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Bulletin

Building our research

As a research-led university, the quality of our research underpins our entire academic endeavour. Our new strategic plan will therefore set some ambitious goals for the development of high-quality research at Sussex.

Michael DaviesProfessor Michael Davies, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)

We will be building on the research quality that I am confident will be recognised by a strong performance in the Research Excellence Framework 2014, where academic and professional services colleagues are putting the final touches to our submission.

To secure and enhance this quality for the future, we require critical mass in key research areas; research that has high impact identified through its use and public recognition; a substantial increase in our research income; and an improvement in our facilities, structures and support.

Securing critical mass in research will require a step-change in our research and doctoral income performance, making Sussex a university with the capacity and resourcing of research to match its high quality.

This will help to generate a virtuous circle whereby higher research performance attracts high-quality staff and more student applicants, which generates additional resources that can then be invested in staff, facilities and the research environment – which then lifts research performance further.

Enhancing research performance will also require us to provide the best support and interventions that help our academic staff to improve their research outputs and gain recognition, leading to growth in research income.

As we take this plan forward, we will need to put in place mechanisms to increase the benefits of our research for the economy, health, society, culture, technology and public discourse, and more fully communicate and celebrate our positive impact on these areas.

As one part of these long-term developments, I am delighted that we have already been able to announce the creation of our Sussex Research initiative headed by our new Director of Interdisciplinary Research, Professor Alan Lester.

Sussex Research has emerged as a result of a review of the current Research Themes. It seeks above all to help academics develop research to the point where it can be externally funded, and is thus intended to play a key role in driving up our research income and consequently our research outputs.

Two core funding schemes have already been launched to help cultivate interdisciplinary networks and to fund specific projects likely to result in successful external grant applications. This approach will boost our research both in depth within individual disciplines, as well as in breadth across disciplines.

Sussex Research will also oversee strategic investment in cross-campus programmes from the new year. Roadshows are being held for colleagues on campus at which Alan and I will discuss the new initiatives and take questions. Alan has already embarked on meetings with each School's senior management team and welcomes feedback on the funding mechanisms as they are rolled out.

Our intention is that Sussex Research will provide focused institutional support that is sensitive to the research-development requirements of different disciplines and that will allow them more effectively to collaborate. These funding mechanisms alone will of course not generate the whole step change needed in external funding for our research but, as part of a package of measures, I believe they will contribute significantly.

It is also important to continue to develop a sustainable and thriving doctoral and post-doctoral research staff community, which is essential to high performance in research. We are committed to attracting sufficient external funding to enable an offer of competitive levels of doctoral student funding and will perform well against our peers in aiding the career development of our doctoral students and postdoctoral staff.

Again, I am delighted that we will be building on success. Just last week we announced the success of the CHASE consortium (led by Sussex and which was formed to promote excellence in research, postgraduate research training and knowledge exchange in the arts and humanities) winning £17m of funding for doctoral students from the AHRC. More than 230 students across the seven institutions involved stand to benefit from the award, over five years of entry.   

Many colleagues have come together to achieve this result, but I should pay particular tribute to Professor Vicky Lebeau in English and Paul Roberts in the Doctoral School for their outstanding work on this.

The new Sussex Research initiative and the CHASE consortium are just two of the examples of the range of work we have in place. But they set important signals about the aspirations and goals we have for Sussex to maintain and enhance our research standing as reflected in the recent Times Higher Education World Rankings.