ucl research strategy 2011

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LONDONS GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Delivering a Culture of WisdomThe 2011 UCL Research Strategy


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2011 UCL RESEARCH STRATEGY CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

FOREWORD:From the UCL Provost and President 2

INTRODUCTION:From the UCL Vice-Provost (Research) 4A word on terminiology 5

VISION:Delivering a culture of wisdom 6

Wisdom 6

Transforming knowledge into wisdom 6

The potential for a culture of wisdom at UCL 7

FIRST RESEARCH AIM:

Leadership founded in excellence 8Expectations of individual academic staff 8

Excellence across a broad research spectrum 8

Attracting, retaining and cultivating leaders 9

Improving further the experience of research students 10

SECOND RESEARCH AIM:Cross-disciplinarity grounded in expertise 12

Strengthening impact through cross-disciplinary research 12

UCL Grand Challenges 12

UCL Research Frontiers 13

CONTENTS

ContactProfessor David Price

Ofce of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research)UCLGower StreetLondon WC1E 6BTUK

+44 (0)20 7679 8581

[email protected]

www.ucl.ac.uk/research

THIRD RESEARCH AIM:Realising the impact of a global university 14

Outputs 14

Strategic partnerships 14

Engagement 15Proactive communications 16

RESEARCH AND THE WIDERUCL AGENDA 18

International 18

London 18

Education 18

Enterprise 18

Health 19

Public engagement 19

SUPPORTING OUR VISION 20Infrastructure 20

Funding 20

The knowledge base and benchmarking 22

Horizon scanning 22

Investment in cross-disciplinarity 22

Governance and administration 23

Responsiveness and inuence 23

CONCLUSION 24ENDNOTES 24


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2011 UCL RESEARCH STR ATEGY

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2011 UCL Research Strategy calls for atransformation of the understanding of the role of ourcomprehensive research-intensive university in the21st century.

In addition to highlighting the need to nurtureand celebrate individual curiosity-driven research,the strategy sets out for UCL an innovativecross-disciplinary research agenda designed todeliver immediate, medium- and long-term benets tohumanity that is simultaneously extraordinary and incomplete alignment with our fundamental values.

UCL will seize the opportunity and full its obligation to marshal the breadth of its expert perspectives,in order to address issues in their full complexityand contribute to the resolution of the worlds major

problems. This will be achieved not just through

the generation of knowledge, but also through thedelivery of a culture of wisdom, that is an environmentcommitted to the judicious application of knowledge forthe good of humanity.

Delivering a culture of wisdom, therefore, meansdrawing on the full range of our expertise. It requiresa spirit of collaboration and a recognition that thecontribution of which each of us is capable can bevastly greater when made in concert. It necessitates:

respecting specialist knowledge, while dismantlingthe barriers to its cross-fertilisation

supporting the synthesis of new knowledge, bothwithin and across elds and disciplines facilitating collective, collaborative working practices

in order to gain fresh perspectives and, ultimately,wisdom

formulating and advocating policy and practicebased upon the insights so developed.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

From the UCL Council White Paper 20112021

UCL is so complex an organisation, and its activities soextensive and intermingled, that strategy has necessarily tobe developed and expressed in relatively aspirational andabstract terms. Proposals need to be sufciently exibleto provide a framework that is capable of adaptation toreect changes in circumstances.

The success of this research strategy over the next veyears will depend on our ability to:

continue to foster leadership grounded inexcellence in discipline-based research where anindividuals leadership is demonstrated through, for

example: sustained leadership in ones discipline andthe development of novel lines of enquiry; contributionto the intellectual life of ones discipline; cultivation ofcollegiality in ones department, faculty and university;support for and nurturing of early career researchersand students; and openness to the benets ofcross-disciplinary collaboration

expand the distinctive cross-disciplinarity of ourresearch, collaboration and partnerships wherecross-disciplinarity occurs between experts in differentdisciplines, transcending subject boundaries (incontrast to interdisciplinary generalism)

increase the impact of our global universitysresearch, locally, regionally, nationally andinternationally where impact is the benecialapplication of expertise, knowledge, analysis,discovery or insight, primarily delivered throughscholarly outputs, education, public engagement,translational research, commercial and socialenterprise activity, and inuence on public policy and

professional practice.

This document describes in more detail these aims,as well as the practical steps needed to achieve them.

Appendices to this strategy restricted to UCL willcomprise a detailed implementation plan (20112015)and a record of achievement to date (20082011).

As UCL achieves these aims and delivers a culture ofwisdom, we will full our potential as Londons GlobalUniversity: engaged across the spectrum of researchsubjects, from arts and humanities to the basic andapplied sciences and medicine; open to talent fromaround the world; and, furthermore, engaged with theneeds of an interconnected world.


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UCL is committed to the following aims, which provide theframework for this White Paper:

1 maintaining the qualities of a comprehensive university,committed to excellence in the arts, humanities, socialsciences, physical, biological and medical sciences,engineering and the built environment

2 maintaining its openness as an institution, attractingwholly on merit the most talented students from theUnited Kingdom and from around the world

3 providing education of the highest academic quality,

rigorous in its demands, distinctive in its character,imbued with UCLs world-leading research anddelivered by academic staff at the forefront of their eld

4 enhancing its position as one of the worlds leadingresearch institutions with a continued focus on singleand cross-disciplinary research and a commitment to

the application of new knowledge to addressing majorsocietal challenges

5 becoming a global leader in enterprise and openinnovation, supporting and promoting effectiveknowledge exchange, innovation, entrepreneurship andcollaboration with commercial and social enterprises

6 attracting, rewarding and retaining outstanding stafffrom diverse backgrounds

7 securing long-term nancial sustainability andsustaining the level of capital investment necessary toachieve its academic objectives

8 operating at the highest levels of efciency, reducingoverheads and eliminating waste

9 improving the quality, accessibility and sustainability ofits estate and its use, upgrading its built environmentand making optimal use of space.


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PROVOSTS FOREWORD


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2011 UCL RESEARCH STRATEGY

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VICE-PROVOSTS INTRODUCTION

UCL is well-positioned to thrive despite the tight fundingenvironment of the coming ve years. By any metric, ourresearch performance has become increasingly competitiveand powerful in recent years. This is reected in the strengthand quality of the research activity I see every day, in theexcellent research outputs UCL produces (including scholarlypublications), in our success in winning research grants andin the scientic, social, cultural and economic impact of ourresearch. The universitys research and support staff havemuch reason for pride in their performance.

In the context of such seemingly enduring success, it isreasonable to ask: What is the point of this research strategy?

I respond that this strategy provides a vision for the nature ofUCLs research in the 21st century. Our vision seeks to buildupon the radical tradition of innovation, accessibility andrelevance established by our founders and embodied bysuccessive generations. This strategy asserts an adaptableframework through which we can sustain and add value to ourexpertise, thereby discharging our responsibilities to the peopleof the world and its future generations, as well as our debt toour visionary predecessors. It denes a series of mechanismsthrough which UCL research can full its potential.

This strategy is not intended to provide a detailed road map fortransformation. It does not seek to predict the opportunitiesand challenges that will be created by future researchbreakthroughs. It does not dene priority subject areas;such an approach would undermine our universitys agilityand constrain the dynamism with which our research leadersdetermine the shape and future of our research activities. Therealready exist effective and exible mechanisms at departmental,faculty and institutional level to anticipate and respond to therapidly and continually changing external environment. Thisstrategy does not seek to constrain research activity, but toprovide a renewed context in which discovery, analysis andinvention are part of a greater programme delivering benet tothe world.

Ultimately, this strategy speaks to UCLs enduring qualities,values and philosophy, and describes how the fundamentalaspirations for research at Londons Global University can be

achieved in a 21st-century context.

To the individual UCL researcher and to those contemplatingbecoming a researcher at UCL I say: this strategy seeksto establish an environment at UCL in which your researchexcellence and leadership is cherished and sustained, in

which your expertise can be creatively linked with that of otherdisciplines, and in which, where appropriate, the consequencesof your work can be magnied through your engagement incross-disciplinary collaboration.

