Computing Research, Consultancy and External Activities Committee

Strategy 2002-2006

1.     Introduction and aims

This document sets out the aspirations of the Departments of Information Systems and Computer Applications (ISCA), Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) and Creative Technologies (CT) in research and related activity for the next five years.

Our primary aim is to do productive, high quality research. Section 2.1 sets out the goals we believe we need to meet along the way. That aim may only encompass a small minority of staff directly, however this strategy is intended to show that all members of staff have a role to play to make the departments widely respected and well known for their contributions to knowledge and understanding. Section 2.2 in particular sets out the roles that people can play in achieving this..

Our objectives are to:

1.      Ensure that a number of staff can be submitted to the next RAE are RAE worthy with sufficiently good publications, income-generation record and research student supervision record to be considered at least of national standing, and for some to be of international standing.

2.      Support and encourage members of staff who may not be submitted to contribute to the research activity and culture of the department in ways that enhance the submissionresearch culture and their own research standing.

3.      Support and encourage staff who are not research active to pursue complementary activities that enhance their scholarship, including consultancy, active membership of external bodies, the organisation of events such as seminars and conferences, the publication of non-research works (such as textbooks) and the generation of other forms of external income to the Department.

2.     Research goals and strategy

Goal

Strategy

2.1.            Goals related directly to RAE

1.      Increase research funding won
  • Encourage and support staff to make bids
  • Collaborate tactically on funding bids (including crossovers with other groups and institutions)

2.      Increase number of high-quality papers
  • Target publications at international quality journals
  • Target conferences that carry equal status with journals

3.      Sustain numbers of PhD completions
  • Fund research students internally
  • Obtain external funding for research students

4.      Increase our level of national esteem
  • Forge relationships with the wider UK research community
  • Establish strategic partnerships
  • Host/organise/chair conferences
  • Play an active role in national organisations, etc.

5.      Increase our level of international esteem
  • Convert elements of national esteem into international ones

6.      Increase number of research-active staff
  • Treat research potential as a significant factor in new academic appointments
  • Protect research active staff from high teaching loads
  • Appoint visiting professors and research fellows
  • Monitor research-active status of all staff

7.      Devote more staff resources to research
  • Selectively reduce teaching and admin loads for key researchers
  • Provide support and encouragement to staff who "support" the key researchers
  • Appoint research-active mentors for new staff with research potential
  • Hold research-oriented staff development and training activities (including "Wednesday 5s" and research seminars)

8.      Manage research more effectively
  • Adopt and implement a more formal research strategy
  • Plan combined and departmental activities
  • Provide administrative support for research activities

9.      Increase profile of research within Computing
  • Timetable regular research seminars
  • Monitor the ways in which research enhances teaching
  • Host and publicise a series of research seminars with external speakers

2.2.            Goals not related directly to RAE

10.  Increase income from non-teaching sources
  • Encourage staff to do consultancy activity
  • Host events locally

11.  Increase profile of the departments
  • Encourage staff to publicise their successes
  • Encourage staff to be active in professional or learned societies
  • Encourage staff to publish textbooks, software, etc.

12.  Increase research ethos around the department
  • Produce a quarterly newsletter to make research activity more obvious
  • Give kudos for research activity
  • Take research into account when teaching and administrative changes are made
  • Make our teaching follow the lines of our research

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