partners in testing ways to cope with increased climate resilience for both livelihoods and disasters (e.g. cyclones). So the research methodology is essentially participatory and 'sociologically informed'. It will also research ways to increase participation and spread the results, so includes community video, radio, theatre and other forms of communication.
• (At International Institute for Environment and Development), there are highly likely to be opportunities for Greenwich and NRI involvement in relation to the analysis of livelihoods and climate adaptations.
• Paper accepted (subject to revision) for a journal: Terry Cannon & Detlef Mueller-Mahn, ‘Resilience, vulnerability and disasters’ Natural Hazards (Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards), due out later this year.
• Working with an international group of disaster specialists to promote research into the problems of how 'culture', religion and psychology affect people's and institution's behaviour in relation to disasters (e.g. fatalism, risk-taking behaviour). A small group will meet in Basel in April to set out an analytical framework, and seek funding for an international workshop hoped for later in the year.
SALLY MANN
• Co-authored a 3000 word essay 'Christian Responses to Feminism' with Sally Alsford that should be published this year for ' A New Dictionary of Theology'.
• Submit 2 articles for 'Impact' which is the journal for the Christian
• Political Forum, one called 'Gender and Sexuality: Lord Protect us from the Pope's Natural Order' (published in Jan 09) and one called 'God's not a Tory. Or a Socialist' (due to be published in March 09).
CRAIG MORRIS
• Preparing material from recently completed PhD thesis for publication.
LOUISE OWUSUKWARTENG
• Currently working on upgrad to PhD and working toward completion of thesis titled ‘Between Two Lives’ about the impact of intergenerational relationships between Ghanaian migrants and their British born children and the impacts on academic/career pursuits.
LINNELL SECOMB
• Preparing book proposal on 'A Genealogy of Emotions' to be sent to EUP.
• Preparing funding proposal on 'A Genealogy of Emotions' for submission to ESRC.
• Invited to submit paper on Derrida and Semiotics to special issue of 'International Journal for the Semiotics of Law', due June 2009, published 2010.
• Invited to contribute chapter to edited collection on 'Beauvoirian Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema', due May 2010.
DOUG STUART
• Presented paper on ‘Enlightenment and Mission’ at the Greenwich History Seminar series, 4 March 2009.
• Presenting paper on ‘"Sechele's Question": The Problem of Cultural Relativism in the Missionary Encounter in Colonial Southern Africa’ at the Christian Missions in Global History seminar series at IHR, Autumn 2009.
LINGUISTIC
Maria Arche
• Current Research/work in 2009
• Review article of Liceras, J., H. Zobl and H. Goodluck (eds.). 2008.
• The role of Formal features in Second Language Acquisition. London/New
• York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 577 pages. ISBN: 0-8058-5354-5. To
• appear in the International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Backwell
• Publishing Company), 2009.
• Forthcoming: "Morphology and Syntax interaction in SLA: a study on
• clitic acquisition in Spanish. In Morphology and Its Interfaces. A.
• Galani, G, Tsoulas and G. Hicks (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins (with
• Laura Domínquez).
Alessandro Benati
• Current Research/work in 2009
• Books
• Lee, J., Benati, A. (2009). Research and Perspectives on Processing Instruction. New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Manuscript submitted).
• Benati, A. (Ed.). (2009). Issues in Second Language Proficiency. London: Continuum. (to be published in July 2009, 256 pages).
• Benati, A., Van Patten, B. (2009). Second Language Acquisition: Key Terms. London: Continuum. (to be published in December 2009, 272 pages).
• Benati, A., Lee, J. (2010). Processing Instruction and Discourse. London: Continuum. (Under contract. Manuscript to be submitted in March 2009).
• Recent bids = $12,527
• British Academy Grants for Australian-British Joint Projects with Professor James Lee (UNSW, Australia) (Comparing Training Effects for Second Language Processing Strategies Using Sentence- and Discourse-Level Tasks, 2009.
Zoe Petit
• Current Research/work in 2009
• Book chapter to appear in April 2009:“Connecting cultures: cultural transfer in subtitling and dubbing” in Jorge Diaz-Cintas (ed.) New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (Topics in Translation). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 47-60.
