UNCONFIRMED
UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
RESEARCH COMMITTEE
Minutes of the meeting of the Research Committee of the Academic Board held on 25 February 2016.
PRESENT: Professor J M Senior (Chairman)
Dr S Adams
Mrs S Akhtar
Professor E Brinks
Dr R Day
Dr D J Done
Dr S Grey
Professor H R A Jones
Professor S A Kendall
Dr G Lees-Maffei
Dr L Mackenzie
Dr C Manthorpe
Professor J Morris
Dr V Steuber
Dr C Stopford
Mr L Taylor
Dr P J Fiddaman (Item 10)
Miss C Holloway (Item 11.3)
Ms E Hubbard
Mr M Kesvani
Dr D Murnane (Item 7.3)
Mrs A Sheehan-Evett
(Items 7.3-13)
Miss A Jones
Dr R Levy
Mr D G McLeod
Mrs K Swainston
Professor D Ward
IN ATTENDANCE:
Mrs J H Allen
Professor D R Brennan
Mr D Combes
Mrs H Davidson
APOLOGIES:
Professor A Baydoun
Professor O Davies
Mr P A Findlay
ACTION
913
MEMBERSHIP
913.1
Category 4, 'Associate Deans of School (Research)'
Noted: this would be the final meeting to be attended by Professor S A Kendall who
would resign from the University on 23 March 2016. Professor Kendall was thanked for
her significant contribution to the work of the Research Committee over a long period.
913.2
In attendance
Noted:
913.2.1
Professor D R Brennan attended on behalf of Professor D Ward, Dean, Hertfordshire
Business School;
913.2.2
Mr D Combes, Head of Infrastructure, Library and Computing Services, attended on
behalf of Dr D M Ford, Chief Information Officer, and would become Dr Ford's nominee
with effect from 1 March 2016;
913.2.3
Dr P J Fiddaman, Deputy Director, Business Development, attended for Agenda Item 10;
913.2.4
Miss C Holloway, Research Impact Facilitator, attended for Agenda Item 11.3;
913.2.5
Ms E Hubbard, Research Support Coordinator, attended on behalf of Mrs K Swainston;
913.2.6
Dr D Murnane, Associate Dean (Enterprise) in the School of Life and Medical
Sciences, attended for Agenda Item 7.3;
913.2.7
Mrs A Sheehan-Evett, Senior European Research Coordinator, attended for Agenda
Item 7.3-13;
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913.3
Research Office
Noted: given the proposed organisational changes (Minute 916.3, refers),
consideration would be given to the membership profile of officers in attendance in time
for the start of the 2016-2017 Academic Year.
914
MINUTES – 15 OCTOBER 2015
Confirmed and signed: the minutes (Confidential Agenda Paper 3, refers).
915
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
915.1
Research Misconduct - Minutes 756.2 and 898.1 refer
915.1.1
Noted: amendments to UPR RE02, 'Research Misconduct' were being considered by
Mrs A Courtney, Head of Governance Services, and Dr S Grey, Director, Doctoral
College.
915.1.2
Agreed: the amended UPR would be noted on 19 May 2016.
915.2
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postgraduate Training REF
Metrics and Collaborative Doctoral Training (CDT) Priority Areas - Minutes 762.1
and 898.3 refer
915.2.1
Received: an oral report from Dr D J Done, Director of Health and Human Sciences
Research Institute, concerning the identification of potential partnership opportunities.
915.2.2
Noted:
915.3
Clerk
i
the opportunities to benefit from this initiative were limited given that only one
discipline area in the University met the required conditions and therefore it
would be necessary for the University to identify suitable doctoral training
partners in order to attract funding;
ii
although it was not possible to take advantage of the current opportunity given
that the deadlines had now passed, there was still a need to develop
partnerships in areas relevant to REF Units of Assessment in readiness to be
able to bid for doctoral training funding opportunities as they arose;
iii
whilst there was awareness at the ESRC that member institutions of the
University Alliance had not been particularly successful in this initiative, there
was a need to encourage Schools within the University to consider how they
might achieve suitable partnerships, particularly given that there had been
appropriate partnerships in the past.
