Research Strategy

HEADLINE PRINCIPLES AND SUMMARY

This Strategy supports the established Research and Scholarship Policy, reprinted at the end of this document, and does not seek to revisit overarching questions of University research policy.

Why we need Research

Research features as one of the University’s four key strategic priorities because it is fundamental to the identity, mission and performance of a Higher Education Institution, having a key influence on:

university league tables through research performance weighting
the ability to attract high quality staff, students and partners
public perceptions of the University’s standing and purpose
the ability profitably to engage with external stakeholders
enthusiasm and engagement of PGT and PGR students alongside UGT students
motivation of UGT students to progress to PG awards
the recruitment of international students in a broader range of subjects

Who Should Research

All academic staff undertake research as part of their Research and Scholarly Activity time, and should identify appropriate research aims within the range of research activities. The University seeks to promote research and scholarship across its academic areas as well as developing and supporting research excellence where this can be sustained.

By encouraging all academic staff to undertake research the University will be well placed to safeguard:

currency of knowledge deployed in teaching and other knowledge exchange contexts
postgraduate research student supervision

and to develop:

research profiles capable of attracting competitive funding
collaborative research potential
internationally excellent and world class research to attract quality rated funding .

What Research is at UoG

Postgraduate research: the supervision and training of postgraduate researchers

This will be a core area of research growth in the University, building supervisory and examination capacity as well as research student numbers, including those studying for professional/taught doctorates
Research, Pedagogy and Scholarship: activity to support subject knowledge and the development of the University’s excellence in teaching

The development of subject knowledge for Research informed Teaching, including research into teaching, will continue to be central to the University’s aims as a learning-led institution
Income generation and Consultancy, which may include enterprise activity: commissioned user-defined work for external agencies from any business sector and research activity aimed at the commercial application of specialist knowledge

Enterprise and funding activity will be one of the major research endeavours of the University to develop the commercial benefits of knowledge application. Departments, and where individually negotiated, particular staff will set income generation goals in line with the University’s Enterprise Strategy
Social and economic impact, including research-informed external engagement and applied research activities of benefit to the community

Engagement and the application of research to real-world problems for the benefit of society is a priority benefitting the University’s internal and external stakeholders and raising the University’s profile
REF preparation: research intended for submission in the Research Excellence Framework assessment exercise in 2014

REF entry will be centered on submissions that have a developing internationally excellent and world-class research profile, normally underpinned with a critical mass of staff and students. A highly selective approach will establish Units of Assessment that meet the criteria.

What defines the strategy

The underlying principle of the Research Strategy is the further integration of research planning at the level of the Faculty and the Department.

Research planning will be embedded in Faculties with clearly defined priorities at the level of the Department and, through SDRs, the individual scholar.

This will necessitate regularly reviewed Research Plans for all Departments and Research Institutes. Research priorities are unlikely to be the same for each Department or Faculty.

Also, through the Academic Efficiency Review, the University will agree the framework for research funding, taking into account direct and indirect costs, income and other ‘non-financial’ benefits

How the Strategy will be delivered

Actions and responsibilities for the elements of the Research Strategy are set our separately but the mechanisms for delivery will be established and fully functioning within Faculty structures in place in academic year 2010-11 overseen by Associate Dean (Research) roles. In conjunction with Heads of Departments, Associate Deans will establish headline Faculty research priorities (see examples below) for approval by Faculty Executive and endorsement by Faculty Board.

Other collaborations are essential for Research to be both successful and fully embedded:

Research institutes work with Faculties to spearhead Research success
Research informed Teaching links are promoted by all, and cemented by links between researchers and TLI
There are incentives to work with the CEI and Research Funding Office , established through Departmental strategy and KPIs
The Postgraduate Research Centre operates a hub and spoke model with Faculty Research Degree Tutors / FRDs
Research Office collaboration with Development Office identifies sponsorship and fund-raising opportunities for research and for new leadership posts
Faculties & Research Office work with iDec to optimize PGR recruitment
Research Office works with LIS, Faculties, and Estates to establish best appropriate research support and working facilities for PG students
Departments work towards closer PGT and PGR collaborations in promoting research opportunities
Research Institutes and Centres work with Faculties, External Relations & Research Office to promote research activities, opportunities and seminars

RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP POLICY

Context

The purpose of this Policy is to support the University’s aims for research and scholarship, as articulated in its Strategic Plan. The Policy establishes institutional commitments and responsibilities in relation to research, the major operational principles of which are contained in an accompanying strategy document. Its purpose is also to support scholarship, and the variety of outcomes from scholarly activity expressed through the different subject areas of the University.