This document builds on the 2008 UCL Research Strategy 1,incorporates contributions from people all over UCL madeduring the last three years and has been the subject of a formalconsultation during the summer of 2011. Quite rightly, there havebeen a wide spectrum of views expressed and critical analysismade of many of the research strategys proposals. A range ofimprovements have been made as a result, among them:

greater clarity, as expressed above, of what this strategy isand is not

a new section (on the facing page) explaining thisdocuments deployment of certain terminology

a reconsideration of excellence as an aim in itself, now

recongured as leadership grounded in excellence.

This strategy suggests that added value arises from contrastingand synthesizing multiple expert perspectives. My thanks,therefore, to those who have provided constructive feedback;this is an improved document, expressing a more robust andsustainable strategy, because of your contributions.

Professor David PriceUCL Vice-Provost (Research)

November 2011

INTRODUCTION:From the UCL Vice-Provost (Research)


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A word on terminologySome of the terminology used in this research strategy stimulatedcomments from a few UCL staff during a process of formalconsultation. Impact, for example, faced some criticism as anempty buzzword imposed upon us by government and researchcouncils; this strategys adoption of impact as an aim was,therefore, seen to be craven and short-sighted. One respondeeheld excellence to be long past its sell-by date and a poorchoice of term with which to attempt to differentiate UCL from itscompetitors. There was disquiet expressed from some quarters ofthe documents use (and denition) of wisdom.

In response, we looked for precedents. Jeremy Bentham, UCLsspiritual founder, coined many words, among them condivident(to divide coordinately), excentric (out of centre), expiree(ex-convict) and chrestomathia (useful learning); others, whosesell-by dates have not yet been reached, include codication,maximize and international. We need not invent words, however,when adequate ones exist. Rather, this document seeks toestablish what certain words mean in a UCL context which, as ourcolleagues know, is an unusual context and, where necessary,reclaim them from their degraded usage in much contemporarydiscussion of higher education.

Our model, accordingly, was found further aeld: When I use aword, Humpty Dumpty said it means just what I choose it tomean neither more nor less. 2 Here is what we mean by some ofthe terms used in this document 3:

global university : performing world-leading research acrossthe spectrum of subjects, from arts and humanities to the basicand applied sciences and medicine; open to talent from aroundthe world; and, furthermore, engaged with the needs of aninterconnected world

research leadership : persistent excellence, demonstratedthrough, for example: sustained leadership in ones disciplineand the development of novel lines of enquiry; contribution to theintellectual life of ones discipline; cultivation of collegiality in ones

department, faculty and university; support for and nurturingof early career researchers and students; and openness to thebenets of cross-disciplinary collaboration

cross-disciplinarity : collaboration between experts in differentdisciplines, transcending subject boundaries; in contrast tointerdisciplinary generalism

impact : benecial application of expertise, knowledge,analysis, discovery or insight; primarily delivered throughscholarly outputs, education, public engagement, translationalresearch, commercial and social enterprise activity, and inuenceon public policy and professional practice

wisdom : the judicious application of knowledge for the good

of humanity, resulting from bringing together different expertperspectives to address issues in their full complexity.

We recognise that meanings will continue to be contested, as isappropriate in an intellectually rich environment. This statementrepresents our contribution to these conversations.


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VICE-PROVOSTS INTRODUCTION


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VISION

VISION:Delivering a culture of wisdom

WisdomThe worlds major problems are complex, systemic, interconnectedand urgent to an unprecedented degree.

Wisdom here dened as the judicious application of knowledgefor the good of humanity is the key to providing solutions toaspects of these global problems. It can arise through bringingtogether different expert perspectives to address issues in their fullcomplexity.

Delivering a culture of wisdom, therefore, means drawing on thefull range of our expertise. It requires a spirit of collaboration and arecognition that the contribution of which each of us is capable canbe vastly greater when made in concert.

Transforming knowledge into wisdomThe research of a major university such as UCL is valuable in that itboth generates applicable knowledge and expands the potential of

human thought and action.

Specialist knowledge tends to be generated within disciplines,whether traditional (eg economics or pharmacology) or emerging(eg nanotechnology or crime science), through problem- andcuriosity-driven research by individuals and small groups. Thisis the foundation of the advancement of human knowledge, andthe core research activity of all great universities. The value ofthis form of enquiry which in its highest forms has transformedhuman experience and improved innumerable lives is immenseand unquestionable. The academic freedom and curiosity that itrequires will always be fundamental to our universitysresearch-intensive culture. However, it should not be assumed that

its full potential will inevitably be realised simply by i ts piecemealdissemination through standard routes. The potential value ofsuch scholarship to modern society is even greater when it is fullydeveloped in the context of the multifaculty university.

For solutions to complex major problems evade the grasp of anyindividual discipline. Individual excellence and subject expertiseare essential, and are to be celebrated, nurtured and supported.At UCL, however, we can achieve even more signicant outcomeswhen our experts from different disciplines act together.

Greater understanding and novel insights arise when the breadthof specialist knowledge is considered collectively. Wise solutions

emerge through synthesising and contrasting the knowledge,perspectives and methodologies of different disciplines.

Delivering a culture of wisdom will not be easy. Academics canbe deterred from working across boundaries by, for example,conventional models of academic structures, career progression

As Londons Global University, UCL has both theopportunity and the obligation to marshal the breadthof its intellectual expertise in order to contribute to theresolution of the worlds major problems.

This will be achieved not just through the generation ofknowledge, but also through the delivery of a culture ofwisdom 4.


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VISION

and measures of prestige based overly on specialisation. Theimplementation of this research strategy must help to addressobstacles such as these.

Establishing a culture of wisdom therefore requires transformativeaction:

respecting specialist knowledge, while dismantling the barriersto its cross-fertilisation

supporting the synthesis of new knowledge, both within andacross elds and disciplines

facilitating collective, collaborative working practices in orderto gain fresh perspectives and, ultimately, wisdom

formulating and advocating policy and practice based uponthe insights so developed.

The potential for a culture of wisdom at UCLOnly universities with excellence across the disciplines, a criticalmass of expertise and a commitment to impact in its broadestsense can cultivate and deliver wisdom on the scale and with thespeed required by the worlds current crises.

UCL is committed to using its position and unique set of strengthsto develop and disseminate original knowledge, not only for itsown sake but also to address the signicant challenges facing theworld, today and in the future.

With respect to the latter aim, through UCL Grand Challenges weare beginning and will continue to draw on our collective talentin order to generate wise solutions increasingly, in partnershipwith external agencies and disseminate these in a compellingmanner through scholarly outputs, education, public engagement,

translational research, commercial and social enterprise activity,and inuence on public policy and professional practice.

The delivery of a culture of wisdom at UCL over the next ve yearswill depend on our ability to:

continue to foster leadership within and beyond ourdiscipline-based research

expand the distinctive cross-disciplinarity of our research,collaboration and partnerships

increase the impact of our global universitys research, locally,regionally, nationally and internationally.

This research strategy claims a role for UCL that extends beyondthe common 20th century understanding of what a university is;we hold, however, that it is essential for UCL to full that role in the21st century.

UCLs distinctive position

Taken together, the following qualities position UCL, LondonsGlobal University, uniquely well to adopt a culture of wisdomand to ensure that those insights are applied to the worldsmajor problems:

principles inspired by the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham,our radical founders committed our university to innovation,accessibility and relevance. Almost two centuries later, thatcommitment remains at the heart of our activity and purpose

pioneering tradition UCL introduced to England severalimportant disciplines now viewed as core academicactivities 5, established the UKs rst professorial chairs inmany subjects 6 , founded academic departments that werethe UKs rst 7 and engaged in groundbreaking research thathas helped to shape the modern world 8

research leadership across a wide spectrum ofdisciplines 9, as the bedrock upon which effectivecross-disciplinary interaction is achieved

exibility intellectual agility, in the context of strategic planning, that enables our researchers to respond rapidlyand imaginatively to emerging priorities and initiatives

London our home in the heart of a global capital, with aremarkably diverse population, offering close interaction withBloomsburys cultural, economic, political and intellectualvibrancy, as well as Westminster and Whitehall, the City, themedia, courts, galleries, museums, libraries and ourworld-class hospital partners

perspective a commitment to enhancing thecircumstances of the people of the capital and the UK,complemented by a global perspective that recognises theinterconnectedness and interdependence of people aroundthe world.


