FACULTY RESEARCH COMMITTEE (FRC)


MEETINGS:
One meeting held: 10-05-05
Further details of papers and minutes for meetings available on
Faculty of Engineering Intranet (Engineering Net)

MEMBERSHIP:
Terms of reference for Research Graduate School Board (RGSB)   
would be reviewed at Faculty level by Head of Research
Graduate School and at University level by Research Degrees Committee.

CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS:
Prof. Eames and Scotney had been appointed Directors of the
Built Environment and Computer Science Research Institutes
respectively and Prof. McGinnity appointed Acting Associate Dean.

FRC received guidance notes on the establishment of a 
Review/Filter Committee in Engineering and noted that as
a level of ethical approval would be required for any research
involving human subjects (including the use of clinical data).
This issue will impact on undergraduate and masters projects as
well as research funding proposals, Ph.D. projects and technology transfer
activities. Filter Committees would be established for each School
within the Faculty. 

FINANCE:
FRC received an overview of the implications of
Full Economic Costing (FEC) and noted that: (a) this would
have a significant impact on how funding proposals were
costed, and (b) each Research Institute would need increased levels of
Research Council funding, but that research grants from a mix of
funding sources remained essential.

Working Group comprising Acting Associate Dean, Heads of Schools
and Research Institute Directors would be established to discuss
the creation of a generic model for School/Research Institute finance
to identify the relevant costs to be transferred between Schools
and Research Institutes.

Distribution of consultancy overheads should be agreed on a case
by case basis between the relevant Head of School and Research
Institute Director.   

RESEARCH INSTITUTES:
For the Computer Science Research Institute (UoA-23)
one external review report had been received which
indicated that 90% of the submitted staff were 2* and above.

Some re-alignment of core/transitional membership, 
required which, due to the impact on teaching loads, would be
discussed with Heads of Schools.
  
Prof. Mike McTear appointed as group leader for the
Artificial Intelligence RRG.

UoA-23: 12,192,190 (i.e. share of awards to UoA-23, current RAE period). 
 
36 Ph.D. completions, 89 Ph.D. students currently enrolled.


RESEARCH GRADUATE SCHOOL (RGS):
One meeting held: 22-04-05

Research Office would contact all research students
to ask for contributions to a set of performance measures
to be included in the Research Student Charter.
 
Faculty Quality Working Group would be convened to
formulate a Faculty Plan for an extended Generic and
Research Skills Training programme.

Research Dinner and Awards Ceremony held 24-03-05 
(Computer Science, Best thesis: Dr. Gong de Guo, 
Best paper: Dr. Gang Leng, Best literature Review: Niall Rooney).

New WebCT system for recording supervision meetings has gone
live and students have been asked to record meetings on a 
monthly basis.

Faculty allocated 11 studentship awards (4 VCRS, 7 DEL)
for the 2005/06 academic year.

Faculty had received 79 applications for Computer Science
for the 2005/06 studentship competition.

Young Dependents Allowance previously available only to DEL
funded students has been extended to include VCRS funded students.

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