Research degree qualification rates - Minute 898.4 refers
Noted: following discovery of discrepancies in the methodology for calculating
qualification rates, HEFCE were redeveloping the methodology. There was no indication
at this stage of when information on qualification rates for 2013-2014 would be available.
915.4
Research league table performance - Minute 905.4 refers
(Minute 922.4, refers.)
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916
RESEARCH POLICY AND STRATEGY
916.1
Strategic Programme - Research
916.1.1
Received: the Research Operational Plan 2015-2020, and Research themes and subthemes, as approved by the Board of Governors on 19 November 2015 (Minute
449.1.3, Board of Governors, refers, and Confidential Agenda Paper 5.1.2, refers)
916.1.2
Noted:
i
there was benefit in considering whether the Operational Plan required a more
detailed year-by-year breakdown;
ii
given that this was the first Strategic Programme within the Strategic Plan 20152020 to be approved by the Board of Governors, it was not yet clear how these
Programmes would be disseminated. Until this decision had been made it would
be appropriate to produce a brochure for circulation within the University and
agreement had been reached with the Vice-Chancellor to publish the Strategic
Programme - Research on the research pages of the University's website and
StaffNet in place of the 2011-2015 Research Strategy which was now out of date;
iii
the research themes and sub-themes had also been published on StaffNet;
iv
these documents could be found at the following links:
UH website - Research operational plan:
http://www.herts.ac.uk/research/research-management/strategy
StaffNet – Research themes: http://www.staffnet.herts.ac.uk/academic-andresearch-services/research-themes.htm
916.1.3
916.1.4
v
members' attention was drawn to a minor amendment to a sub-theme within
'Health and wellbeing' since approval by the Board of Governors whereby,
following representation to the Chairman, it had been agreed to amend 'Psychosocial factors in health and illness' to 'Mental processes in health and illness';
vi
there was still a lack of clarity among the research community concerning the
allocation of Quality Related (QR) funding, given that existing delivery plans
relied on the QR funding already allocated;
vii
it was explained by the Chairman that existing delivery plans and allocation of
QR funding were based on proposals made in the recent REF exercise and that
these would not change, thus these important areas of research activity could
continue to be developed. Funding was made available through actual delivery
plans whereas the research themes and sub-themes were designed to reflect
the University's existing areas of research strength. The research themes would
be formally launched on 12 May 2016, when there would be an opportunity to
clarify the position concerning QR funding;
viii
interviews for theme champions were due to take place shortly; the role of these
individuals was to coordinate research and funding opportunities across the
thematic areas, both within the University and with potential external
partners/contacts,
Agreed: research centres within the School of Life and Medical Sciences remained to
be confirmed and Dr A Baydoun, the School's Associate Dean (Research) would make
a report on 19 May 2016.
Measuring performance against the University's Strategic Plan 2015-2020
i
Received: an oral report from the Chairman.
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ii
Noted:
a
all the major headings in the Strategic Plan - Research were contained in
the University's Strategic Plan, although heading 'D' was not shown within
the research strand of the University-wide Plan;
b
secondary performance indicators relating to income, research delivery
plans and numbers of PhD students would be established, in addition to
the Key Performance Indicators identified by the Board of Governors
(Minute 916.5, refers);
c
monitoring of research delivery plans across all research areas including REF
Units of Assessment was already undertaken annually by Associate Deans
(Research) using a monitoring template and it was intended that this
information should inform the annual Strategic Business Unit Planning Cycle.
916.2
Research integrity gap analysis
916.2.1
Received: a report from Dr Grey (Confidential Agenda Paper 5.2, refers).