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Leadership is most required in exercising judgment inareas of complexity and uncertainty. Here, knowledge iscontested and wise decision-taking requires the exercise ofan open mind, analysis of evidence and argument withoutprejudice, and the ability to engage in debate with those ofdifferent experience and perspective. It requires that one isreective, self-aware, and able to concede a strongly heldposition in order to make progress.


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LEADERSHIP

FIRST RESEARCH AIM:Leadership founded in excellence

Enduring excellence, derived from talented individualscuriosity about and commitment to their chosen subjectareas, is the prerequisite of research leadership, whichwill underpin the delivery of a culture of wisdom.

Expectations of individual academic staff UCL has dened both its expectations of academic staff and i tsobligations to them 10 . UCL expects academic staff to undertakeresearch meeting international standards of excellence and todisseminate the results of that research through appropriate

channels, including publication, teaching, commercialisation andengagement with policymaking and the public.

The forthcoming Research Excellence Framework providesdenitions of standards of quality that, although not unproblematic,are widely accepted across the research community. They helpus to dene an overall institutional aspiration: that all academicdepartments aspire to the top levels of research activity, and thatall academic staff undertaking research should aim to generateoutputs that are internationally excellent.

Furthermore, this research strategy requires its establishedresearchers to demonstrate sustained leadership:

in their subject, for example by developing novel lines ofenquiry

by contributing to the intellectual life of their discipline through cultivating collegiallity in their department, faculty and

university by supporting and nurturing early career researchers and

research students.

Excellence across a broad research spectrumThe realisation of UCLs research vision requires thriving andengaged communities across the research spectrum, from artsand humanities to the basic and applied sciences and medicine.

Even in the context of nancial constraints, our university will notallow its aspirations regarding the expansion of knowledge todiminish.

UCL will build on its existing world-class prole by creating andmaintaining international leadership in selected areas where ithas demonstrably outstanding strengths and critical mass, whilemaintaining a broad base of academic disciplines through whichfuture priority areas can be developed and nurtured.

There are very few institutions that can be considered among theworlds leaders in every broad subject domain (ie medicine, artsand humanities, life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences,engineering and technology). We aspire that UCL join this mostelite class of global universities. This would generally be indicatedby appearing within the top 20 in most accepted rankings in thoseelds, although most of the familiar caveats about the limitationsand subjectivity of university rankings apply even more strongly


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UCLs research ranges across all disciplinary areas. Itextends from fundamental biological research that developsour understanding of the nature of life, or from philosophicaldiscourse, through applied engineering and biochemicalmanufacturing, to clinical practice and drug discovery.Research intensity is ubiquitous across the whole institution.


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LEADERSHIP

to domain rankings. We believe that it would generally be widelyaccepted that UCL is already among the top 20 institutions inmedicine, arts and humanities, life sciences and social sciences,and in each case our position is strengthening. Our rankings inphysical sciences and engineering and technology are lower,but have been rapidly rising, reecting widespread success andexpansion, and the benets of major investments such as theLondon Centre for Nanotechnology and UCL Energy Institute.Hence, we expect to achieve this goal within a few years.

Utility to society is central to our concerns, but cannot be the limit ofthem. Research driven by individual curiosity and imagination hasbeen the foundation of human intellectual advance and the benetsthat has provided, and is central to UCLs conception of excellenceand leadership. We will continue to see research excellencefounded in the successful development of such curiosity asthe foundation of the universitys contribution to knowledgeand society. We will also value research addressing the mostfundamental questions in our collaborative endeavours and willsupport a UCL Research Frontiers programme of cross-disciplinaryenquiry running in parallel with UCL Grand Challenges intoareas motivated entirely by shared human curiosity.

Attracting, retaining and cultivating leadersUCLs research excellence is determined foremost by the qualityof its academic staff.

In order to attract, retain and cultivate intellectual leaders, UCLwill provide a positive and creative research environment, andoffer appropriate incentives and support, such as: competitivesalaries, space and cutting-edge equipment; access to gifted

and ambitious graduate students; freedom from excessiveand burdensome administrative duties; appropriate teachingopportunities and responsibilities; and a culture in whichdiscovery, application and leadership are cherished andrewarded.


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Our university will have in place effective mechanisms for theidentication and recruitment of outstanding individuals andresearch groups in all areas of academic endeavour and fromaround the world. Candidates will not be restricted to thosealready within academia but will also include, for example, thosefrom industry and public bodies.

We are utterly committed to recruiting and retaining the bestleaders; we believe, as a founding principle, that they comefrom a wide range of backgrounds. We will therefore redoubleour efforts on diversity in research careers. This will cover bothstatutory requirements such as race, gender and sexuality,and other important issues, such as disadvantaged socialbackgrounds and unconventional educational pathways.Where cultures or processes inhospitable to diversity areidentied, they will be addressed. We will support the adoptionof diversity-related agendas within the Research ExcellenceFramework.

A central quality of the research leaders that UCL seeks to attract,retain and cultivate is the ability to determine their own researchdirection, based on their own curiosity about and commitmentto their chosen subject area. We do not seek those who followintellectual fashions, only add their voice to received opinionor wait for funding agencies to determine research priorities.Leaders with the imagination and insight to address questionswhose signicance is not yet clear to any other human being,or to provide new answers to questions that have frustrated all

others, are of an entirely different calibre. The ability to cultivateand support these precious individuals is a critical test of a globaluniversity, and will be one of our most fundamental goals.

We will seek to maintain and improve the diverse environmentsrequired to support such leaders in different elds and ofdifferent styles. We will be vigilant against threats from changeswithin the higher education system to the fundamental academicfreedom that such leadership requires. We will ensure thatadvancement and prole within UCL does not depend overlyon easy metrics such as grant income or citation numbers thatmight penalise those who are advancing in elds not yet fullyappreciated by the wider research community, but instead

suitably recognises and rewards creative and distinctiveintellectual achievement. We will continue to run schemes, suchas the UCL Provosts Venture Fellowship, that offer particularopportunities for long-term exploration of new elds. We willexplore possibilities of new approaches to enable, support andrecognise academic imagination, as well as to showcase to widersociety the unique benets that it offers.

In recognition of the importance of attracting research leaders,UCL will endeavour to increase the number of its researchersholding personal fellowships or awards.

There is within the current UK system an intimate relationship

between many forms of research leadership and winning externalpeer-reviewed grant funding. UCL will continue to provide asupportive environment for leaders through the inevitable upsand downs of the competitive funding environment. In particular,all UCL units will be required to make sure that they retain theexibility to accommodate and support academic leaders whose

grant portfolios grow rapidly. Where leaders feel that this isbecoming a challenge, we will expect their Faculty ExecutiveDean to be able to offer a supportive response.

The recruitment and training of high-quality early careerresearchers are critical to a universitys long-term success. Theseindividuals can generate vibrancy and vitality in UCLs academiclife today, with many becoming the leaders of tomorrow. UCLwill support a whole career approach and create opportunitiesfor younger researchers to take leadership roles around newinitiatives. In many elds, skilled specialist expert researchersare critical to the successful research enterprise. We will valuetheir contributions, and look to establish rewarding career pathsaround them. Where such roles are threatened by temporarygaps in external funding, we will strive to make available internalsupport.

Improving further the experience of research studentsUCL will continue to look to provide the very highest-qualitylearning environment for the most able research students, andwill strive to nd additional ways to offer a demonstrably betterresearch student experience than our peer institutions.