All members of staff on academic contracts are entitled and expected to engage in research and scholarly activity as part of their academic duties.

1. The Role of Research and Scholarship at the University
An active, ethical, and sustainable culture of research and scholarship contributes to the maintenance of the University’s academic vitality, the health and well-being of its members of staff through self-improvement, and to the employment needs of a knowledge-based economy. Research and scholarship informs and enriches the University's teaching programmes, and staff development programmes, alongside its maintenance of the requisite high standards and degree of relevancy appropriate to the needs of society, business, industry, the public sector and voluntary organisations.

2. The Strategic Commitment to Research and Scholarly Activity
High-quality research, professional and creative practice, and other forms of scholarly activity are integral to the credibility, reputation and national positioning of the University of Gloucestershire. These elements support its aims in teaching and learning, knowledge exchange, academic skills development, social inclusion, and the provision of a high-quality student experience by the encouragement of scholarship amongst all members of staff who teach or who support teaching. The achievement of sustainable research and scholarly activity is a strategic priority that supports the core business of higher education, facilitates the acquisition and exchange of knowledge, leads to its wise and responsible transformation and application, and contributes to national and international commercial, industrial, and social development.

3. The Benefits of Research and Scholarly Activity
The initiation and advancement of knowledge and understanding has a central role in a mainstream and progressive Higher Education Institution. The benefits that accrue from successful research and scholarly activity include:

Enhancing the quality of teaching, learning and curriculum development;
Increasing external income from grants, bids, contracts and collaborations;
Attracting high-quality staff and those with specific national and international reputations, postgraduate students, undergraduate students and those on professional programmes;
Raising the institution’s reputation and profile;
Forging mutually beneficial regional, national and international links with industry, business, the public sector, and partner organisations.

4. Focus
The University encourages all subject areas to develop and to undertake research and scholarship in the form of individual or team projects and collaborative research programmes, with emphasis given to those activities that:

strengthen the institution’s status as a centre of high-quality research and scholarship;
strengthen the institution’s status as a centre of high-quality teaching;
connect with external partners and attract external funding and support;
result in the dissemination and publication or creation of significant work;
lead to the award of research degrees;
provide high-quality research training;
contribute to the University’s core values with regard to sustainability, community and quality of life.

5. Leadership and Professional Development
The University seeks to increase the number of highly trained academic staff and research supervisors through the provision of staff development opportunities for research and scholarly activity, the encouragement of Research Institutes, Centres or Units led by academic staff appointed as readers or professors, and the provision of suitable mentoring systems. To ensure the stability of high-quality research, to facilitate capacity building, and to provide continuity of support, the University encourages the maintenance of successful Research Units and teams and applications for support from external resources.

6. Culture
All members of staff on the academic contract have a stated minimum annual time provision for research and scholarly activity. The University recognises that staff with agreed additional research duties have a need for time and resources in order to facilitate:

reading, reflection, professional and creative practice, data collection, experimentation, analysis, and writing up or production where appropriate;
meeting and networking with other researchers, artists or practitioners;
the preparation for the publication, broadcast, display, or dissemination of work and findings;
applications for external funding.

7. Knowledge Exchange and User-focused Research and Scholarly Activity
As an increasing part of its core activity, the University encourages the productive application of new knowledge generated by research and scholarship. The University supports applied research undertaken for external clients to whom the work is of direct benefit, and for which a commercial fee can be attracted. It also seeks to increase external income for and from user-focused or -defined research and to build strategic partnerships with other research institutions in its work for commercial organisations and other clients. In this endeavour it aims to improve the University’s regional, national and international profile in key areas, to increase research and consultancy funding from sources other than HEFCE, and to work with partner institutions and organisations on collaborative research projects and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).

8. Research Student Support
The University has a major commitment to fostering original single disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and scholarship, to broadening the provision of research degrees, and to facilitating and enhancing across the institution a vigorous programme of continuous professional development that includes and supports research students and supervisors. In line with the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Programmes (September 2004), the University is further committed to the maintenance of robust and effective policies and procedures that assure, enhance, and promote the standards and quality of research degree programmes, in which the provision of training for supervisors alongside the cultivation of employability skills is integral. The University seeks to grow its postgraduate research student population and in particular its range of professional doctorate programmes attractive to home and international students.