• Article accepted for publication: “Translating Tsotsi for the screen”
• Ongoing research in audiovisual translation (AVT) and African
• cinema. Paper planned for an AVT conference in Antwerp (October 2009):
• “3rd International Conference: Media for All. Quality made to
• Measure”. Related publications will appear subsequently.
Peter Skrandies
• Current Research/work in 2009
• 2009. “Being Persuasive across Languages: Academic Metadiscourse in
• German Historiography and English Translation” to be submitted to
• /Languages in Contrast/: International Journal for Contrastive
• Linguistics (John Benjamins)
• 2009. “’Dabei muß zunächst mit Nachdruck hervorgehoben werden, daß
• …’: Negotiating Knowledge Claims and Persuading Readers in German
• Academic History Writing” to be submitted to the /Journal of
• Pragmatics/: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language Studies (Elsevier)
Name: Prof Geoff White
School: Business
SUCCESSES
• Consultancy. We have won three Knowledge Connect consultancy bids, each worth about £10,000. The first two are being managed by Tim Barry and the third by Matthew Housden. Tim Barry has bid for a fourth.
• Conferences and public lectures. The School hosted two conferences over the last three months – one for the Chamber of Commerce Network and one for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport – its Student Conference.
• We also hosted the annual CIPD Lecture with Ed Sweeny, Chair of Acas, as the speaker in January. Over a hundred people attended including members of the local SE Thames CIPD branch and Docklands Personnel Initiative, plus our own students and staff. We are keen to develop further events with the CIPD branch.
• Major Initiative with Northern Trust. A major initiative has been with Northern Trust (an American Bank) to develop relationships and become the university of choice in London. The CEO is an ex-business school alumnus. The VC is addressing their Board at the end of March
Recent Staff Publications
• Corby, S. and Stanworth, C. (2009) ‘A price worth paying? Women and work – choice, constraint or satisficing’, Equal Opportunities International, 28, 2, 162-178.
• Hansen, Kirstine and Denise Hawkes (2009) "Early Childcare and Child Development" Social Policy, volume 38, pages 211-239
• Hansen, Kirstine, Denise Hawkes and Heather Joshi (2009) "Impacts of the timing of mother and mothers' employment on child outcomes", chapter 4. In Fertility, Living Arrangements and Care and Mobility, Understanding Population Trends and Processes. Volume One. Edited by John Stillwell, Ernestina Coast and Dylan Kneale, Springer.
• Holden, P (2009) ‘Bourdieu revisited: how do his ideas illuminate the way political ideologies affect thinking on the third sector in the context of early 21st century developments in the UK?’ (with Mike Aiken) Prepared for the CINEFOGO Work Package (WP19) Political Ideologies and Third Sector CINEFOGO symposium.
• Kennell, J and MacLeod, N (2009) ‘Policy Review- a grey literature review of the Cultural Olympiad’ Cultural Trends, Cultural Trends, Volume 18, Issue 1, pages 83 – 88
• Kuenzel, S. / Yassim, M. (forthcoming in 2009) Game Experience: An Analysis of English and Welsh Domestic Cricket Spectators. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing.
• Kuenzel, S. / Halliday, S. (2008). Investigating antecedents and consequences of brand identification. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 17, 5, 293-304. The Editorial Team of the Journal of Product & Brand Management has nominated the paper as a Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2009
• Kuenzel, S. / Krolikowska, E. (2008). Psychological bonds and their impact on behavioral loyalty in auditor-client relationships. Managerial Auditing Journal, 23, 4, 328-344. The Editorial Team of the Managerial Auditing Journal has nominated the paper as a Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2009
• MacLeod, N, Hayes, D. and Slater, A. (2009) ‘Reading the Landscape: the development of a typology of literary trails to inform experiential design’ Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, Volume 18, Issue 2 & 3 February 2009 , pages 154 – 172
• Marr, Ana (2009) “Financing the Development of Black Communities in the Northern Cape of South Africa – The case of Livestock Banks” Journal of Economics and Financial Sciences, volume 3, number 1, pp. 1-26.
• Symon, G. & Crawshaw, J. (2009) ‘Urban labour, voice and legitimacy: economic development and the emergence of community unionism’, Industrial Relations Journal, 40, 2, 140-155.