A continuing focus will be the development of strategic andinnovative programmes such as four-year PhD and EngDprogrammes and centres for doctoral training. UCL is unusualin the extent to which its nest research leaders across manydisciplines contribute to this form of programme, which we believe

provides a signicantly superior educational experience to moretraditional single studentsingle supervisor models. This isespecially so at the interfaces between traditional disciplines,allowing students to strengthen their expertise in areas otherthan their primary discipline. Models that allow the student agreater input into the identication and evolution of their thesistopic are often more appropriate for those students who will befuture research leaders, and we will encourage this in formatsappropriate to the disciplinary area concerned.

Our intention is always to develop programmes that support thestudent on a career path towards becoming a leader in researchor a related activity that benets from their research-based andleadership skills. We will hinder any philosophies or approachesthat treat students simply as a resource for supervisors.

While graduate research student numbers at UCL have grownsignicantly in recent years, the number of non-EU studentsremains signicantly lower than our peers, largely due to


Postgraduate research students are essential to thedevelopment of the research base, the future academiccommunity and researchers in business and industry. Theyare central to the research culture and community at UCL.UCLs innovative PhD programmes also provide excellentopportunities for collaborative research activity with externalorganisations.


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LEADERSHIP

restrictions on the use of UK government training funds, ourmain source of support in this area. In order to provide moreopportunities at UCL for research students from overseas wewill aim to diversify our range of funding sources for researchstudents and to make signicantly more additional scholarshipsavailable to overseas students, while preserving our large numberof UK awards. We will also review and benchmark our marketingactivities for overseas research students. In particular, we willreview the possibility of expanding approaches involving teachingassistantships, as these often offer both nancial benets andsignicant enhancements to the academic employability of thegraduates.

At UCL, we believe that successful completion of a researchstudentship comes not merely with the conclusion of a documentor a successful viva, but with establishing the graduate student ina career that uses the skills that they have acquired through theirresearch. To this end, we will provide fur ther opportunities for ourstudents to develop their leadership and creativity particularlythrough roles in cross-disciplinary student societies, opportunitiesfor entrepreneurship, links with alumni mentors and networks,and engagement with UCL Grand Challenges and UCL ResearchFrontiers.

We will review and enhance the UCL Graduate Schoolscomprehensive skills-development programme for researchstudents, providing courses that help academic studies andenhance life skills and future employability in research or related

careers. We will particularly explore the possibility of newapproaches to training to help students with the application ofrelevant research outcomes in order to maximise the impact oftheir research on policy and practice and the development ofopportunities to contribute to the intellectual vibrancy of their eld.We will also seek to promote a global perspective in our researchstudents through exchange partnerships and travel funds, inrecognition of the benets to their career prospects in bothresearch and other elds.

A further step will be the establishment of adequate postdoctoralfunding for the brightest and best. We will aim to increasethe number and range of awards that allow the very ablest

graduates to continue their research for an additional periodafter graduation, in order to support them in producing thosehighest quality outputs that will accelerate their movement into anacademic career.

Those UCL academic units that demonstrate the greatest successin placing their research student graduates into leadership roles


Gaining teaching experience should be an expectationof postgraduate research degree study. UK-trainedapplicants for junior academic posts frequently have noteaching experience at all, which puts them at a signicantdisadvantage against overseas competition. We will developthis opportunity providing proper training and supervisionand nancial support.

in research and related elds will be rewarded through fur thersupport for expanding and/or deepening their research studentactivities. Units that demonstrate weakness in this regard will bereviewed and appropriate corrective actions taken.


UCL was a pioneer in the UK in establishing a GraduateSchool and conferring upon it responsibility for all regulatorymatters and quality issues relating to postgraduate researchprogrammes; and for the denition and approval of policyand procedure in relation to all graduate matters.


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CROSS-DISCIPLINARITY

SECOND RESEARCH AIM:Cross-disciplinarity grounded in expertise

As emphasised elsewhere in this research strategy, UCLconsiders outstanding problem- and curiosity-drivenresearch conducted by individuals and small groups tobe the bedrock upon which a culture of wisdom is built.Without this, UCL fails.

However, even within this domain, there can be acritical role for cross-disciplinarity, where adoption ofmethods or analogies from other disciplines is often

part of the most creative and innovative research. Webelieve that a researcher working in an environmentwhere a wide range of advances are being made, andwhich can act as a source of inspiration, has greater

potential to be a better researcher than one withina narrow, deeply siloed institute. Often, the mostsignicant new opportunities for intellectual activityarise when such interactions between disciplines proveespecially fruitful, and it is not coincidence that the

vast majority of our new research centres and similarinvestments are at cross-disciplinary interfaces.

Major societal challenges can rarely be addressedusing the ndings of a single research advance.We believe that the appropriate approach is forleading researchers to work together to build across-disciplinary synthesis responding to thesechallenges, linking into a bigger picture both theirown advances and those made by other leaders intheir discipline. We believe that researchers who fullyunderstand the context, justication and nature of

such research ndings are better positioned to makethis synthesis than non-researchers simply drawingon the outcomes of disciplinary research without suchfamiliarity.

Through interaction between disciplinary experts rather than interdisciplinary generalists ourcollective subject-specic knowledge can be madegreater than the sum of its parts. This must be theessential and unique added value of a 21st centuryresearch-intensive multifaculty university such asUCL.

Strengthening impact through cross-disciplinaryresearchIt is through cross-disciplinary interaction between research leadersthat our work will become best-placed to yield solutions that canaddress effectively aspects of the major global issues of the 21st

century. UCL will, therefore, increase and strengthen as appropriatecross-disciplinary research, enabling our existing excellentspecialisms to come together and optimise their joint impact.

When gaps in expert ise spanning a number of elds are identied,departments and faculties will be encouraged to adopt acooperative approach to joint appointments. Any organisationalor nancial factors that currently impede such activity will beminimised.

To facilitate collaboration and the formation of communities,researchers and research groups have been enabled to afliatethemselves to one or more of the UCL Research Themes throughthe online UCL Institutional Research Information System 11.

UCL Grand ChallengesOverarching our cross-disciplinary collaboration are the UCLGrand Challenges 12, the mechanism through which concentrations

Fostering cross-disciplinary interactionMuch cross-disciplinary interaction occurs spontaneously, butfostering it at scale requires a more directed and proactiveapproach:

sustaining a broad and excellent research spectrumfostering an environment where openness to

cross-disciplinary interaction is considered a signicantaspect of leadership

supporting leaders through the difcult process of ndingfunding for cross-disciplinary research activities through theexpertise of research facilitators

supporting those academic departments that alreadyadopt a cross-disciplinary approach 13

establishing new academic departments to address problems demanding diverse expertise 14

providing thematic contexts for cross-disciplinary

interaction 15 forming thematically focused centres that draw on

expertise from across our academic departments 16

facilitating and promoting research through UCL GrandChallenges and UCL Research Frontiers.


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CROSS-DISCIPLINARITY

of specialist expertise across and beyond UCL can be broughttogether to address aspects of the worlds key problems. Theyalso provide an environment in which researchers are encouragedto think about how their work can intersect with and impact uponglobal issues.

The UCL Grand Challenges both nourish ideas naturally arisingfrom academics concerns and curiosities, and coordinateinstitution-wide responses to external agenda. They alsocomplement UCL Research Frontiers support of our exploratoryand curiosity-driven cross-disciplinary research.

UCL will: increase activity within each Grand Challenge througha variety of thematic strands; expand the opportunities forinvolvement, within and beyond the university, including increased

student participation; seek to engage alumni and external funderswith the aim of becoming a self-funding activity; and maximise theirimpact on policy and practice, and engagement with the public,worldwide.

