INFORMATION SERVICES DIVISION
Researcher Applications
RIISG Working Group 4
22nd June 2012
MINUTES
PRESENT:
Andrew Clark, Office of the Vice-Provost Research (ACk)
Graham Hunt, Head of Research Applications and Services ISD (GH)
Anthony Finkelstein, Dean of Faculty of Engineering Science (AF)
Krista Macmillan representing Tim Barnes, Office of Vice-Provost Enterprise (KM)
David Selwood, Faculty of Medical Sciences (DS)
APOLOGIES:
Anthony Peacock, Advanced Information Services Centre (AP)
Ofer Lahav representing Donna Williamson, MAPS Faculty Manager (OL)
Martin Moyle, Digital Curation Manager (Library Services) (MM)
Gavin Mclachlan, Director Research IT Services (ISD) (GMc)
Ann Blandford, Professor of Human Computer Interaction, Dept of Computer
Science
Simon Farrell, ISD Architect, ISD Director’s Office
1.
Matters Discussed
1.1 Welcome and Introduction
1.1.1 GH introduced the agenda for the meeting.
1.2 Approval of Minutes and Matters Arising
1.2.1 GH presented decisions and directions of the last meeting. Minutes of
the last meeting were approved.
1.3 2012/13 Budget Process, progress and status
Researcher Applications Working Group – Minutes 22 June 2012
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1.3.1 Process and progress
GH gave an overview of budgeting process and bids submitted, and confirmed that
there are four domain groups (admin, infrastructure, learning & teaching and
research). GH confirmed that bids have been prepared, submitted and reviewed and
that ISD has produced an initial strawman which is closer to the current proposed
budget for consideration by governance groups. When the portfolio has been
prioritized by the Governance groups, it will go to the Information Services
Governance Committee (ISCG) which is a new committee consisting of members
from the SMT who will give final approval to the budget.
1.3.2 Indicative Budget. GH highlighted some of the finances. From a £12.0m
overall budget, there were £23.6m of submitted bids, of which £13.4m remains in the
strawman portfolio after initial prioritisation. From this figure, £9.6m is made up of
continuing projects and the remaining £3.9m of new projects.
GH continued to explain that from the £12.0m budget, the initial bids across research
were £4.4m. Initial indicative budget was likely to be only £2.5m, however this was
still an increase of 56% from the last financial year. From the initial strawman
portfolio that has been submitted, the research figure was £2.8m compared to the
budgeted figure of £2.5m. David Price will be lobbying for the full funding of £2.8m
at the SMT following the RIISG review of the proposed strawman.
1.3.3 2012/13 Research Applications Projects. AF asked what projects had fallen
off the bottom of the research list, assuming that the strawman budget figure
remained (a £331k reduction from the strawman). GH confirmed that in order to try
and claw back the £331k, Gavin’s plan is to recoup from some of the activity on
projects in the Research Computing and Data Services areas, no further reductions
in budget was expected in the Research Applications arena.
GH detailed the projects greater than £100k that are included in the strawman and
confirmed that the Electronic Laboratory Notebook Implementation had been
rejected. There are an additional five projects in the strawman that total £236k and
a further eight projects totaling £439k that have also been removed from the
strawman.
1.3.3.1 IRIS Enhancements GH said that the funding for IRIS enhancements had
been reduced to £80k from the initial bid of £143k, and that as a result, work in this
project will need to be prioritised carefully.
KM raised the issue of commercial collaborations being available in IRIS – a priority
for her department. There was a discussion as to whether the Declaration of Interest
Register held by Finance could be integrated to IRIS for this need. Whilst AF agreed
Researcher Applications Working Group – Minutes 22 June 2012
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that there is possibility of duplication here there is an issue that some Declarations of
Interest should not be publicized since this could expose commercially sensitive
information. GH to feed into product backlog review for IRIS Enhancements
project.
1.3.3.2 Research Equipment Register
ACk and AF raised concern over the Equipment Register project having not been
assessed. It was suggested that maybe an Equipment Register could be included in
the Research Information Management project but there was general concern over
the priority of this requirement against others and also that a register was urgently
needed. ACk suggested that raising the lack of this tool as an overall UCL risk may
help with prioritization. GH suggested that implementation of a register tool maybe
possible as a “small project” if something like the JISC funded Kit-Catalogue was
simply installed but no assistance could be given or managed by ISD to assist in
data loading or ensuring a consistent ontology is used. That would require individual
departments etc. to manage. GH will action with GMc.
1.4 Plan for 2012/13 for Working Groups 3 and 4
GH mentioned issue of overlap between the two working groups (WG3 Research
Management Applications and WG4 Research Applications) and asked for views on
merging the two into a single Research Applications working group. ACk said it was
useful to have two separate conversations at times, particularly when preparing bids
for the annual budget round. It was recommended that the two working groups
merge for the time being, but when it comes to talking about specific bids, keep
conversations to separate meetings. GH to work on this proposal and discuss
with GMc.
2. Action Points
No.
1
Date first
raised
27/01/12
Minute
Owner
1.3.3.7
GH
Action
Investigate running a survey
on researcher social
networking opportunities
Status
On going
Notes
Survey running in
Opinio through to
th
7 July 2012. GH
will produce a
report based on
findings and
circulate to
members before
next meeting
Researcher Applications Working Group – Minutes 22 June 2012
5
16/3/2012
1.4.1.3
GH
Circulate social networks
Complete
6
16/3/2012
1.5
GH
questionnaire for review
Prepare draft bid for
Complete
4
eLabnotebook as robust
exercise
7
16/3/2012
1.5
GH
Prepare draft bid for
Equipment Register
Complete
8
16/3/2012
1.5
GH
IRIS upgrade project:
Complete
9
16/3/2012
1.5
GH

Data extraction

KT – knowledge
transfer information
Researcher
efficiency/applications
Complete
awareness (Maria Darmon to
be included in bid)
10
22/06/12
1.3.3.1
GH
11
22/06/12
1.3.3.2
GH
Feed requirement for
commercial collaborations in
New
IRIS Product backlog review
12
22/06/12
1.4
GH
Action investigation of small
project to evaluate/implement
Kit Catalogue
Propose merger of two
New
New
Working Groups to GMc and
RIISG
3. Next Meetings
Currently next meeting of this working group is planned for
19th October 2012, 10am – 12noon, 2 Taviton St, Ground Floor Meeting Room.
New combined meetings with WG3 to be determined following
discussion/recommendation and based on RIISG meeting timing if revised