Memorandum submitted by Swansea University
The Engineering School in Swansea University
has for many years pioneered successful partnerships between academia
(involving the Welsh HEIs), industry and the Research Councils,
notably the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC). The most significant long term collaborations have been
those involving research and training since they deliver both
exploitable knowledge and the people with the skills that industry
needs. This year has represented a step change for the funding
available in Wales from EPSRC with the principality effectively
cut off from secured future funding; this will see an effective
annual reduction in Welsh HEI EPSRC funded students of 40 high
calibre EngD researchers and around 30 one year Research Masters
(MRes) students all of whom currently work with industry in the
engineering sector. This disinvestment in postgraduate education
in Wales is all the more confusing since all of the schemes which
have been effectively closed have been rated very highly in the
EPSRC's own independent reviews as will be detailed below.
To start with the Engineering Doctorate in Steel
Technology; this flagship scheme for the Welsh HEIs is a partnership
between Academia (Cardiff, Bangor, Swansea and Glyndwr) and 23
companies in the steel supply chain lead by Corus Group. The Centre
was established in 1992 as a pilot programme (one of only three
in the UK) and grew rapidly with industry and EPSRC support with
successful independent reviews of the scheme quality and strategic
significance to the economy completed by EPSRC in 1997, 2004 and
2007. Indeed, the EPSRC review of the EngD Scheme (completed in
2007) highlighted that the Swansea centred EngD was "an excellent
programme" with "a good focus on a cluster of target
technologies". The following points were specifically praised
as particular "strengths" of our programme.
— The engagement of an Industrial Advisory
Board
— Planning for future research and
skill requirements and developing projects accordingly
— Performance related element of RE
stipends which help maintain high achievement
— The strong commitment of Corus
— The significant financial and in-kind
contributions made by users
— That projects are driven by strategic
business needs
— The strong industrial supervision
— The "Themed" approach which
facilitates links with industry
These points accurately describe a vibrant,
successful and forward-looking EngD Centre which supports a strategic
pillar of the Welsh (and UK) economy. The 40 EngD Research Engineers
working with predominantly Welsh based companies represent an
important interface between the HEIs and industrialists and world
leading clusters of research activity have grown out of the programme.
To illustrate this, the launch in October 2008 of the £10
million Corus/Dyesol PV Accelerator project in Shotton Steel Works,
which aims to functionalise the 100 million square metres of painted
steel Corus produces with photovoltaic coatings, is directly linked
to two pilot EngD projects the first of which completed in 2004.
The cluster has expanded and now supports 20 industrial research
and development positions and a portfolio of EPSRC and WAG funded
research at the partner HEIs.
Economically the scheme is very important for
Wales in developing high level expertise within the industrial
sector. Since the year 2000, 87 doctoral researcher engineers
have graduated the programme and 70 are working in Wales with
96% recruitment of graduates into industry in the last four years.
Even the most conservative estimate of the value of this to the
Welsh economy is around £10 million per annum based on salary
and "on costs" alone (ie assuming they do nothing other
than take a salary and sit in an office!). To lose this stream
of talent into the Welsh economy represents a very serious blow
at a time when technology and innovation are more important than
ever for industries in Western Europe competing in global markets.
The positive indicators from the EPSRC Review
in 2007 were also reflected in the EPSRC review of the Collaborative
Training Accounts (CTAs) in 2008. Again the scheme was recognised
as "strategically important" for the Welsh economy and
business partners. These facts and the continued enthusiastic
support of industry were reflected in the bid to EPSRC for an
Industrial Doctorate Centre (essentially a re-branding of EngD).
The Welsh bid was rejected by email with a follow up letter which
stated that "no feedback would be given". Whereas the
decision reached was, in our view, simply wrong the manner in
which the scheme was dismissed is utterly condescending, indeed,
possibly insulting to the institutions involved. Our industrial
and academic partners have used their reputations to promote the
scheme widely and have worked tirelessly to get the EngD recognised
here and abroad as the premiere UK doctorate degree. To dismiss
16 years of dedicated and successful effort in such an offhand
fashion was unworthy of EPSRC.
We have never received proper response to our
request for the reasons for rejection. In response to my email
to the EPSRC admin team I was told that:
— The successes of existing schemes
were not relevant to the panel review. If success is not relevant
then this calls into question the value of the recent costly and
time consuming EngD review process
— There was "concern" over
the future demand for our product. This "concern" simply
ignores the fact of 96% EngD employment in the sector since 2004
and the 2:1 ratio of project proposals and UK student applications
to each funded place
— There was "concern" over
the international reputation of the researchers. This "concern"
is completely absurd. The academics involved in Swansea MRC alone
have brought in £14 million in EPSRC research grants and
published over 300 papers in international journals in the last
RAE period. Given that we pick the best from Wales as a whole
and proposed working with metallurgy experts in Sheffield University
and Imperial College any "concern" in this area is clearly
groundless
We have subsequently discovered that only 19
bids of the 41 received were taken forward to full business planning
phase (with a view to funding 15) which goes against the figures
promoted by EPSRC (89 out of 278) in which they have included
all applicants to Doctoral Training Centres (the latter a completely
different programme in which students do classical PhDs in clustered
topics in a University setting and not linked to any "industry"
or "user").
We have also realised that in this instance
the normal peer review process (ie proposals sent to four referees
and then judged by a panel) was not used such that the panel acted
as judge and juror. The composition of the panel was also of interest
in that it was very light on industrial involvement with apparently
no representation from manufacturing at all. By far the majority
of members were academics and whilst the Chair was from Qinetiq,
this is hardly an "Engineering Industry". There was
also no Welsh representation on the panel. The panel members did
have connections to many existing EngD centres but interestingly
to none of the UK Centres that were essentially closed.
The reorganisation of EPSRC priorities has impacted
on the Welsh HEIs in another way. Under the EPSRC funded CTA programmes
a wide range of one year MRes research projects and studentships
were funded. This is an important "lifeblood" in certain
skills shortage areas such as metallurgy as a "conversion"
course for talented science graduates. In addition, it allows
industry sponsors to work on a speculative piece of research as
part of a larger research cluster with an enthusiastic young researcher
who might then join the company after the programme. As such it
represents true knowledge transfer. The CTAs were reviewed in
2008 but even before this review was complete EPSRC had already
changed the system to KTAs (Knowledge Transfer Accounts) in which
Masters research was not countenanced. The EPSRC view is that
MRes activity will now form part of the first year of DTC or IDC
doctoral research. Since no Welsh HEI has either a DTC or IDC
(see above) then there is now no EPSRC funded MRes activity for
Welsh HEIs to collaborate with industry across the UK.
The disinvestment in Wales is significant. The
EngD and MRes schemes represent an annual Research Council income
to Welsh HEIs of around £1.4 million which is matched by
industry and is critically the catalyst for far more value added
research activity in the various clusters at the partner HEIs.
In addition, for the longer term, the fall off in talented high
calibre researchers entering Welsh industry will have a negative
economic impact. With an upcoming period of recession, increasing
global output of materials and the noted skills shortages in the
UK this could make the industry sectors very vulnerable since
innovation and product differentiation will be the success measures
for a sustainable manufacturing sector in Wales.
Professor David Worsley MRSC CChem
Director, EngD Centre in Steel Technology, Engineering
School, Swansea University
November 2008
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