• Dr Catherine Kelly has been nominated onto the National British Standards Institute committee on Wellness Tourism, as the only UK university representative. She is also working with the UNESCO World Heritage Learning Partnership committee in Greenwich (she is the university representative) to produce a document that will form part of a bid for Cultural Olympiad funding for London 2012, project being led by the National Maritime Museum.
• Elizabeth Booth and Raj Dass are currently working on a HEFCE funded (channelled through South London Lifelong Learning Network) project into the determinants of progression and achievement in BTEC qualified students on the BA Hons Tourism Management degree. They will be presenting some of the findings at the SLLLN sector group meeting in May. Elizabeth and Raj have also been asked by the SLLLN to scope a follow up project extending their research into other central London new universities. They are working with Robert Mayor on developing the bid for submission in May.
• David Hall and Emanuele Lobina from the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) attended the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul (16-22 March 2009). The World Water Forum is an initiative of the World Water Council that has the aim of raising the awareness on water issues all over the world. As the main international event on water, it seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to influence water policy making at a global level, thus assuring better living standards for people all over the world and a more responsible social behavior towards water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development.
• David and Emanuele advised Public Services International's delegation to the World Water Forum and made contributions to a number of events. In particular, David and Emanuele made a joint presentation on "Public-public partnerships (PUPs) in water" at a side event of the World Water Forum ("Implementing the Right to Water: Democratisation and Public-Public Partnerships", Istanbul World Water Forum, 17 March). The launched report is published by PSI and TNI, March 2009 and available at .
• Emanuele also made a presentation on "Interdependence between technology and
• governance: cases and theory", at session 6.2.3 ("Integrated Water
• Management - Can We Get There?", Istanbul World Water Forum, 21 March 2009).
• This presentation is part of the University of Greenwich contribution to the
• EU-funded programme SWITCH (Sustainable Water management Improves Tomorrow's
• Cities' Health), .
OPPORTUNITIES
• Professor Susan Corby has submitted a bid to the Nuffield Foundation for a research project entitled ‘Then and now: lay members as judges in employment rights cases’. The bid is for £59,54 with matched funding of £19,284. Length of proposed project 2 years.
• Dr Mehmet Ugur is drawing up a bid to the Financial Services Authority entitled ‘Assessing the FSA’s Regulatory Performance: Theory, evidence and policy implications’.
• Professor White is submitting a joint bid to a call for research on ‘Investigating the Role of Tips in Low Paying Industries’ by the Low Pay Commission. Joint bid with Middlesex University Business School worth around £60k (split 50/50). PI will be at Middlesex University. Length of project six months.
• Professor White has also been approached to conduct pay research for Northumbria County Council as an expert witness for an employment tribunal case. This would be funded research.
CHALLENGES
• Our doctoral programme remains a challenge in terms of finding experienced supervisors and capable students. We have been undertaking a major review of our supervisory capacity and capability and supervisors have been encouraged to attend the latest training sessions in research supervision and research ethics. Our Director of Doctoral Programmes, Dr Hantang Qi is planning an in-school workshop for supervisors before the end of the academic year to ensure that they follow regulations and procedures. This should begin to have some effect in improving the quality of paperwork.
• Providing space for staff to develop research bids remains challenging, given the heavy teaching loads in the Business School, but the appointment of a BDM plus hopefully some RAE funding may speed up this process. The important change is that research-active staff are submitting more bids than a year ago.
Name: Dr Steve Woodhead
School: Engineering
SUCCESSES
• The School has agreed to fund three PhD studentships from other income. These have been awarded to individual early career academic PIs on the basis of competitive bidding and a detailed future income plan.
OPPORTUNITIES
• Outline KTP bid has been submitted with NIC Ltd.
• EU FP7 bid has been submitted.
• MoU is under negotiation with North China University of Technology. .
• Discussions ongoing with Schs of Science & HSC – Telemedicine.
• Discussions ongoing with Sch of Science – Biofuels.
CHALLENGES
• SSR
Name: Dr David Wray & Dr Simon Richardson
School: Science
SUCCESSES
• €460K of funding for three years participation in the INTERREG IV funded CHARM III Project (Channel Integrated Approach for Marine Resource Management Phase III): Dr Tim Acott and Fakhar Khalid & Bernadette Oakenfull (BDM).
• £425K+ of funding has been derived from analytical testing activities since 1 May 08 (start of FY): Dr David Wray.
