Driving forward excellence in research:
institutional strategies and approaches
Professor Malcolm Grant
UCL President and Provost
HEPI conference
Research Excellence: Competition or Collaboration in
today‘s globalised HE sector
2 December 2010, The Royal Society
• UCL's status
• Knowledge transfer
• UCL Grand Challenges
• UCL strategies for research excellence
• UCL's national and international role
• Conditions for research excellence
About UCL
Then…
• The foundation of UCL – as the first English
university to open its doors to all,
regardless of race, creed or political belief –
embodied many of Jeremy Bentham’s
ideas on education and society.
And now…
• London’s global university
• 24,000 students; 4,000 researchers
• Multidisciplinary research excellence
UCL research excellence: success in research funding
Top 20 institutions in receipt of
Research Council funding 2008-09
17
13
9
5
1
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
Funding
Top 20 institutions in receipt of
block grant funding 2008-09
16
11
6
1
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
Funding £000
100000
120000
UCL research excellence: success in research outputs
UCL annual research article outputs: 2003-2009
Source: Elsevier / Scopus.
UCL field-weighted citation impact 2003-08 (size of bubble
proportional to world impact. [World = 1; UK = 1.338; UCL = 1.594.]
Source: Elsevier / Scopus.
ESI citations: Top 20 institutions
3,500,000
3,000,000
Citations
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
UCL research excellence: Success in people
• UCL’s academic community includes: 36 Fellows
of the Royal Society; 26 Fellows of the British
Academy; 10 Fellows of the Royal Academy of
Engineering; 78 Fellows of the Academy of
Medical Sciences
•There has been at least one Nobel Laureate from
the UCL community every decade since the
establishment of the Nobel Prizes in 1901
• In the RAE 2008, UCL submitted over 1,800
staff to 49 UoAs. At least 50% of staff in most
submissions ranked at 4* or 3*.
Knowledge transfer
• Research benefits from engagement with the
world outside academia
• UCL’s obligation as university
• Five core pillars:
–
–
–
–
–
Scholarship
Public engagement
Enterprise
Healthcare
Public policy
Grand Challenges
• Harnessing UCL’s collective expertise to address
global problems
• Promoting novel cross-disciplinary collaboration
Advancing research excellence
(Institutional strategies)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Facilitating cross-disciplinary working
Strategic use of QR
Supporting researchers
Collaborating with external partners
Joined-up research planning
Investing in infrastructure
Providing leadership
• Working with Government and funders to ensure
the excellence and global reputation of the UK
research base
• Pursuing research collaborations – locally,
nationally, globally
• Delivering research with impact: achieving societal
benefit
• Generating knowledge and wisdom that can
address global problems
UCL: Developing a culture of wisdom
I M PA C T
WISDOM
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
E
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
E
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
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RESEARCH
What are the (national) conditions
for sustaining research excellence?
• Maintaining sustainable public funding
(including block grant)
• Institutional autonomy
• Supporting concentrations of research
excellence and critical mass
• Enhanced support for cross-disciplinary
working
• Investing in the best researchers
• International free flow of scholars
Competition or collaboration?
Both
• Competition within the sector drives excellence
and efficiency; internationally it pushes us to be a
global leader in research
• A changing landscape for universities (globalised
university sector; global problems; economic
climate; radical changes to higher education in
UK) mean that increased collaboration is both
necessary and desirable
Driving forward excellence in research:
institutional strategies and approaches
Professor Malcolm Grant
UCL President and Provost
HEPI conference
Research Excellence: Competition or Collaboration in
today‘s globalised HE sector
2 December 2010, The Royal Society