Research Pooling Initiatives Research Assessment Exercise

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Research Pooling InitiativesResearch Assessment
Exercise

• Scottish Science Advisory Panel
• Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 May 2007
• Professor David Gani FRSC FRSE
• Director of Research Policy and Strategy

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A Challenging R D and KT context

• Increasingly globally competitive
• Majority of research funders outwith Scotland
• UK private investment in Scotland (and UK)
  declining
• Overseas investment in UK increasing
• UK countries research policies increasingly
  diverse
• Increasing emphasis on added value activities
• Established OECD competitors larger new ones
  fiercely driven and hungry.

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High Level Policy Issues

• Increasing value of UK research base
• international competitiveness
• effective utilisation of outputs
• Sustaining research evolution
• financial stability
• responsive and flexible research base
• autonomous, market informed HEIs

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Data and Facts 2005-06

• People
• Research Active Academic Staff 5086 (12.1 of
  UK)
• Research Fellows/Assistants 3948
• Research Students (MRes, PhD) 7871 (10.6 of
  UK)
• at 30 sites in over 300 departments/units
• Income
• Research Income 263.4M
• Research Contracts and KT Income 289.9M
• SFC and OSI Research and KT Grants (2005)
  237.0M _______
• Total 790.3M

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Scottish Devolved Government

• Advantages of local policies
• Advantages of UK influence
• Balance between Scottish and UK stance
• Challenges of behaving as a coherent UK system

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RAE 2008 and the future

• RAE 2008 on schedule
• Early indications of volume
• HEFCE letter to English HEIs
• Timetable for developing metrics published
• Well-connected UK-wide interactions
• Early findings available late Summer 2007

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Research Landscape

• SABRIs and HEI interactions
• ETI
• EIT
• ERC
• Concordat on Contract Research Careers
• Research Council Institutes and FEC

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Knowledge Transfer and Direction of Change

• KTG evaluation
• Strategic Priority Investments in Research and
  Innovation Translation (SPIRIT)
• KT in Colleges
• Developing KT for Cultural Engagement and Public
  Policy
• Greater reward for existing KT activity
• Research Councils KT agendas and Pools
• Masters/PhD degrees in Enterprise and Innovation?

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Internationalisaton

• ORSAS
• Marketing Scottish HEIs
• Commercial advantages of Pools
• Attracting international grants/investments
• Retaining international graduates.

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Research Pooling

• SUPA (Physics)
• Scotchem (Chemistry)
• ERP (Engineering and Mathematical Science)
• SAGES (Geo- and Environmental Science)
• SIRE (Economics)
• SRP (General and Civil Engineering)
• SULSA (Biological and Life Science) Phase 1
• SINAPSE (Brain Imaging)
• MSS (Marine Sciences Scotland)

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SRDG

• SULSA and SINAPSE supported
• SICSA progressing
• MSS progressing
• Announcing SRDG 2006 competition results
• Next periodic SRDG competition awaiting the
  SR2007 outcome
• Spending review outcome expected Nov. 2007
• Planning meeting for pooling reflections

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Expectations from Investment

• Attracting the best researchers
• Attracting greater project support
• both for basic and applied research
• Enhanced outputs in R KT
• Advocacy in other developments

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Sept. 2006
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September 2006
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February 2007