• £6K from Oxford Archaeological Trust for pollen analysis: Dr Andrew Haggart
• £2K from the Royal Society of Chemistry research fund: Dr John Spencer
• Publications and presentations
• Prof. Babs Chowdhry variously as sole author and with co-authors from the School including Profs Martin Snowden, Steve Leharne & John Mitchell and Drs Bruce Alexander & Andrew Mendham published seven papers in 2008, has ten papers in press in 2009 and further eight papers submitted.
• A paper by Dr Joshua Boateng has featured amongst the top ten most read articles in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2008, he also currently has 2 papers in review and one recently published.
• Dr Andrew Haggart delivered a public lecture on Climate change in the Medway Towns to around 200 people in the Ward Room on the Medway Campus in January.
• Dr Paul Amuna will be a keynote speaker at a conference in Accra being organized by the British Academy and The Royal Society.
• Dr Bruce Alexander and Mr Craig Morton will be talking about their work at the forefront of photo catalysis in the UK at the next meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, in Poland, in March 2009.
• Dr John Spencer and Dr David Wray have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
OPPORTUNITIES
• Two of three submitted expressions of interest to the Carbon Trust for algal biofuel projects were successful and are currently being worked up into a combined single project in collaboration with Marine Biological Association (Plymouth) and overseas partners in Namibia, Vietnam, Oman and Indonesia. Greenwich is leading the bid with a total bid value of £0.5 – 1 million: Prof Pat Harvey and Dr Jeff Pedley (BDM).
• A Full bid for £500k + being prepared for submission to ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific) in collaboration with NRI for science support to aid Jatropha oil and by-product manufacture: Prof Pat Harvey and Dr Jeff Pedley (BDM).
• Expression of interest submitted to the Technology Strategy Board (High value manufacturing call) to develop a Jatropha oil and by-product business in collaboration with our existing biodiesel collaborators. Bid value £1.5 million: Prof Pat Harvey and Dr Jeff Pedley (BDM).
• A Tempus IV bid is under preparation for end April 09 submission to develop and support the training of environmental scientists in the Balkans. Bid value € 500K. Dr Milan Antonijevic, Prof Steve Leharne & Bernadette Oakenfull (BDM).
• KTP with Oxford Nanoporetech for DNA sequencing chemistry: Dr John Spencer
• KTP with Selcia Pharma (Essex) for library compound synthesis: Dr John Spencer
• KTP with CellAura (Nottingham) for developing fluorescent probes using GPCR ligands: Dr John Spencer
• An application for a Commonwealth Scholarship to fund a PhD studentship has passed the first selection stage: Dr Joshua Boateng
CHALLENGES
• Progressing younger members of staff to submit grant applications and publish. Proactive encouragement from the Director of Research and the BDM taking the form of 1:1 visits is on-going.
• The significant expansion in taught MSc students continues to put a strain on both the staff (both academic and technical) and the School’s scientific infrastructure, hindering R&E activity.
Name: Prof David Isaac
School: Architecture and Construction
SUCCESSES
• Recent research income: Up to date position: The EPSRC project on Preparation for Extreme Weather Conditions (CREW) has commenced. This project amounts to £555,000. The EPSRC/Eon funded Eon project -Carbon Control and Comfort is a £250,000 funding, part of £2.1m bid with Reading, Cardiff, UCL, Loughborough, Durham and De Montfort. In March a research fellow will be appointed for this project which also has an inter-school collaboration with Health and Social Care. £98,000 funding from the EPSRC for the project, Sustainable Living for the Older Community is now collaboration with the University of Kingston (£32,000) and has now been formally launched at a joint event with Kingston. Commercialise SE funding for the development of a prototype sensor is being progressed but tenders for its production are being renegotiated with suppliers. Two projects, funded by the University’s Strategic Research Fund, a project on building and infrastructure obsolescence due to climate change is progressing and an aquaculture water cleansing project from a new researcher in conjunction with the Ben Gurion University of the Negev is now looking for second stage funding to progress.
