APPENDIX 5
Memorandum from Dr Ian Carter, Director
of Research, University of Liverpool
1. In response to the request for evidence
for this session, I would wish to make a few comments. My comments
are derived from my position at Liverpool (and until recently
at Glasgow), where I am responsible for research grants and contracts,
and from my experience of sitting on Research Council project
boards for the implementation of Je-S (the electronic grant application
mechanism), Dual Support Reform, and the Research Administration
Programme.
2. My experience over recent years of interacting
with the Councils, individually and collectively, has been that
they are now more able and willing to take a joint view, from
both a scientific and an administrative view. The history of Je-S
and its predecessors illustrates this.
3. There is now more co-ordination, and
better understanding, across Councils, as well as there being
a greater willingness to interact with academic institutions and
their administrative staff, rather than only with the academic
community. This has paid dividends, in terms of improved policies
and processes, to the benefit of all involved.
4. Having recognised the improvements, it
is also important to note that there is room for further improvement.
Using Je-S as the example, ESRC and AHRB are only due to join
the mechanism during 2005, and MRC at some point in 2006 or later.
This timescale is somewhat disappointing. There will be challenges
in terms of forward planning of research programmes, and in the
review of studentship support, for example, as the approaches
and mechanisms vary significantly across the Councils.
5. Conversely, the Dual Support Reform has
provided a focus to enable a number of changes to policies and
processes, to provide greater commonality, and most of the Council
staff involved have taken this opportunity fully on board. The
changes involved in Dual Support Reform and Full Economic Costing
more broadly do challenge the ways in which the Councils operate,
in much the same way that they challenge universities, and this
culture change should not be overlooked.
6. I am less well placed to comment on the
role of RCUK itself in these processes, but I would observe the
necessity of an agency external to the individual Councils to
effect and initiate some of these broader changes. I have noted
resource strain within the Councils, because of additional Administration
Programme-related activities. In some cases, this seems to have
detracted from the individual change programmes that the Administration
Programme itself is trying to achieve.
February 2005
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