916.2.2
Noted:
i
Appendix 1 of Confidential Agenda Paper 5.2 contained the gap analysis, which
was the result of work by the Research Integrity Working Group which was
chaired by Dr Grey;
ii
the University was confident that it was compliant with the requirements of the
Concordat to Support Research Integrity;
iii
the principles of good research integrity were embedded in the Strategic
Programme - Research;
iv
work was continuing in the area of dissemination and improvements had been
recommended as a result of the gap analysis in the areas of publicly-accessible
web links, the establishment of an awareness campaign supported by case
studies and an induction programme for research staff and students;
v
Dr Grey would wish to consult the Department of Marketing and Communications
concerning how communication within the University community might be
improved; she would also consult Human Resources in respect of the production
of a handout for distribution at staff induction sessions.
916.3
Research Office
916.3.1
Received: an oral report from the Chairman concerning organisational changes.
916.3.2
Noted:
i
work had already taken place to bring together the Research Grants Team and
Research Policy and Assessment functions to form a 'Research Office', to be
located within the Office of the Vice-Chancellor Strategic Business Unit;
consideration would be given to relocating these staff in one place;
ii
the services provided would be extended to supporting the roles of the theme
champions and the academic community would also be consulted to establish
how the Research Office could better serve the University
iii
the arrangements relating to the Doctoral College, with administrative support
provided by Academic Registry, would remain unchanged;
iv
the reorganisation of Enterprise and Business Development would result in
separating their responsibilities from those of the Research Office. Business
Development Managers and the Knowledge Transfer Partnership team would
continue to operate under the leadership of Mrs J A Newlan, Pro Vice-Chancellor
(Business and International Development). Discussions within this unit were
continuing concerning the need to understand the potential impact of Enterprise
activities on the University's research areas.
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916.4
Research Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for 2015-2016
916.4.1
Received: an oral report from the Chairman.
916.4.2
Noted:
916.4.3
i
the Board of Governors had approved nine KPIs with the intention that a further
two KPIs should be identified in respect of research, as set out in Minutes 916.4.3
and 916.4.4;
ii
these two measurements would be trialled over a period of one year; however
existing KPIs, research income and the number of research degree student
enrolments, would continue to be measured.
Publications with at least one international author
Noted:
916.4.4
i
having identified the measurement of an increase in the percentage of output of
publications with at least one international author by at least 5%, clarification
would be required to establish whether the reporting period was the academic or
calendar year and whether the measurement was based solely on journal
publications;
ii
further clarification would be required in respect of the Research Information
System baseline from which the measurement would be taken, for example new
members of staff joining the University would bring their publications with them,
thus altering that baseline;
iii
judgement on the reliability of the measurement would not be possible until at
least one year's evidence had been collected.
Technology Readiness Levels
Noted:
i
the second measure was in respect of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL),
whereby level 1 readiness related to projects still being researched and level 9
related to products in the market being used;
ii
whilst an assessment of projects having reaching level 4-5, indicating significant
progress, was not straightforward, the University had 12 projects at this stage and
would be required to raise this number to 14;
iii
whilst these projects might not relate directly to the Research Excellence
Framework, their impacts would constitute relevant evidence and provide suitable
opportunities for case studies;
iv
there was a need to ensure that these projects were supported by research
activity in addition to their commercial potential.
916.5
Developing international research collaborations
916.5.1
Received: an oral report from the Chairman concerning his visit and discussions with
Australian universities in respect of research collaboration.
916.5.2
Noted:
i
following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University
Alliance and the Australian Technology Network, the Chairman had attended a
workshop in Adelaide and visited a number of Australian universities to discuss
opportunities for collaboration;
ii
the Australian Government had identified eight national priorities for research that
closely matched this University's proposed research themes;
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916.6
iii
as a result of the Chairman's visit and discussions, return visits would be
arranged to the UK by the University of Technology Sydney and the University of
Western Sydney, the former of whom was a member of the Australian
Technology Network;
iv
a visit was also made to the Royal Melbourne Institute for Technology, another
Australian Technology Network member, with whom information concerning
opportunities for collaboration were exchanged.
