RESEARCH IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Our efforts to ensure that the fruits of our research benefit the wider community in all our priority areas and across disciplines depend to a large extent on our ability to engage with people outside academia.
To this end, academic colleagues were widely heard in the press and media expertly synthesising and distilling research knowledge to enhance the public conversation throughout the year. By way of example, Dr Elena Martellozzo of the School of Law provided expert comment on children’s access to pornography, including an interview on BBC Radio Four and contributions to The Guardian.
Professor Laurent Pech, also in the School of Law, provided expert analysis of changes in the legal and constitutional systems of Hungary and Poland. In addition, Dr Murad Banaji in the Department of Design Engineering and Mathematics helped listeners and readers to understand the dynamics of the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, including contributions to a well-regarded BBC World Service programme on the topic. Explaining not just what research says but also what it helps us to do – make better predictions, form better judgements, design better technology and laws that are more assistive and sensitive – is a vital role for any university.
REF 2021 – STRONG EVIDENCE ENTERED FOR RESEARCH ASSESSMENT
In the course of the year, the University provided evidence of the quality of its research environment, research impact and research culture to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) for assessment. This required the submission of research outputs from 443 staff in 12 ‘units of assessment’ (grouped research subject areas).
This REF exercise is the first in which it is expected that all eligible academic staff should have their outputs submitted for assessment. In Middlesex’s case, that means we submitted all staff employed on academic contracts (Teaching and Research or Research only routes) at the REF census date (31 July 2020) who satisfied the REF 2021 criteria for inclusion as category A staff (more than 0.2 full-time equivalent and ‘independent’ i.e. unsupervised researchers).
RESEARCH STUDENTS
Research students are the lifeblood of our inclusive research culture; a healthy research environment is one that ensures that the support it provides to the researchers of tomorrow is of a quality commensurate with that of its research. In addition to providing training and welfare support to students throughout the pandemic, we have taken advantage of the online working to increase opportunities for engagement across geographic boundaries, including a hugely successful online research student conference organised by a group of academic colleagues ably supported by our Research Degrees Administration Team.
Some of our research grants and contracts include funding to support research students, employ research assistants and/or early career researchers as post-doctoral fellows. A noteworthy example is the fully funded PhD studentship won by Dr Helen Roberts (Department of Natural Sciences)
from Willberry Wonder Pony (PhD Studentships) to support research into the role of bone cells in the metastatic process.
Others include the FUTURES project (Pedro de Senna in the Department of Performing Arts), funded by the EU Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), which aims to develop innovative, future-oriented processes, tools and methods that will foster personal and professional development among early stage researchers and high school students. A further five DG EAC funded projects were won in year by Professor George Dafoulas (Department of Computer Science) worth in total £301,977 to the University, for research into the creation of a collaborative platform (Sharing my Learning-Platform-Network-Toolkit) to support the transition towards e-study and e-work, the development of vocational education and training in veterinary science and other aspects of adult education.
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REF also requires that evidence is submitted to show the significance and reach of the impact of the research beyond the academic sphere. Our REF submission included some exemplary case studies of the impact of our research in areas as varied as the financing of innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises, the use of nanoparticles in healthcare and improving the digital experiences of children.
The REF will report on the assessment of the quality of the research undertaken at Middlesex in April 2022. The REF exercise enabled us to marshal our research capability and take stock of our strengths, and the outcomes will secure future funding through the QR block allocation. The REF profile also has potential to affect our academic reputation for research.
Financial Statements 2020/21
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