With the summer holidays over, it is time to look forward to a new academic year, which was marked by the first School Conference last Friday (8th September). For those of you who were able to come along, thank you for making it such a great day. For those who weren’t able to attend, you did miss a good occasion but I hope there will be more to come over the next few months and we will be putting the slides from the presentations on the new staff intranet when that is available.
It’s always good to be part of something where academics involved in different kinds of research are hearing about each other’s work and there was a real buzz in the room. For me personally, there were several really notable aspects to the research being shared and the discussion generated. First, I was struck by the diversity in the scales of investigation – from examining individual molecules in chemistry to mapping the ecology of oceans in marine science, involving experiments that may take a few seconds or many years. These differences in scale and perspective are always good places to build new ideas.
It was inspiring to see such a rich combination of what the Americans now call “foundational science” and the application of this type of basic, curiosity-driven research to real world problems. In the new school we have both fantastic basic science assets in our campus labs, and unique resources for translation, including the Princess Royal research vessel, our farms and the research outstations that can help us to take just that kind of approach. Curiously, earlier in the week I had been at a UK-Canadian research workshop in agri-technology at Canada house in London, where exactly this combination of basic scientific research and its application at a practical level to benefit industry and society were the focus for forward plans.
Another asset that we enjoy within our new School is being able to work across both natural and social sciences. We all know of examples of technological advances that are never taken up but we don’t know why. An integrated approach that brings natural and social sciences together, designs and addresses research questions in a way that helps to ensure that scientific advances actually do benefit people. Many of you are also working with industry and the scientific problems they bring to us are seldom solved by one discipline alone. We are unusual in being able to respond by harnessing not only a wide range of natural sciences but social sciences as well. This is another bonus point that put us ahead of our competitors and builds in added value to our School.
There are going to be a lot of opportunities coming up to provide advice for the UK Government following our departure from the European Union. With that European source of expertise removed, policymakers will turn to the domestic academic sector and we need to ensure we are well placed to respond – we have the expertise, we need to ensure we are well linked in to the policymaking process.
As you will gather, I came away from the event feeling positive and excited about the future, and I hope you did too. But it’s worth saying that we are still in a phase of transition and we want to hear more about your ideas. The ways we do things at the moment aren’t set in stone. You may feel that you want to develop new research groupings, or tweak the current ones and draw in expertise from different parts of the School, based on what you heard at the conference. Or maybe the name of the research grouping needs to change to reflect better what you are doing? The Directors of Expertise will be meeting with the Research Groups over the next few weeks and that will provide an opportunity for those kinds of discussions. It’s important that the groupings provide the support everyone needs to do effective research, so if you have ideas about that please let us know.
Finally, I want to emphasise that your disciplines and the expertise you have built up within your discipline will underpin all these developments. That will not be devalued. On the contrary, by working in a more complementary way, by building our links with industry and by engagement with policy and increasing our international links, we will add value to what everyone is doing. Science is going to be critical to the future of the UK, after Brexit and beyond.