• Exhibitions, medals and awards: Amongst recent exhibitions by staff are: Adriana Cobo, a new researcher, organised a `Drawing the City’ exhibition, a community project with the tenant/residents association and Hackney Homes. Ed Frith exhibited the `Shenyang Exhibition Centre Concept Design Competition’ at Queen Mary, Greenwich and gave a key international lecture concerning the project at Shenyang Jianzhu University. Mark Titman organised an exhibition related to a conference `Greenwich Forum’ in the Steven Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich and also exhibited works in Deptford Gallery for the `Value of Nothing’ exhibition.
• Key lectures/publications: Key recent publications include: David Isaac, two books on `Property Development’ and `Property Investment Valuation’ now being revised with updated research both international texts. Ben Kotzen, a new researcher, has produced a book on `Environmental Noise Barriers’. A series of key international texts is being produced by Tom Turner in the areas of Landscape Design, Garden Design and Indian Gardens. Sarah Chaplin has produced chapters on Modern Interior Design, the Thames Gateway and `Urban Design in Las Vegas’ as well as a key report for a government agency on Strategic Urban Design. Teresa Stoppani has produced a series of architectural publications and is presently a visiting critic at the Architectural Association, London and the Rhode Island School of Design in the US. Alan Powers has produced a series of articles and publications including a book entitled `Le Corbusier in Britain’ to coincide with Le Corbusier exhibition in Liverpool. He is chairman of the Twentieth Century Society and has had recent TV/Radio contributions on the buildings of `Robin Hood Gardens’. His book `Britain’ was one of only seven books shortlisted for a key prize for books on the arts.
OPPORTUNITIES
• Architecture staff and students from the school presented a bid/competition (with the support of Atkins in the UK and China) for the design of a huge exhibition centre (150,000m2) for the city of Shenyang. The design fees are approximately £2 million and this stage of the project would have been run through Atkins in China. The bid was not successful but came close and generated much international interest and the possibilities of further collaborative work in China.
• Also in China, discussions have taken place with Yunnan University of Finance and Economics (ranked no. 2 in the province of Yunnan) to develop joint research in the Property and Construction sector. 5 members of staff are already visiting professors in the University and there are some two hundred postgraduate students here on Greenwich distance learning programmes
• At his time of recession, some practices are looking to work with students and staff of the school. Staff are becoming more aware of this and hope to look for further collaborations which will be reported later.
• Collaboration has been established with the WT partnership, which is a professional surveying practice and the aim is to establish a KTP and this is being developed. A KTP with Lakesmere (a leading building envelope company) related to the provision of a training academy is now underway with £10,000 initial funding in from the University of Salford; this is a Business to Higher Education Project (B2HE).
CHALLENGES
• All staff including many research staff are heavily involved in teaching, assessment and administration and this continuing to be a busy time for them. There has been some loss of staff and recent sickness which has put a strain on staff but we hope a successful recruitment campaign will deal with this and numbers of staff will increase by the end of term. As the number of research staff increases, more research activity occurs and research students are encouraged to become more integrated with the activities of the school, so there has been increasing pressure on the space and time available for research activities and meetings.
Name: Liz West
School: Health and Social Care
SUCCESSES
• Outline KTPs on young fathers with Sunlight Centre, Metro Centre and Greenwich PCT all now officially accepted and funding agreed in principle – ESRC and TSB).
• Health Trainers in Medway: Evaluation study—Jane Reeves and Cherill Scott.
• Pam Maras ESRC Michael Young prize panel member
• Ros Delaney – member of NICE Guidelines Review Board on sexual health
• Successful NMC visit—we are ranked for teaching with some of the big hitters.
• Liz West invited onto editorial board of BMC Health Services Research and to be discussant at symposium on cross-national organisational research in health care at the American Academy of Management in Chicago in August.
• Large number of books, papers and presentations reported and information on these activities will be collated at the end of the year.
OPPORTUNITIES
• Bids in progress: SECC (alcohol and drug abuse prevention ~100K); Local evaluation of SOS bus in Medway (10—20K); KTPs--two in development—Wandsworth and Lewisham LAs; we are also involved in 3 Big Lottery Bids (~3-400K each).
• Currently organising our Partners in Practice Day (July 9th) which is designed to inspire collaborations with other health and social care organisations.