The UCL Grand Challenges of Global Health, Sustainable Cities,

Intercultural Interaction and Human Wellbeing aim to:create networking opportunities to connect academics

across UCLs disciplines and foster networks of experts (egthrough roundtables, town meetings and centrally seed-fundedcross-disciplinary institutes)

provide spaces for debate to bring together dif ferentexpertise, perspectives and methodologies in order to provokenew understanding (eg through symposia, workshops and publicevents)

facilitate novel research to stimulate cross-disciplinaryactivity to generate wisdom and societal debate

improve policy and practice to enhance economic

performance, public service and policy, quality of life, and social justice and equity.

UCL Research FrontiersWhile UCL Grand Challenges exemplies the added societalimpact that can arise through exploiting the breadth our expertise,our university cherishes curiosity and imagination, and holds thatthe expansion of knowledge and scholarship is valuable in its ownright.

UCL Research Frontiers seeks to empower research leadersto develop and test novel theories where the results do notnecessarily have any immediate application and where theprimary justication for the enquiry is human curiosity insubjects where cross-disciplinary input adds value to theinvestigation. Programmes will be led by visionary individualswho can draw on a team providing expertise, insights andmethodologies from other disciplines.

UCL will support and facilitate such programmes through, forexample: helping to develop the vision; identifying appropriatecollaborators and building communities within and beyond UCL;pump-priming where funds allow; and providing communicationssupport and grant development facilitation. Annual plans ofactivity will be developed for each programme in suppor t of a

ve-year vision for its activities and outcomes.

The rst three UCL Research Frontiers programmes are Origins ofLife, Human Evolution and Dynamics of Civilisation; in the mediumterm we will invite research leaders to propose new activity,ultimately developing a portfolio of 1012 programmes.

Research and the UCL Grand ChallengesThe UCL Grand Challenges are not intended to encompassall the research activity at UCL. Even less are they intendedto be a top-down agenda to which every researcher at UCLis expected to bend their activity, no matter how distant theintellectual connection. Rather, they arise from the observationthat there is a hugely wide range of research activity at UCLof relevance to global society, whose potential impact andindeed intellectual energy could be enhanced by connectingthem together in shared dissemination, knowledge exchangeand discussions on future research directions. UCL GrandChallenges activities provide the frameworks for those

cross-disciplinary connections.

Much excellent UCL research has signicant impact onboth practice and agendas for future research withoutbeing connected to other research of relevance to our fourchallenges. In practice, there is a wide range of research thathas some of its impact outside UCL Grand Challenge agendasand some of it in connection with them. This research strategyseeks to support both.

Although by no means all research or impact at UCL is linkedto the UCL Grand Challenges, we have been greatly pleasedby the range of researchers that have found new opportunitiesthrough these cross-disciplinary, societally focused activities.The launch of UCL Research Frontiers a cross-disciplinaryinitiative founded in questions of human curiosity rather thanthe challenges of contemporary society will give a furthersense of the scope and true signicance of UCL GrandChallenges.


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IMPACT

THIRD RESEARCH AIM:Realising the impact of a global university

Excellent cross-disciplinary research will generaterobust solutions to aspects of the worlds major

problems. UCL will engage much more proactively insharing these solutions and enabling their adoption,

primarily through scholarly outputs, education, publicengagement, translational research, commercial andsocial enterprise activity, and inuence on public policyand professional practice.

We recognise that the timescales for impact varyfrom hours to centuries as, for example, experts offerwise commentary on contemporary events and asfundamental discoveries play out their full benets tocivilisation.


Impact has become a buzzword of important rhetoricalvalue in demonstrating that what goes on in universitiesis intimately connected to the real world and is not purelyintellectual self-indulgence. For some, impact has become amechanistic measure of the utility of research.

UCL will respond to these trends, but by turning thearguments on their head.

Impact is not simply an add-on to the justication for aresearch grant application, or the demonstration ex postof the added value given by an individual programme ofresearch. Impacts are too long-run, too diffuse and relianton too complex a process of further development andcollaboration to be capable of being properly captured inthis way. Achieving impact is the primary function of theentire entity of a university, and expresses its social value.UCL has a major positive societal impact in many ways:through the education and development that we provide forour students; through our focused research in basic science

physical, biological, engineering and social generatingnew knowledge and insight as part of the global networksof scientic advancement; through our local, regional,

national and global networks; through our contributions toevidence-based policy and through the commercialisationof our knowledge and technology.

We will develop the transformative steps that will allow UCLto continue to thrive as a global intellectual leader.


UCL is not an academic fortress, but an open institutioncommitted to working collaboratively with others.Collaboration is easiest with partners that havecomplementary and largely non-competitive interests,and where the mutual benets of closer working areobvious to all.

Competition is a strong driver of improved performance,and we need to maintain it, yet at the same timebroaden our footprint of inuence. International scienticcollaboration at the personal and group level is commonthroughout UCL. Institutional-level collaboration builds uponexisting links and commits both sides to open partnership indened areas.

OutputsUCL already the 15th most-cited university in the world and the2nd most-cited in Europe 17 will ensure that the products of itsresearch are as widely available as possible.

A key element of this research strategy is the further developmentof a searchable database which records the institutions researchactivities: the UCL Institutional Research Information Service,the same used to build the knowledge base (see page 22). It willprovide a resource for external stakeholders (such as potentialacademic collaborators and funding agencies) wishing to gain aninsight into the extent of our activity in a particular area.

UCL fully endorses open access to research publications as a vitalway of allowing the widest possible dissemination of knowledge,which generates vast social benet. UCL Library Services hasprovided leadership in the UK and Europe in this area, and openaccess is already embedded in the UCL workow. Its potentialhas been further enhanced by the creation of UCL Discovery 18 , anaccessible online portal providing a complete record of outputsin terms of publications for the use of those within the institutionas well as the external community. UCL will consider providing,through UCL Discovery, an e-publishing infrastructure fordepartmental use.

Strategic partnershipsStrategic partnerships can bring together complementarystrengths and deepen the impact of cross-disciplinaryresearch. Where appropriate UCL will build on initiatives whereindividual research leaders and groups have already identiedcomplementary strengths in and engaged with their counterparts


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IMPACT

at other institutions. UCL will form strategic partnerships forexample with other research organisations, with commerce andindustry, and with healthcare providers to enable the impact ofour research to be widened and deepened.

UCL will advocate the concentration of research funding and

doctoral education in those UK regional hubs offering a criticalmass of research excellence, with which peaks of excellence inother institutions could collaborate as appropriate. We will considerthe establishment of exible part-time afliations with UCL for thoseinternationally excellent academics located at nationally excellentuniversities, as well as the creation of pathways through whichthose universities students could transfer to UCL as their researchpotential emerges.

UCL will further enhance existing international partnerships, andcreate new ones as appropriate, particularly those that have abearing on social, environmental, legal and health issues globally,including capacity-building.

EngagementUCL will continue its commitment to public engagement, inorder to understand public concerns and attitudes, to informpublic opinion and to address the barriers to adapting individual,organisational and mass behaviour. Without diminishing the

Types of partnership to be pursued research collaboration where strengths are

complementaryresearch collaboration where combined mass offers

exceptional potential

research collaboration with local, regional, national andinternational centres of excellence

collaboration with commercial and non-commercialorganisations to drive translational research activities and

product development

research-active overseas campuses

research collaboration with business and industry

capacity-building with leading institutions, governmentorganisations and NGOs in low- and middle-income countries

enhancement of global impact through partnerships withleading UK and worldwide cultural, scientic, medical,social-science, public and public-policy institutions

working with business and industry to deliver social andeconomic benet for the UK.


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IMPACT

profundity of our research, we will make it accessible andcomprehensible to the public, and engage in responsible andmutually benecial debate.

UCL will further develop its reputation as a source of excellentresearch which can inform policymaking, and as a sourceof evidence-based policy solutions. It will fully exploit theopportunities offered by membership of and engagement withpublic bodies and seek to increase its contribution where it hasless inuence. In particular we will seek to bring our expertise inthe arts, humanities and social and historical sciences to bear onmatters of public, policy and commercial concern. UCL will workwith governments at all levels, as well as with non-governmentalorganisations, think-tanks and others, to identify and respondto public policy needs. Through the institution-wide UCL PublicPolicy programme 19 , our university will build on those existingconnections between academics and policymakers, enablingexternal agencies to identify sources of relevant wisdom andUCL to anticipate better and respond swiftly to emerging policyissues.

