Category: research

Global ambitions, sharper focus

Posted on by Guy Poppy

A few months into his role as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Professor Guy Poppy reports on his impressions so far and his priorities for the immediate future. 

Professor Guy Poppy

Since my arrival here, I’ve been very pleased to find that the positive aspects which drew me to Bristol are playing out. This truly is a comprehensive university, with research strengths from science, engineering and medicine through to theatre, music, economics and beyond.  

I’ve been speaking to many people, hearing about the range and brilliance of our researchers and thinking about how we can bring that talent together. We want Bristol to be one of the world’s top 50 universities, and to be known globally as a great place to come and work – and a key route to that objective is joining up our world-class research teams into new combinations that cross disciplines and specialisms, to tackle the big, important societal challenges – climate change, healthy aging, feeding the world sustainably, and so on.  

I’ll give just one example among many.  

AI + powerful data = healthcare revolution 

Our already impressive standing in artificial intelligence has achieved a step-change with Isambard-AI, which will become the UK’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer when it opens this summer (it’s actually been online since last June, facilitating research that includes treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s). Bristol was named AI University of the Year in 2024 and will play a prominent role in the government’s plan to establish the UK’s sovereign AI capability. 

We’re also uniquely placed in the UK through our Department of Population Health, especially since the launch of our Children of the 90s programme three decades ago – one of the most recognised and important epidemiological studies in the world. The Children of the 90s cohorts have helped our teams produce powerful data which is helping to drive research into cancer and a whole range of other illnesses. 

Say, then, that you combine these two outstanding examples: Bristol could become known for driving a revolution in which people’s health has been improved through artificial intelligence.    

I’ve given a great amount of thought to my priorities as PVC for Research and Innovation. I’m going to concentrate on four here.  

1. Concentrating the message

Bristol is excellent at many, many things, but to sharpen your profile effectively, it can be better to push a few things very hard rather than diluting the message across 20 or 30 of them – even though there are easily that many at Bristol. That goes back to uniqueness: picking the five things to concentrate on telling people about – our ‘superbrands’, if you like.  

Our academic schools and faculties have a clear idea of their strengths; my job is to consider those strengths in the context of the whole institution, so that, for example, if I visit Harvard University and ask what they think Bristol’s known for, they can tell me because we have ensured that the quality and impact of our research has achieved global recognition. 

2. Making a bigger splash

At the same time, conveying the impact of all the work we do is important. Universities need to illustrate the important part they play in society, beyond educating theirstudents, and this is no different for Bristol. Innovation – also part of my brief – can have a high impact, for example by finding new and better ways of doing things, changing public behaviour, or driving the launch of new businesses or whole new sectors.  

I want to ensure that the incredible work that happens at Bristol gets better reach to people in the city and beyond, by making a positive, palpable impact on their daily lives. Our new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, for example, will enable lots of local businesses to work with academics. Many of those academics are now keen to be able to say that their work has changed public policy, led to the launch of a company or made their field more attractive for people to come and study. We do really have the opportunity to shape the future.

3. Building our culture

Every seven to eight years, UK universities undertake a government-mandated exercise called the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses university research. Bristol did exceptionally well last time, coming fifth in the country. The next REF takes place in 2029, and we’re already planning how to ensure that our research excellence continues to be recognised in those results. 

One part of the REF that has increased in importance is ‘people, culture and environment’.  That’s all about how you attract and retain researchers by investing in buildings, supporting teamwork, and maintaining high standards of integrity. Professor Marcus Munafo, our outgoing Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture, has done a lot of groundwork to bring these areas together at Bristol. The next stage is making sure that all parts of the University benefit from the tools, workshops and resources that Marcus and his colleagues have established. This will also ensure that Bristol becomes known as a great place to conduct research and have a fulfilling and rewarding career. For example, Professor Harry Mellor (associate PVC for postgraduates) is ensuring that we excel in PhD training and that we help develop the next generation of researchers. 

These things are already starting to happen, and if we ensure that our culture and environment consistently supports and encourages our researchers, we should score well not just in REF2029, but long afterwards.

4. Supercharging enterprise and innovation

Universities are often good at spinning out small companies and developing patents, but they’re perhaps less successful at scaling up to big enterprises that generate significant numbers of jobs and money. As the need to find income streams from sources other than student fees or the government becomes more pressing, it’s prudent to look at opportunities for enlarging our ambitions in this area. 

Take our National Composites Centre: our teams there are great at producing what our industries need. So what other knowledge do we generate that might service those needs? Who we should be working with, and how? Professor Michelle Barbour, our Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Innovation, has been leading our efforts in this area, and I’ll be working with her and her team closely to develop these activities further. 