• Submitted paperwork to employ a new SRF in the Centre for R&D to increase our research and supervisory capacity
• Pam Maras EON EPSRC Bid starting 1 February
• Ros Corney will be submitting a bid to Breast Cancer Research (~20K)
• Jane Reeves awaiting the outcome of the Health Trainer bid in Medway (~75K
• Jane Reeves and Dave Simms currently working on an ESRC social work proposal
related to Baby P, child deaths and social fathers (~300K)
CHALLENGES
The RAE for Nursing highlighted the following challenges:
• High number of PhD students carried by each supervisor—well above the UoA median
• Small number of research active staff and the absence of early career researchers
• Weak research infrastructure
• Possible lack of sustainability
• Lack of involvement of service users in research
RAE for Psychology
• Level of research income low
• Small number of PhD students and studentships
• Journal Impact Factors—how can we get up to the minute information?
• Intereg IV: Overheads greatly reduced but level of funding not yet confirmed
• SECC projects—university is required to match funding
5. RESEARCH STUDENTS
5.1 Minutes of Research Degree Committees
The Committee noted the Minutes of the last Research Degree Committees held on the 7th January 2009.
5.2 Confirmation of Recommendations of Examiners (October and November, 2008): PhD
The Committee noted Chair's Actions for the meeting held on 25th February 2009, with respect to confirmation of examiners for the awards for PhD and EdD. The Committee endorsed the recommendations of examiners for the awards of PhD considered by Research Degrees Committee on 25th February.
5.3 Quality Assurance Agency Institutional Audit
Prof Reed informed the Committee that the University had undergone a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) audit. The QAA checks how universities maintain their own academic standards and quality. The University was asked if they had assured themselves of best learning experience for its students, given the difference in size of the post graduate population in different schools. The auditors met with two students from one a large School (CMS) and another student from (HSC). Prof Reed was happy to report that both students did well at these interviews.
6. ITEMS FOR INFORMATION
7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
7.1 Internal Webforms
Ms Banton informed Committee that Forms 1 and 2 were now web-based and accessible on the Research Information Portal. The paper based and electronic version would run in parallel on the web until the end of the current academic year when the paper based forms would become obsolete. Dr Jameson suggested that an email including the weblink to the forms be sent out to all staff.
Action: Ms Banton to send out an all staff announce email regarding the webforms.
7.2 Times Higher Education Awards
Prof Barnes also informed the Committee that he would be calling for proposals to the Times Higher Education Awards as the University was successful in winning awards for its contribution to innovation and technology last year. It was hoped that a number of strong proposals would be received again this year. As an incentive, a prize of £500 would be given to each team that gets shortlisted. Prof Barnes would send out an all staff announce email.
Action: Prof Barnes to send out an all staff announce email regarding the Times Higher Education Awards
7.3 EPSRC Blacklisting
Prof Bailey updated the Committee on the plans by EPSRC to implement sanctions on Principle Investigators with three or more failed applications in a two year period ranked in the bottom half of submissions from April 2009. Prof Bailey informed members that there was a petition on the Prime Ministers website and encouraged the colleagues across the University to support this petition.
Dr Woodhead suggested that another option would be for the University to drum support from the million + group. The Committee agreed that this be brought to the attention of the PVC and consideration given to how this information was shared around the university.
7.4 PhD Meeting
Prof Reed updated the Committee in regards to the PhD Meeting. The Chair requested that selected members of the R&E Committee review at how the University attracts and then retains students on its research programmes. Prof Reed informed members that the group met on Monday 23rd March and will present a report to the Chair in due course.
|Meeting |Papers Received by |
| | |
|Wednesday 6th May 2009, 2.15 pm, B028 , Medway |22nd April 2009 |
|Wednesday 24th June 2009, 2.15pm, S311, Avery Hill |10th June 2009 |
APPENDIX 1
Name: Prof Ed Galea
School: CMS
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Galea [mailto:E.R.Galea@gre.ac.uk]
Sent: 15 April 2009 16:55
To: Chipo Nyandoro-Kunzvi
Subject: Re: Minutes of the Research & Enterprise Meeting held on 25th March 2009
Chipo,
I would like to highlight some corrections to the minutes:
1) Section 3.2.
My point was that Finance must have all the Form2's of all the projects that have budget codes, otherwise they would not issue have issued a budget code for the project. With this information going back a few years, say to 2001, we will have a better idea of the historic income generation per year, and hence we will be able to better see the peaks and troughs cycle. We would then be in a better position to draw meaningful inferences from the revenue data by looking at 3 year rolling averages rather than the ups and downs of yearly revenue generation. This data must be relatively straightforward for finance to retrieve as they must have all the Form2 information on file.