It is universally acknowledged that in the knowledge economyof the 21st century, economic growth is supported by the rapidow of ideas between research institutions and enterprise. Aspart of the UCL Enterprise Strategy, our university is seeking toexpand dramatically the engagement of its research leaders withenterprise, and in particular to link together numerous piecemealinteractions into more valuable and more rapidly responsive

sustained relationships. In recognition that corporate policiesand practices have a signicant impact on global issues, UCLwill proactively share its research ndings with business leadersthrough its thematic communities and institutes. This will, in turn,lead those businesses beneting from UCL expertise to view theuniversity as an exceptionally strong source of wise solutions.

UCL will build its connections with alumni and friends, manyof whom are inuential policymakers and practitioners. We willengage with them as potential advocates of wise solutions, as wellas potential research collaborators, advisers and donors.

UCLs exceptional strengths in biomedical sciences and strongrelationships with our partner hospitals make engagement toimprove health systems a particular prior ity. The UCL Schoolof Life & Medical Sciences Strategy 20102015 20 sets out,as a strategic principle, the importance of developing furtherinnovative means of optimising translational research whilecontinuing to produce world-leading fundamental science thatwill underpin future translational opportunities. In particular, this isbased on a vision of going beyond the dominant approach of thelate 20th century, which stimulated the development ofhigh-tech solutions for end-stage disease. The major healthchallenges facing populations across the globe have nowchanged, with chronic disease and the sustenance of populationhealth and wellbeing at the fore. Such challenges call on a

broader range of academic exper tise than just biomedicine,embracing for example sociological and behavioural sciences,economics and informatics. Such a systemic approach willoffer many opportunities for deeper academic involvementacross UCL, leveraging our advantage of being a world-class,

multifaculty university. To optimise this translation, we willdevelop new forms of engagement with the corporate and publicstakeholders within the health system, many of whom are evolvingtheir own missions in response to these changing needs.

Proactive communicationsOver the last decade UCLs communications functions newlyconsolidated as UCL Communications & Marketing and including:management of the corporate identity; media relations; events;website; electronic, printed and audiovisual materials; and studentrecruitment have made a signicant contribution to raising theuniversitys prole, regionally, nationally and globally.

In recent years communications activity has, rightly, aligned itselfmore explicitly with corporate strategies, both in communicating

those strategies key messages and in providing communicationstools to support their aims. Much valuable work has beenconducted on analysing key opinion formers perceptions ofUCL and their communications needs. A rolling overview ofinternal and external events, and UCLs capacity to prioritise andmaximise its engagement with them, has been developed.

Communications will continue to ensure that UCLs reputationreects the quality and purpose of its research; a major elementin this will continue to be the public promotion of specic researchoutcomes as exemplars of institutional quality and purpose.However, the successful delivery of a culture of wisdom requiresmore than an excellent institutional prole. It requires a shift in

emphasis from reputation management to inuence.

All of UCLs communications tools will be deployed as compellingdelivery mechanisms for wise solutions to those positioned toimplement them. This will require the identication of audiences inmore specic segments (eg by nature of the problems for whichthey need solutions), the framing of wise counsel in ways likelyto inuence them and the employment of appropriate channelsto reach them (eg specialist media). A further consolidation ofexternal contacts currently widely dispersed among departmentsand administrative ofces will be undertaken at the institutionallevel, without undermining existing personal or departmentalrelationships. Channels will be developed to facilitate not just thedissemination of research ndings, but also wise commentary oncurrent and emerging issues in media considered authoritative bypolicymakers and practitioners. Any disincentives to academicsengaging in this activity will be removed.

Artists impression of the Francis Crick Institute, formerly known as the UKCMRI(Justin Piperger/Wadworth3D)


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RESEARCH AND THE WIDER UCL AGENDA


It is essential that the strategy underpinning UCLresearch be integrated with the universitys strategiesfor Communications & Marketing, Development& Alumni Relations, Estates & Facilities, HumanResources, Information Services and Scholarships, aswell as the following.

InternationalUCL denes itself as a global university in terms of its impact,leadership and opportunities. This vision is particularly relevant toour research activities, many of which are international in nature,whether because of subject matter or partnership. UCL will seek

out partnerships with organisations around the world where ourstrengths are complementary, and where we can help to buildcapacity.

LondonUCL research will be brought to bear on the city that is its home.London itself poses a set of complex and systemic problems whichcan be resolved only through the deployment of cross-disciplinaryexpertise in collaboration with local communities, governmentbodies, policymakers and practitioners, and other world-classLondon organisations. Our work in London will inform and inspirethe development of solutions on a global scale.

EducationAs emphasised in the UCL Council White Paper 20112021, weare developing an innovative programme of learning and teaching,informed by its research activities and delivered by experts in theeld. Students at all levels should be exposed to cutting- edgeresearch and research-led teaching. The development, over time,of more cross-disciplinary undergraduate and graduate curriculawill provide a vir tuous feedback loop to research, as well as anappreciation of the benets of working across disciplines.

UCL will better dene, articulate and demonstrate how ourcharacteristics as a research-intensive university offer a rst-rate

education and the best possible value for money. In part icular,we will ensure that students benet from a high-quality andwell-resourced research environment which offers access toworld-class academics, equipment and facilities. Furthermore,we will seek to embed the ethos of UCL Grand Challenges andUCL Research Frontiers in learning and teaching by ensuring thatall students have an opportunity to engage in cross-disciplinaryactivity and learning beyond their primary discipline.

EnterpriseExcellent research underpins the ability of UCL Enterprise todeliver impact through: education and training in entrepreneurship;

social enterprise; corporate partnerships; industrially relatedand translational research; commercial research contracts;consultancy; continuing professional development; studentbusinesses; commercialisation of intellectual property throughspin-out companies; and licensing and product development.


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HealthUCL is committed to the pursuit of research excellence infundamental life and medical sciences and the effective translationof research outcomes into health benets. This research strategysupports cross-disciplinarity across our life and medical sciences

and beyond, complements the UCL School of Life & MedicalSciences focus on generating enhanced societal and economicimpact, and facilitates the forging of strong collaborations including UCL Partners in which UCL will act as the intellectualhub.

Public EngagementEffective public engagement is a prerequisite of research impact,both by understanding the publics varied concerns, beliefs andbehaviour, and by responding with relevant proposals. UCLsprogrammes of engagement with communities local, regional,national and around the world will ensure effective two-way

dialogue, through which wise insights can be applied effectively.

UCL Bloomsbury Masterplan


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SUPPORTING OUR VISION


The vision set out in this research strategy is achallenging one. Very few organisations wouldestablish more than 2,000 staff in leadership rolesand expect many others to aspire to such roles. Fewuniversities are seeking to challenge the widely held

political view of them as knowledge factories as profoundly as UCL, through its ambition to deliver aculture of wisdom.

Individual research excellence and leadership are prerequisites for the productivity and impact to whichwe aspire, but they do not guarantee it. UCL must bea positive and creative working environment for thefull range of researchers, across all subject areas andfrom PhD students to senior research leaders. Theseambitions require efcient and effective mechanisms tosupport research activity.

InfrastructureUCL will provide researchers with cutting-edge infrastructure,facilities, library resources, equipment and support in order toenable them to compete with the best in the world. Surpluses willbe reinvested to replace previously available external infrastructure

funding.UCL will address the complexities of securing sustainable fundingfor research infrastructure. The UCL Bloomsbury Masterplan 21 andstrategic partnerships offer cost-effective opportunities to maintainand enhance our infrastructure.

