16 | ARMA | NEWS AND CURRENT AF FAIRS
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EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE
A lot has happened since the Wakeham Review in 2011, and the subsequent changes to Research Council equipment rules. Dr Hamish McAlpine, GW4 equipment sharing project co-ordinator at the University of Bath, and Adrian Cox,
Equipment.data.ac.uk project manager at the University of Southampton and SES equipment sharing lead, examine how the landscape has changed
Standards drive consolidation Following Wakeham, many institutions were prompted to make lists of their equipment (often known as asset registers) more visible internally, and increasingly, externally, through various databases. However, Bath, Southampton and others quickly realised that consolidation was needed. Together with the Universities of Leeds (representing the N8 partnership) and Loughborough (representing the M5 consortium), Bath and Southampton created UNIQUIP, an RCUK-funded project which aimed to create standards for equipment databases. This resulted in the UNIQUIP publishing specification – a widely agreed standard of the minimum useful terms needed to publish data on equipment and facilities. The UNIQUIP standard (now
embodied in the RCUK-funded
equipment.data.ac.uk platform) means that it is now relatively easy to publish data. However, whilst the publication of good quality linked open data is vital in delivering the ‘shop window’, the realising of quantifiable benefits to the sector is also essential.
Barriers As well as the practical aspects, such as costing access, and insurance (which the N8 partnership of northern universities are tackling via their ‘Equipment Sharing Toolkit’), another, perhaps less tangible but very important, area is in fostering a culture of sharing. The key is to reduce or remove the practical barriers, whilst simultaneously promoting the opportunities. Sharing within regional alliances such as GW4, perhaps facilitated by small amounts of funding, could be a good way to convince users of the benefits, or iron out the practicalities.
GW4
GW4 brings together the South West and Wales’ four leading, research-intensive universities. Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter are collaborating through their research to address the key global challenges for the benefit of society and the economy.
Visit htp://
gw4.ac.uk for more.
Opportunities – expanding horizons Hamish highlights two areas here: “Firstly, I think that a lot of the time, ‘sharing’ and ‘collaborating’ are talked about interchangeably. But we’ve begun to realise that the processes required to support ad-hoc sharing of existing kit are quite different to those required to leverage the opportunities for collaboration presented by alliances of research-intensive universities such as the GW4 and SES. “Also realising economies of
The SES consortium
The SES consortium, partnering Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford, Southampton and UCL, has been established to enable the world- class research in these universities to be enhanced and deliver efficiencies of scale and utilisation which will increase the return on existing and future public investment. It will explore how its shared infrastructure and training
ARMA members
Hamish McAlpine is Research Project co-ordinator at the University of Bath. Adrian Cox is Project Manager, Research & Innovation Services at the University of Southampton. Hamish and Adrian are members of the Association of Research
Managers and Administrators (ARMA) UK.
www.arma.ac.uk
can be used to stimulate further international, national and regional synergy. This will range from the creation of a globally significant hub for postgraduate training in science and engineering, to forming a network that will enable researchers in local centres of excellence in UK national universities and industry to be associated with international facilities and research environments.
scale in procuring equipment is hard, because there is often litle flexibility, with purchase date and requirement constraints. However, maintenance is a significant spend and taking a more joined- up approach here could deliver significant savings.” Adrian and Hamish both
believe there must be recognition of the role of the academic and technical experts in delivering such opportunities. In underpinning longer-term capability, there is a need to establish pathways to long- term skills and knowledge retention. There is growing feeling that when we talk about sharing, what we most likely require is the knowledge that complements the equipment. Adrian comments: “Perhaps we are not so much sharing ‘equipment’ as ‘capabilities’. There should now be a focus on improving our ability to collaborate, perhaps via highly equipped regional or national research centres – we may see more ‘free at point of use’ technology focused centres.” But Hamish ends with a cautionary
note: “The benefits of this activity are clear to me, but the plural of anecdote is not data. Individual case studies are beter, but what’s needed now are agreed ways of recording convincing, quantifiable evidence that all this activity is resulting in meaningful savings and other impacts, and this is certainly something I hope to address in the current GW4 project.” UB
HPC image: ©IDPS University of Bath
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