9. Research and Teaching & Learning
As acknowledged equally in the University’s Learning Teaching & Assessment Strategy, research and scholarship underpin the academic status of the University as an institution in which the expertise and the specialist knowledge of its staff are employed to be of direct benefit to students in ways that enrich programme areas and improve curriculum design and delivery. In this respect, it is in the interest of the University to foster research and scholarship that links to teaching practice and to build both its capacity and reputation in pedagogic and andragogic as well as disciplinary research. The University’s Pedagogic Research and Scholarship Institute (PRSI) will be instrumental in promoting and pursuing this agenda. Research-informed teaching and the promotion of inquiry-based research at undergraduate level additionally both support and are supported by these aims. The scholarship of learning and teaching is also supported by these aims and particularly in the University’s aim to promote Lifelong Learning. It is also a priority for the University to encourage professional accreditation and Research Council recognition wherever appropriate.

10. Resourcing
In recognising the significance of research, the University affirms the importance of individual and group research potential, supervisory experience, commercial activity, and track record, including history of publication, production of artistic works, dissemination, and professional and creative practice. All academic departments should have some opportunity to undertake additional research above that which is expected as part of the academic contract, although expectations of and level of support for research activity and outputs will vary between individuals, faculties, and Research Areas. Within the context of selective support, the University considers that all research planning must be consonant with University priorities but that the focus of decision-making about the portfolio of research and other activities for a Research Area should reside locally within Faculties. It is here that knowledge of available resources and expertise is most detailed and where operational objectives are set.

11. Expectations of Staff
The University considers that high-quality research and scholarly activity, teaching, consultancy, professional and creative practice, course development and management duties merit parity of esteem. It is recognised that individual staff will be suited to different parts of this range of activities and therefore the University does not expect that all staff will be engaged in particular kinds of funded research. It is, however, an expectation that all academic staff will be engaged in some research and scholarship during each academic year. This is normally closely linked to teaching and/or specific research duties.

12. Range of Activities
The University has the ultimate responsibility for taking an overview of its research portfolio and will, through Executive and the strategic planning process, set out its priorities as they relate to research through the University Strategic Plan and Executive, under advisement from University Committees and in cognisance of external drivers. Research and scholarly activity undertaken by all academic staff as part of their contract to support teaching and/or specific research duties is managed through the Staff Development Review Process.

13. Planning
The University will encourage Faculties to be selective in the areas of research and scholarship that they pursue, harnessing and developing the talents and abilities of the staff available to them in the most effective and productive way. The University will also both encourage and, where possible, facilitate Research Areas to seek innovative opportunities for research both within and between disciplines. The University will sustain a plurality of curiosity-driven and user-defined research projects, in line with the aims and objectives articulated in Faculty research strategies, through which individuals and Departments are appropriately supported to pursue pure, applied, and pedagogic research alongside scholarly inquiry to support learning and teaching.

14. Profile
The University’s research profile will be organised around staff expertise, with special emphasis placed on the development of research teamwork and the establishment of Research Units (as Centres or Institutes). Research Development Groups will be responsible for setting local agendas within Research Area priorities, providing a supportive atmosphere in which to mentor developing and emerging research talent, enabling collaborative projects, and reviewing research strengths in relation to supervision, funding, critical mass and succession planning. Additionally, the University’s International Research Institute in Sustainability (IRIS) will play a prominent role in the establishment of Education for Sustainable Development and issues of sustainability across the research agenda.

15. Strategic Investment
The University is committed to targeted investment for the future in key areas. These will be determined by strategic priorities in accord with principles of transparency and sustainability in order to achieve an extensive portfolio of funded research projects and to cultivate opportunities to establish a cadre of nationally and internationally recognised researchers, scholars, artists and practitioners.

16. Appointments
In recognising the significance of research, the University affirms the importance of individual’s and groups’ research potential, supervisory experience, commercial activity, and track record, including history of publication, dissemination, and professional practice. The University thus seeks to ensure and embed a consideration of candidates’ research capacity and ability to attract external funding, among other considerations, in the processes and criteria for the appointment of academic staff.

References

Recent Policy Documents have shaped the approach taken in the Research Strategy:

1. The Research Excellence Framework:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Research/ref/
2. Researcher development framework, currently under Consultation:
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/165001/Researcher-development-framework-consultation.html
3. Research Councils UK, Economic Impact statement:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/impact/default.htm
4. Higher Ambitions:UK Government November 2009 policy document
http://www.bis.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/publications/Higher-Ambitions.pdf
5. Skills for Growth: The National Skills Strategy:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Skills-Strategy.PDF
6. Warry Report on Research Councils’ Economic Impact
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/impact/warry.htm
7. Government’s Green Book sets out the core principles on which all public sector economic assessment is based. http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_greenbook_guidance.htm