FundingUCL research grant spend was 275.1 million in 2009/2010,exceeded in the UK only by Imperial College and the University ofOxford. This gure was an 8.2% increase on the previous yearsresearch income, the largest increase among the top ve UKuniversities (as measured by income from research grants andcontracts). In addition, we received a HEFCE recurrent researchgrant of 104.9 million and signicant funding for researchstudentships from various sources.

UCL will ensure that comprehensive, fully resourced andsustainable funding streams and mechanisms are in place, eitherfrom external agencies or from the use of internal resources, tofacilitate and promote excellence in areas of agreed strategicpriority.

UCL seeks funding for research through three main activities tocomplement the QR block grant: grant applications, engagementwith commercial partners and philanthropic fundraising.

Mechanisms will be developed to ensure greater communicationand cooperation between the individuals and groups involved in allthree, to maximise funding opportunities and to help avoid overlapsand inconsistencies in approaches to potential funders and donors.

Research Excellence FrameworkAlthough the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) is aboutmore than funding it also provides an assessment of researchquality and has reputational signicance it does determine theamount of QR funding (based on excellence, impact and volume)available to UCL in future years. UCL has engaged fully with thedevelopment of including participation in HEFCEs pilots on the use

of bibliometrics and assessing impact in the REF. We will continueto engage with HEFCE as developments are taken forward.

REF 2014 represents a new challenge, but also an opportunityto showcase the excellence and impact of UCL research. We willensure robust processes for making our REF 2014 submission,


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including: appropriate consideration of equality issues in ourstaff selection policy; appropriate consultation with academicunits; selection of high quality outputs; data collection and qualityassurance; and developing impact case studies which offer arepresentative insight to the breadth of benets UCLs researchdirectly provides to the global community. We will also ensure thatwe demonstrate the quality and vitality of the research environmentat UCL.

UCLs REF 2014 strategy is led by the UCL Vice-Provost(Research), who chairs the REF Strategy Group. Data collectionmanagement and the coordination of UCLs submissions to REF2014 are the responsibility of a team led by a senior member ofstaff in UCL Registry & Academic Services, reporting to the UCLVice-Provost (Research).

Grant applicationsUCL will seek to increase the number and quality of grant

applications especially for longer-term awards, by providinga greater level of support for applicants and removing anydisincentives which make academics, especially in non-scienticareas, reluctant to apply. Such measures will include increasedadministrative support for the application process, alongsidestructured programmes of advice and mentorship.

Working in a collaborative way across the institution, the FacultyVice-Deans (Research) and School Research Facilitators (SRFs)have greatly enhanced UCLs ability to submit high-qualitycross-disciplinary grant applications. By recruiting additionalSRFs, UCL will enhance their capacity to: support academicsproactively in the preparation of grant applications; provide an

interface between the research community within the institutionand the funding agencies; and build novel collaborations of UCLacademics around emerging themes and funding opportunitiesand the changing priorities of national and international funders,both public and private.

UCL Research Services will investigate complementing its currentsupport for and training in grantsmanship with a specialisedpre-award grants management system and will roll out anenhanced research opportunities service. In post-award support,it will seek to reduce the administrative burden for grant holders,expand its project-management services for large or complexgrants, and in particular seek to reduce the administrative burdenon EU grant holders.

UCL will engage fully with the major funding bodies, both nationallyand in Europe, including consideration of entering into frameworkor partnership agreements.


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Engagement with external social and commercialpartners

As a leading research-intensive university, UCL is committed towidespread collaboration with commercial and social enterprisesin order to maximise the societal impact of our research and as apotential source of income. There are myriad opportunities for theUCL research community to provide expertise, skills, services andproducts to external partners, collaborators and customers.

With leadership by the Ofce of the Vice-Provost (Enterprise),we aim to establish UCL as a leading research collaborator andprovider of knowledge-based services to the commercial andvoluntary sectors, as par t of our commitment to long-term impactand sustainable economic prosperity for the UK.

UCL will respond to the priorities of business and industry andseek to maximise the mutual benet of enterprise activities suchas contract research, consultancy, licensing and continuingprofessional development.

Philanthropic fundraisingThe UCL Development & Alumni Relations Ofce derives itsfundraising priorities from the UCL Corporate Plan & Strategy,thereby ensuring that its work suppor ts key institutional objectives.

The delivery of a culture of wisdom described in this researchstrategy and the commitment to leadership, cross-disciplinarityand impact underpinning it will provide an effective narrative

with which to engage potential benfactors; together, UCL ResearchFrontiers and UCL Grand Challenges convey the inherent value ofexcellent research of any kind, and the socially benecial purposesto which that research can and must be put.

In addition, philanthropic funding can be an invaluable routeto funding academics proposals for research activity that, forwhatever reason, are not suitable for peer review or do not tcurrent priorities of the main research funders. The Ofce of theUCL Vice-Provost (Research) will help Faculty Executive Deans toprioritise those of such ideas that have the greatest potential addedvalue.

DiversicationBeyond these core funding streams, UCL will take everyopportunity to extend and diversify its funding portfolio.Practical measures will be introduced to improve our university scompetitiveness and to maximise its research income from all suchsources.

Particular at tention will be given to increasing UCLs interactionwith those funding bodies, including charitable foundations andinternational organisations, which sit between peer review-ledfunders and pure philanthropic donors; this will require leadershipby and collaboration between the UCL Development & Alumni

Relations Ofce, the Ofce of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research)and the Ofce of the UCL Vice-Provost (Enterprise).

The knowledge base and benchmarkingUCL will ensure regular, reliable and transparent reporting ofappropriate research performance indicators, both quantitative

and qualitative, at the departmental, faculty and institutional level.This will be part icularly signicant in the context of the ResearchExcellence Framework.

UCL will continue to integrate the systems in which informationabout its researchers activities are held, with the key principlebeing that a single data source accurate, authoritative,comprehensive and secure should be held centrally, and besimple to update and to use for multiple purposes elsewhere.Such a database will facilitate strategic and managerialdecision-making and provide information for the development ofmajor cross-disciplinary funding applications.

UCL will set ambitious but realistic performance targets, suchas those outlined in this research strategy, and benchmark itsresearch performance against its national and international

competitors, with timeframes for improvement dened. We willimprove our recording, measurement and evaluation of researchimpact wherever possible.

Horizon scanningHorizon scanning by visionary and well-networked researchleaders will be an impor tant element in sustaining our pioneeringtradition. The Ofce of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research) willadd value to these horizon-scanning activities by harvesting,connecting and prioritising insights from across UCL into anintegrated vision, and by coordinating responses to emergingopportunities. It will adopt a more proactive and coordinated

approach to planning, by ensuring that the university is wellprepared to respond effectively to future initiatives. UCL willincreasingly seek to identify new directions in research andscholarship and to bring people into these areas, building up acritical mass where appropriate.

Our university will build on activity to date, at which academicsfrom a number of disparate disciplines have been broughttogether to discuss broad themes (eg the environment, energy orcomputational biology). UCL will increase the input and advice ofexternal experts from both public and private sectors in the UK andinternationally.

Investment in cross-disciplinarityBuilding on the UCL Research Themes, cross-disciplinary researchnetworks, centres and institutes have been established throughcentral and faculty investment and embedded within UCLsgovernance and planning procedures. Whether physical or vir tual,these research hubs create opportunities for building researchcommunities around specic issues, forming new collaborations,facilitating the training of postgraduate students, responding swiftlyto external funding calls, leveraging the acquisition of externalsupport, optimising the impact of the resulting research andworking with industrial and other partners to realise the economicand social potential of their activities.

Further communities will be formed and centres established as aresult of horizon scanning in consultation and engagement withresearchers. Dynamic and imaginative leaders will be required inorder to galvanise disparate groups from around UCL and providelong-term vision and commitment to the project. Existing centres


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and initiatives will continue to be overseen to ensure that theymaintain their vitality and deliver on UCLs agreed priorities.