'Reach for the stars'
Noted:
916.6.1
a two-day event had been held at Hatfield Galleria on 17-18 February 2016 to inform
the local community of the University's research and included topics such as a
planetarium, what happens when glaciers melt, stories of World War 1, healthcare
issues and the University's latest advances in engineering research;
916.6.2
the event had been advertised on StaffNet, UHQ, 'What's on' and in the local press; it
had been largely successful but would have benefited from the presence of students to
encourage visitors to the stands.
916.7
Engaging for research impact
Noted:
916.7.1
the University's 2016 public engagement with research conference would be held at the
University on Wednesday 8 June 2016;
916.7.2
in addition, there would be a research and innovation showcase of events early in the
evening prior to the annual meeting of the University Court, which it was anticipated
might also be of interest to members of the Court, and it was hoped to invite external
key contacts.
917
RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT
917.1
Research Development Working Group (RDWG) - Minutes 760.2 and 900.1 refer
917.1.1
Received: an oral report from Dr D G Lees-Maffei.
917.1.2
Noted:
i
917.1.3
the Working Group had a number of new members as well as two vacancies and
its membership would be noted on 20 October 2016;
ii
results of analysis of the Careers in Research Online Survey(CROS) and
Principal Investigators and Research Leaders Survey (PIRLS) were still awaited
in order to be able to develop a two-year action plan;
iii
the 2015-2016 'Skill-up' awards had been made and two workshops to support
early career researchers had been planned.
Researcher development conference, Wednesday 21 September 2016, Weston
Auditorium
Noted:
i
the event would be run jointly with the Doctoral College;
ii
whilst the name of the conference had yet to be agreed, its purpose was to raise
awareness of researcher development issues;
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iii
the day would consist of full group sessions, a lunchtime poster session and short
presentations from each of the new research theme champions;
iv
topics to be covered by the full group sessions would include research-informed
teaching, action learning sets and open access.
917.2
Athena SWAN - Minutes 760.3 and 900.2 refer
917.2.1
Received: an oral report from Dr Grey.
917.2.2
Noted:
i
the University signed a new charter in 2015-2016 in recognition of the wider remit
of the award to include subjects beyond the original Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics subjects;
ii
the School of Engineering and Technology would shortly submit for a Bronze
Award and the School of Life Sciences would submit for a Silver Award;
iii
the second meeting of the University's Athena SWAN Champions Network was
due to take place in March 2016;
iv
Professor Averil McDonald, OBE, would be addressing colleagues on 28 April
2016 and it was anticipated that Associate Deans (Research) would find the
event helpful in preparing Athena SWAN submissions;
v
a key activity currently was the creation of a coordinated research mentoring
programme.
918
DOCTORAL COLLEGE
918.1
HE Review - research degrees
918.1.1
Received: an oral report from Dr Grey in respect of feedback from the Quality
Assurance Agency (QAA) concerning research degrees provision.
918.1.2
Noted: formal feedback from the QAA was due shortly and it was known that two areas
had been identified for good practice: the University's provisions for handling
collaborative undertakings and research degree management.
918.2
The University Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA)
918.2.1
To receive an oral report from the Chairman concerning a new University Doctoral
Training Alliance in future energies.
918.2.2
Noted:
i
the University was already an observer in a doctoral Training Alliance initiative in
respect of biosciences and it was anticipated that it would join the initiative in its
second year of operation. The University would be required to resource two
studentships per year for two years and this would be supported by the School of
Life and Medical Sciences;
ii
a new initiative was to be launched in September 2016 in respect of future
energies; ten universities were participating and the University of Hertfordshire
had opted for observer status. If the School of Engineering and Technology were
able to resource studentships in this field, it would be possible to engage at a
later stage having taken observer status at the outset.