We receive a lot of public funds, and we need to demonstrate that they’re well spent, for example by illustrating how investment in a piece of research can ultimately lead to something groundbreaking, such as the smart phones we all now carry around. 

Final thoughts 

A university needs to balance its books and make sensible decisions. That doesn’t mean that we should only do things that make loads of money and start to shut down things that don’t. But we must prove ourselves accountable for the public monies we spend and demonstrate the value and impact of our many substantial contributions to society, to the economy and to human knowledge. There is an important role for discovery, as my former colleague and now Minister of Science, Lord Vallance, has recognised. 

I’m confident that the University of Bristol will achieve this and more, and I’m looking forward to helping our staff, students and partners to realise our ambition of taking our place in the top 50 universities in the world. 

 

Celebrating the new £10m ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures

Posted on by Judith Squires

By Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost

Image of Judith Squires After two years of online celebrations, I was exceptionally proud to join colleagues in person last month for a Provost Celebration of Academic Achievement. We were celebrating the major £10m funding success of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Centre for Sociodigital Futures, led by the University of Bristol.

The Bristol-led Centre for Sociodigital Futures has an ambitious research agenda, focussing on the intersections of digital technologies and social practices, and what might be done to drive these towards fair and sustainable ways of life.

Its aim, as described by its Co-Directors, Professors Susan Halford and Dale Southerton, is to “investigate these sociodigital futures in the making across diverse domains of social life and different areas of digital innovation to explore where it might be possible to tip the balance towards inclusive, reflexive and sustainable trajectories.”

How do our sociodigital futures take shape?

Digital technologies are transforming everyday life and bold claims are being made about how intelligent robots, autonomous vehicles and the ‘metaverse’ will shape our futures. These claims are important because they drive corporate investments, government policies and business strategies, and they inform our hopes and fears for daily life. Yet we know from the past that futures claimed rarely turn out as predicted.

The interplay of digital technologies with the complex realities of everyday life produces multiple and unexpected outcomes, with far reaching implications for the economy, politics and social life. And, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and widening inequalities, what lies ahead seems more uncertain than ever.

The new Centre aims to generate new approaches to fairer and more sustainable societies; to render emerging sociodigital futures both “intelligible and actionable” with direct impact on policymaking, organisational practice, community participation and technology design.

A flagship investment and a true collaboration

The ESRC Research Centres are flagship investments, which are expected to be national and international Centres of Excellence. Only four or five centres are funded every two years, across the full range of Social Science disciplines. In this round, there were 89 original expressions of interest to the ESRC, with five bids funded.

It brings together world-leading expertise across eight schools in Social Sciences, Engineering and the Arts, and will be led from the University of Bristol. Academic partners are based at the Universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster, Birmingham, Goldsmiths University of London, and University of the Arts, London.

The centre will also work in collaboration with core strategic partners BT, Defra, Maybe, Locality, the National Cybersecurity Centre and UNESCO, and has an international partner network across five continents.

The ambitious research agenda will explore how digital devices, services and data are shaping (and being shaped by) everyday practices of consuming, caring, learning, moving (people and goods) and organising.

At the same time, the Centre will explore how cutting-edge technologies – artificial intelligence, high performance networks, robotics, and augmented/ virtual and extended reality – are imagined and innovated for a range of futures linked to these areas of practice.

The event itself showed the extent of this collaboration and we heard speeches from Professor Phil Taylor (PVC Research), Professor Simon Tormey (Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences & Law), Professor Karla Pollmann (Dean of Arts) and Professor Ian Bond (Dean of Engineering), as well as from Susan and Dale.

We were also pleased to welcome some of our partners and raise a celebratory glass with them.

Next steps

A lot of preparation work for the Centre for Sociodigital Futures is already underway, with a planned started date of 1 May 2022. The Centre will run for an initial five years, but it is expected there will be opportunities to renew funding beyond that.

I want to pay tribute to Professors Susan Halford and Dale Southerton, and the team in our Research and Enterprise division (RED), who supported the bid development, and congratulations to everyone who contributed to this fantastic achievement.

Find out more about the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures on our website.

Celebrating Global Challenges Research Fund successes

Posted on by Judith Squires

By Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost

It was a great pleasure to mark the first in the 2020 series of Provost Celebrations of Academic Achievement by welcoming colleagues to Royal Fort House to celebrate our Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) successes on 16 January.