Governance and administrationThe UCL Vice-Provost (Research) VPR is the senior academiccharged with promoting, supporting and facilitating world-classresearch at UCL, and is responsible to the UCL Provost andgoverning body (UCL Council) for determining the universitysoverarching research agenda. The UCL VPR chairs the ResearchGovernance Committee, which oversees development of andcompliance with the UCL Code of Conduct for Research, whichincludes the research ethics framework. The UCL VPR willencourage members of the UCL research community to makeresearch-related suggestions and propose initiatives, whetherdirectly or through Heads of Department, Faculty Research Boardsor Faculty Vice-Deans (Research).

Research priorities are determined at the faculty level by theFaculty Executive Deans in consultation with senior academicsincluding the heads of divisions, institutes and departments.Faculties identify their priorities including infrastructurerequirements in their individual strategic plans, which are thenconsidered by the UCL Provosts Senior Management Team. Wecan no longer assume that there will be rising levels of resourcesavailable to UCL; a number of administrative changes referred toin the UCL Council White Paper 20112021 will help to addressthis. However, limited resources will need to be directed to thosedevelopments in line with agreed strategic priorities; greatercooperation will be required between faculties in making thesedecisions. Faculty Executive Deans and Heads of Department havea particular responsibility to manage and optimise performance;the Ofce of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research) will conduct anongoing assessment of such management.

UCL will continue to develop supportive administrative and nancialstructures that will facilitate and underpin research, enablingacademics to use their research time to maximum effect, togetherwith information networks to facilitate communication and informstrategy. Central coordination of shared facilities and complexgrant applications will be enhanced. Achievements in the spirit of

this research strategy will be embodied in systems for recruitmentand promotion, and in similar systems of reward.

Responsiveness and inuenceGiven the importance of university research to a vibrant society andsustainable economy, and UCLs role as a major research-intensiveinstitution, we will continue to make every effort to engage withappropriate agenda-setters and stakeholders.

We recognise and are committed to the importance of UCLdemonstrating leadership in debates over research policy, andengaging at all sectors and levels. This is important both in terms ofcurrent agenda and priorities, and with a view to ensuring

long-term sustainability for the UK research base.

UCL will respond to the needs for research and t raining of the UKgovernment and the corporate community, as well as regional andlocal priorities. The university will be responsive to the strategicobjectives of the major national and international funding agencies,

both public and private, and to government priorities forresearch.

Furthermore, UCL will play a prominent role in helping toinform and shape these research agendas. We will ensure thatour representation on the councils and panels of most of themajor funding agencies is maintained, and seek to extend ourrepresentation on other appropriate agencies. Such representationand engagement will be used to improve mutual understanding.UCL will both respond to relevant consultations as well as take aproactive position in inuencing higher education policy, both tofurther its institutional objectives and to strengthen the UK highereducation sector.

UCL will also endeavour to engage constructively with governmentpolicy, while continuing to champion and represent the fundamental

values discussed in this strategy. In parallel with using its collectiveresearch expertise to provide wise counsel, it will use its collectivesector experience to propose ways in which limited funding canbe most effectively and efciently invested. We will continue toadvocate our vision for a multidisciplinary research-intensiveuniversity to government, funders and other crucialdecision-makers.


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CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

The 2011 UCL Research Strategy calls for atransformation of the understanding of the role of ourcomprehensive research-intensive university.

In this strategy we have set out the aims through whicha culture of wisdom will be delivered:

fostering leadership grounded in excellence indiscipline-based research

expanding the distinctive cross-disciplinarity of ourresearch, collaboration and partnerships

increasing the impact of our global universitysresearch, locally, regionally, nationally andinternationally.

These strategic aims, which cover the entirety of UCLresearch, will be achieved by consolidating (and moreexplicitly codifying) existing good practice, and byintroducing new methods of supporting and facilitatingresearch excellence and impact. We are convertingthese aims into a scheduled programme of activity,identifying what adaptation is necessary in academiccentral support units, and dening the measures ofsuccess against which progress can be assessedagainst targets.

Appendices to this strategy restricted to UCL willcomprise a detailed implementation plan (20112015)and a record of achievement to date (20082011).

As UCL achieves these aims and delivers its culture of

wisdom, it will it full its potential as Londons GlobalUniversity.


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ENDNOTES

ENDNOTES

1 Maximising Impact and Inuence Globally: The UCL ResearchStrategy 2008 www.ucl.ac.uk/research/images/research-strategy-2008.pdf

2 Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1872)

3 Other terms as used in a UCL context, such as enterprise andglobal citizenship, are dened in other institutional strategies

4 The Wisdom Agenda www.ucl.ac.uk/research/images/The-Wisdom-agenda.pdf

5 Such as architecture, civil engineering and medicine

6 Including in geography, French, medical physics, media law andEgyptology

7 For example, statistics, chemical engineering, and the historyand philosophy of science

8 Over nearly two centuries, our staff and student achievementsinclude:

advances in communications such as the telephone andwireless telegraphy, and the rst transatlantic computernetwork connection, which was the precursor of the internet

understanding of the physiology of nerve cells and theirsynaptic connections

biomedical breakthroughs such as the identication ofhormones and vitamins, and the rst antiseptic treatment ofwounds

understanding of the immune systems rejection of tissueand organ grafts, and of autoimmune diseases such as

rheumatoid arthritis discovery of the iner t gases, including neon, which resulted

in the rst of 21 Nobel Prizes so far earned by our staff andstudents

9 For 43 of our 49 submissions to the 2008 Research AssessmentExercise, at least 50% of UCLs quality prole was either 4*(of world-leading quality) or 3* (internationally excellent).Excellent results were achieved across a wide spectrum ofdisciplines, including: architecture and the built environment;cancer studies; chemical engineering; computer scienceand informatics; earth systems and environmental sciences;economics and econometrics; history; history of art, architectureand design; hospital-based clinical subjects; infection andimmunology; law; philosophy; and psychology

www rae ac uk/Results

11 www.ucl.ac.uk/iris

12 www.ucl.ac.uk/grand-challenges

13 Including the world-renowned specialist centres that becamepart of UCL during the last 25 years: the UCL Institute of

Archaeology, the UCL Institute of Child Health, the UCL EastmanDental Institute, the UCL Institute of Neurology, the UCL Instituteof Ophthalmology and the UCL School of Slavonic & EastEuropean Studies

14 Including the UCL Cancer Institute, the UCL Institute ofCardiovascular Science, the UCL Ear Institute, UCL Security &Crime Science and the UCL Institute for Womens Health

15 The UCL Research Themes are: Ageing; Art, Design &Architecture; Basic Life Sciences; Biomedical Imaging;Bioprocessing; Cancer; Cardiometabolic Medicine;Communication, Language & Hearing; Computational

Science & Digital Systems; Digital Humanities; EconomicAnalysis; Energy, Environment & Transport; European Studies;Experimental Medicine; Genetics; Global Health; Heritage,History & Cultures; Human Wellbeing; Infection, Immunology &Inammation; Intercultural Interaction; Justice, Ethics & HumanRights; Language, Linguistics & Literature; Law & Enterprise;Materials; Media, Communications & Information; Migration;Nanotechnology; Neuroscience; Origins; Population Health;Public Policy & Governance; Reproduction & Development; Risk& Security; Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine; SustainableCities; Systems Engineering; and Thoughts, Beliefs & Philosophy

16 Including the UCL Computational Life & Medical Sciences

Network, the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, the UCL EnergyInstitute, the UCL Environment Institute, the UCL EuropeanInstitute, the UCL JDI Centre for the Forensic Sciences, the UCLGenetics Institute, the UCL Institute for Global Health, the UCLCentre for Materials Research, the UCL Institute of Origins, theUCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction, the UCL Centre forSecurity & Crime Science, the UCL Systems Biology Networkand the UCL Urban Laboratory

17 Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge Essential ScienceIndicators esi.isiknowledge.com

18 discovery.ucl.ac.uk

19 www.ucl.ac.uk/public-policy

20 l k/ l / ff d /i f / i / l

ucl research strategy 2011

Documents