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918.3
Doctoral training programme - Hertfordshire Knowledge Innovation Centre for
Science - Minute 911.2 refers
918.3.1
Received: a report from Dr Murnane concerning his success in gaining approval from
the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for a doctoral training centre in the
fields of drug delivery/toxicology sciences and agritechnology sensing technologies
(Confidential Agenda Paper 7.3, refers).
Minute 918.3.2 is confidential and available to Members and Officers in Attendance only.
919
RESEARCH GRANTS
919.1
Research Grants Office
919.1.1
Received:
i
a report from Miss A Jones, Manager, Research Grants Team, concerning
update information from the Research Grants Office (Agenda Paper 8.1, refers);
ii
an oral report from Mrs Sheehan-Evett.
919.1.2
Noted: Horizon 2020 was now in its second year and the University had won ten bids
during the two years of the programme.
920
RESEARCH GRANTS APPLICATIONS AND AWARDS
920.1
Received: the research grant applications and awards for the period ending
31 January 2016 from Mr M Kesvani, Research Finance Advisor (Confidential Agenda
Paper 9.1, refers).
Minute 920.2 is confidential and available to Members and Officers in Attendance only.
921
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
921.1
Received: an oral report from Dr Fiddaman.
921.2
Noted:
921.2.1
there had been recent team changes;
921.2.2
Mr P A Findlay was continuing as Director of Business Development; his role would
take on a more strategic nature in working with funders such as the European Regional
Development Fund and HEFCE and also working alongside the LEP on Growth Deal
opportunities for the University;
921.2.3
Dr Fiddaman had been Head of Knowledge Transfer with responsibility for Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and the KEEP programme but from 1 December 2015 had
taken over as Deputy Director for Business Development. Dr Fiddaman and his team
would focus primarily on winning high-value and profitable projects;
921.2.4
all business development staff had been relocated into one area in the MacLaurin
Building near the Research Grants Team with a view to providing strong support to the
Schools and a new Head of Knowledge Transfer would be appointed shortly;
the team's relationship with Ms Holloway in her role as Research Impact Facilitator
would be developed in order to maximise the evidence of the impact of business
development and knowledge transfer activities in the University's research;
921.2.5
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921.2.6
the building of long-term partnerships was also an important aspect of positive impact in
assessing the quality of the University's research. In this respect the University
benefited from two strong partnerships in the engineering field, not only in terms of
commercial income and research opportunities but also placement and employment
opportunities for students
921.2.7
there was scope for large-scale partnership with the LEP, particularly in the fields of
agritechnology and pharmacy (Hertfordshire Knowledge and Innovation Centre for
Sciences (HKICS)) (Minute 918.3, refers);
921.2.8
Dr Fiddaman's team was ready to support areas where research was currently being
undertaken but not yet ready for commercial application and a triage process was being
developed to assist in identifying potential business opportunities;
921.2.9
whilst the resources were limited, pre- and post-award support would still be given to
researchers following the granting of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership award.
922
RESEARCH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND SCHOLARLY
COMMUNICATIONS
922.1
Received:
922.1.1
an update report prepared by Ms B Adams, Library and Computing Services,
concerning the University's Research Archive (UHRA) and Research Information
System (RIS) (Agenda Paper 11.1, refers);
922.1.2
an oral report from Mr Combes.
922.2
Noted: following identification of software issues, the problems of interface between the
RIS and the UHRA were being resolved but the statistics on UHRA usage, as given in
Agenda Paper 11.1, would be affected; however the data on the UHRA was now
accurate.
922.3
Agreed: Mr Combes would investigate the system following comments from members
that it was slow.
922.4
Research league table performance - Minute 905.4 refers
922.4.1
Received: a report from Dr C Manthorpe, Head, Research Policy and Assessment,
concerning her investigation into the possible causes of the drop in University of
Hertfordshire citation performance since The Times Higher Education decision to switch
from the Web of Science database to the Scopus database when updating the
measurement time period (Agenda Paper 11.2, refers).