2) Section 3.5
I am not happy with the summary of the CMS position I put forward regarding the RAE funding. This is a complex issue and needs to be accurately recorded. I do not feel that the summary presented in the minutes accurately reflects the scope and detail of the points that I made at the meeting. The points I made were as follows:
a) CMS research staff were disappointed that the RAE fund distribution model developed by PVC Research was not discussed at the R&E committee prior to going to Exec. This is probably one of the most important issues that the R&E committee has to discuss as it determines the distribution of over £2 million in research funding. As it is, the R&E committee had no formal input into the shape of the funding model or the decision making process.
b) CMS research staff were disappointed that the CMS Head of School had no chance to view the RAE distribution model prior to its presentation to and agreement by Executive.
c) While we agree in principle with the RAE distribution model we disagree with the details, in particular, the size of the RAE fund that is to be open to competitive bidding. CMS feel that rather than the current 30% a 15% share would be more appropriate.
d) The funding model means that CMS will have its RAE allocation for 2009/2010 cut by 10% - while it effectively generated 33% more funding from HEFCE in RAE2008 compared with the HEFCE RAE allocation from RAE2001 for 2008/2009.
e) CMS do not feel that it is fair or appropriate that they should be forced to bid for such a large proportion of the research funding they have already won only months before in the toughest research quality assessment in the country - the RAE. All the research activity submitted to the RAE was judged by an independent panel of international experts from within the disciplines being assessed. The same cannot be said of any panel setup to judge research within the University.
f) The model proposed by CMS (with 15% going into the competitive bid fund) would provide over £600,000 open to competitive bidding, while the CMS formulaic allocation would go up 5% on RAE2001 allocations for 2008/2009.
g) Using the CMS proposed model, the competitive bid fund could be protected so that research groups with formulaic funding exceeding a critical value either prevented from bidding for additional funding, or the additional funds that could be awarded to groups with formulaic funding above a critical value could be capped to an appropriate amount.
This would protect the fund so that it could be used to nurture promising or new areas of research.
h) CMS feel that the variation to the funding model it has proposed would reward success while at the same time nurture innovation.
Regards
Chipo Nyandoro-Kunzvi wrote:
> Dear Members,
>
> Please find attached the minutes of the Research and Enterprise Committee meeting held on Wednesday 25th March 2009.
>
> Regards,
> Chipo
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Chipo Nyandoro-Kunzvi
> Research Funding Administrator & Adviser
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Prof Ed Galea PhD
CAA Professor of Mathematical Modelling
Director Fire Safety Engineering Group
Postal Address
Fire Safety Engineering Group
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences University of Greenwich Old Royal Naval College 30 Park Row Greenwich SE10 9LS London UK
Phone: +44 (0)20 83318730
Fax: +44 (0)20 83318925
Email: e.r.galea@gre.ac.uk
Personal Home Page:
FSEG Home Page:
University of Greenwich, a charity and company limited by guarantee, registered in England (reg no. 986729).
Registered Office: Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich SE10 9LS.
Name: John Morton
School: NRI
-----Original Message-----
From: MORTON JOHN F [mailto:J.F.Morton@greenwich.ac.uk]
Sent: 07 May 2009 12:46
To: Chipo Nyandoro-Kunzvi
Subject: Research & Enterprise Committee
Dear Chipo
I am emailing following Professor Barnes's invitation yesterday to let you know of any supplements to the minutes of March's discussions on distribution of RAE funding.
While generally supporting the proposal for a 70:30 split, I did observe that the news that the design of the REF is looking more and more like the RAE, points to the need to keep preparedness for the REF in view. We will need (depending on the School/UoA involved) to do some things to prepare for the RAE that cannot be subsumed under investing seed money to grow research and enterprise business.
Regards
John
John Morton
Professor of Development Anthropology,
Livelihoods and Institutions Group,
Natural Resources Institute
T: (44) 01634 883064
F: (44) 01634 883377
email: j.f.morton@gre.ac.uk
University of Greenwich, a charity and company limited by guarantee,
registered in England (reg no. 986729). Registered Office: Old Royal
Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich SE10 9LS.
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