A Community framework for R & D : with evidence / Select Committee on the European Communities.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Select Committee on the European Communities
Date:
1990
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: A Community framework for R & D : with evidence / Select Committee on the European Communities. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    139/156 (page 105)
    Letter from Professor H C A Hankins, Principal of UMIST Thank you for your letter dated 2 March 1990. The question of additionality of Community funding is a very important one to us in the HEIs. We of course wish to have opportunities of undertaking complementary research from sources other than from the UK research councils and industry direct. The European Community programmes provide such an opportunity, however, as illustrated in Professor Mitchell’s evidence, there are a number of disadvantages for the UK HEIs in assessing these funds, which as a result means that additionality is not always achieved. The major issues are: (a) High competition. (b) Requirements for particular trans-border partners. (c) Lack of formal influence on the announced programmes of research. (d) Very detailed administrative procedures. UMIST is successful in obtaining funding from the European Community and is a member of the UK Research Councils’ Club in Brussels. It has decided to be more active in selling itself in Europe, through the activities of its marketing company (UMIST VENTURES Limited). UMIST has been particularly successful in areas where there has been a much greater influence by the UK Government on EC research areas of interest, eg the field of Information Technology, in which UMIST has recently been awarded £540K under the ESPRIT programme. Whether the other areas in which UMIST has been successful also coincide with the priorities of the UK Research Councils has been more a matter of individual “luck” with particular projects rather than achieving pre-determined aims for desired additionality. The final point I wish to make is related to the aspect of working with other national companies and HEIs. There is no doubt that UMIST has experienced much greater collaboration with other EC countries as a result of the EC programmes, but it is much more difficult to say if this has led to more effective research and intellectual property exploitation, than if it had all been undertaken in the UK with, say, a partnership of ourselves and one industrial organisation. Our general experience is that quite often the problems associated with working with other countries often leads to lack of effective progress. The evaluation procedure seems not to have really been able to address this, in other words, it is not clear if the EC can properly evaluate success, since often the initial objectives are not well defined in this regard. I will be responding to your list of detailed points, as requested, by 9 April and this will give you further information in support of my comments above. H C A Hankins 20 March 1990 ANNEX 1 UMIST RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS Commission of European Communities Based upon research contracts originating during the periods 1983-84 to 1989-90 inclusive, the EEC funding details are as follows:— Chemical Engineering Energy recovery and waste treatment by anaerobic biofiltration £81K, Recycle of Urban Waste Computation Rule-based representation of information system constructs £207K, Esprit Multi-method approach for developing universal specification £83K, Esprit Advanced integrated circuit design aids £456K, Esprit (NB Sub-contracts to ICL) An intelligent, adaptive, information retrieval system as £36K, Aim Hospital Information System front-end Application specific architecture compilation £74K, Esprit Integrating database technology, rule-based systems and £540K Exprit temporal reasoning for effective software Control Systems Centre Human centred GIM systems £64K, Esprit Development of techniques for fault detection in complex £82K, Stimulation systems Self-tuning methods for plasma control applications £25K, [NET Agreement] K