Provost Professor Judith Squires celebrates our Global Challenges funding success with colleagues
Professor Judith Squires (Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost) and Professor Paddy Ireland (Interim PVC Research) celebrating the GCRF successes with award-holders and colleagues from RED.

The GCRF is an initiative driven by the United Nation’s ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, which has at its heart 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals represent a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. In response to the 2030 Agenda, the Government published its aid strategy which aims to:

      • address global challenges through disciplinary and interdisciplinary research;
      • strengthen capability for research and innovation, with developing countries and the UK; and
      • enable an agile response to emergencies and opportunities.

      All GCRF research projects must also focus on delivering benefits and outcomes which promote the welfare and economic development of Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

      We have been extremely successful in securing funding via this scheme here at the University of Bristol.  This success was facilitated by the early development of Bristol’s Global Challenges strategy, which Research England commended to other higher education institutions (HEIs) to encourage best practice, acknowledging the excellence and effort demonstrated by Bristol’s approach. The strategy was been expertly supported by our Global Challenges Steering Group, composed of experts in Official Development Assistance, with representation from Bristol’s Research Institutes and Faculty Research Directors.  Their guidance has been invaluable – and is much appreciated.

      As a result of our strategy, the University has been incredibly successful in attracting funding from the GCRF, with a success rate above 40%, and around £2 million a year coming in via QR funding (quality-related research funding, determined by the periodic assessment of HEIs) to support the activities outlined in the strategy. Since 2016, we have secured over 130 external awards worth more than £30 million.  Two examples include:

      • Professor Matthew Avison received £1.8m to lead the One Health Drivers of Antibacterial Resistance in Thailand (OH-DART) consortium. Working with colleagues at the Universities of Exeter and Bath, Mahidol University, Chulabhorn Research Institute and the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The consortium’s aim is to define and prioritise the drivers of antibacterial drug resistance in humans in the community in Thailand, taking a multi-disciplinary approach.
      • Professor Leon Tikly and partners from India, Rwanda, Somalia and South Africa have received £4.65m to Transform Educations Systems for Sustainable Development. The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of how education systems can act as drivers of sustainable development.

      Many congratulations to everyone – academics and professional services – involved in these projects, and all the 130 projects, secured since 2016.  Congratulations too to Professor Helen Lambert, who has been appointed as Global Challenge Leader for Health on a part-time secondment to UKRI to March 2021.

      The event last week was held as a small ‘thank you’ to all those colleagues who have worked so hard to obtain these important GCRF funding awards and to help pursue the sustainable development goals. May our success in addressing the global challenges identified in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development continue.

Provost Celebration of Academic Achievement Receptions

Posted on by Judith Squires

By Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost

On Thursday last week (21 March) colleagues from across the University gathered together in Royal Fort House to celebrate the achievements of  Bristol Futures and to recognise colleagues who have worked so hard to deliver this transformational educational initiative. This event was part of a new series of monthly Provost Academic Achievement Receptions that I established when I took up my new role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost in January, designed to recognise just some of the many outstanding academic achievements of staff across the University.

The January celebration marked the Outstanding Ofsted result obtained by the School of Education, in which our PGCE programme was deemed outstanding in every category. Sadly, this event was affected by the threat of snow and amber weather warnings, so we had to wait for our February celebration of EPSRC CDT success to really get the series underway.

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Celebrating the real difference our universities make

Posted on by Guy Poppy

By Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research.

Working at one of the UK’s leading universities, in a role where I regularly meet with students, researchers and peers from across the higher education sector, it’s easy to forget how extraordinary this environment is.

I use the word extraordinary, which is both accurate and perhaps a little misleading. What happens at universities is extraordinary in that they provide unique and far-reaching opportunities for people to discover, learn, collaborate, push the boundaries of knowledge and grow new ideas into ventures that drive world-leading innovation.  But it’s also ordinary in that the challenges that we work on are global and confront us all, in our everyday lives.

In the 25 years that I’ve been with the University of Bristol, I’m continually impressed and inspired by how ideas are taken to fruition, sometimes in unexpected ways and often to levels of success that have surpassed expectations – and made an impact on a vast scale.

I am immensely proud of the work of our academics here at the University of Bristol who are working with fellow researchers in more than 40 countries, improving health, alleviating poverty, driving technological innovation.

This month sees the launch of MadeAtUni, a campaign spearheaded by Universities UK that aims to highlight the enormous impact that UK universities make on our lives.

One of Bristol’s many seminal research projects is included in ‘The UK’s Best Breakthroughs: 100+ Ways Universities Have Improved Everyday Life’, produced by UUK as part of the campaign. (more…)