922.4.2
Agreed: discussion of the matter would be deferred until 19 May 2016 to enable Dr
Manthorpe to investigate the position in respect of competitor institutions.
922.5
Research Impact
922.5.1
Received:
i
an update report on research impact from Dr Manthorpe (Agenda Paper 11.3,
refers);
ii
an oral report from Ms Holloway.
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922.5.2
Noted:
i
since the publication of the REF results in 2014, the University had put in place a
number of initiatives in respect of identifying research impact and there were
indications that the Government would wish to continue to assess impact;
ii
much had been done centrally to raise awareness in all Schools and initiatives
had been introduced to broaden the dissemination of information on research that
included social media, as well as media and public engagement (Section 2 of
Agenda Paper 11.3, refers);
iii
the awareness of the relationship between the commercialising of the University's
research and impact was growing and a small grants scheme had been
introduced to help researchers develop impact case studies for the next REF;
iv
Schools would be encouraged to produce a strategy for the identification of
impact in their own areas and discussions had taken place with Associate Deans
(Research).
923
RESEARCH STUDENTSHIPS
923.1
Research Councils UK (RCUK) fee and stipend levels for 2016-2017
Noted:
923.1.1
the Research Councils had agreed that the national minimum doctoral stipend for 20162017 would be increased from £14,057 to £14,296 from 1 October 2016 to
30 September 2017;
923.1.2
the RCUK indicative doctoral fee level from 1 October 2016 would be increased from
£4,052 to £4,121 per annum.
923.2
University of Hertfordshire bursary level 2016-2017
Noted:
923.2.1
the student bursary level for new and continuing University-funded studentships was
expected to be increased from £14,057 to £14,296 per annum, in line with RCUK.
923.2.2
the Research Degrees Board would receive a paper concerning the additional elements
to be covered by the University's bursary to maintain its equivalency to the RCUK
stipend, including parental leave, adoption leave and sickness pay.
924
COUNTER TERRORISM AND SECURITY ACT 2015 ('PREVENT')
Noted: there were no other matters relevant to the Act not dealt with earlier in the meeting.
925
AGENDA PART II
Noted and approved: Part II of the Agenda (Minutes 926-928, refer).
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926
PROFESSORS AND READERS
926.1
Professorships
926.2
Noted: the appointment of Dr W J Wills as Professor of Food and Public Health in the
School of Health and Social Work, with effect from 1 February 2016.
Readerships
Noted: the appointment of Dr S Coleman as Reader in Philosophy in the School of
Humanities, with effect from 1 February 2016.
927
RESEARCH DEGREES BOARD
Noted: the minutes of the following meetings had been published:
927.1
24 September 2015 (Confidential Agenda Paper B.1, Part I minutes only, refers);
927.2
19 November 2015 (Confidential Agenda Paper B.2, Part I minutes only, refers).
928
ETHICS COMMITTEE FOR STUDIES INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS
Noted: the minutes of the meeting of 21 October 2015 (Agenda Paper C, refers).
929
RISK
Noted: there were no risks inherent in the matters dealt with by the Committee during
the meeting but not discussed when the item concerned was taken.
930
PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
Noted: no people development needs were identified.
931
EMERGENCY BUSINESS
931.1
Membership Category 9, 'A representative of the contract/early career research
staff'
Approved: the term of office of Dr C Stopford would be extended to conclude on
31 August 2016.
932
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Thursday, 19 May 2016, at 09.30 hours, in the Central Committee Room, MacLaurin
Building.
Items for the Agenda should be notified to the Clerk by Thursday, 28 April 2016.
Supporting papers should be provided to the Clerk by Thursday 5 May 2016
(e-mail: [email protected] Telephone:284902).
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