Research Hub - The Themes
Published: 10 November 2018
As construction starts, plans are being finalised over who will go into the Hub
By Dr Neil Bowering, Director of Professional Services, Science and Engineering, and Project Sponsor of the Research Hub.
Planning permission for the Research Hub has been granted and as progress starts on the construction, we are now finalising plans for who is going into the Hub.
In May 2017, we undertook a review of research across the four Colleges to identify large-scale research themes which would form the initial occupancy for the Research Hub.
We wanted to identify broad, large-scale themes which would enable us to showcase Glasgow’s research strengths at scale. We wanted to create a critical mass of researchers around themes which would open up new opportunities to compete for funding which individuals on their own can’t access.
Research funders are increasingly looking to fund larger, multi-disciplinary, longer-term projects and we need to create spaces and teams that can respond to these calls. We hope that these themes will provide a basis from which we can build large-scale collaborations.
There is significant overlap between the Research Hub themes and the University’s Research Beacons; this will help us develop strong research communications which showcase the University’s research strengths to a global audience.
We also hope that the themes will help us attract international scholars, with the Hub providing a central location for them, allowing them to interact with the University on a wider scale. This will help raise the global profile and reputation of the University, supporting our research and recruitment ambitions.
The outcome of the review
A total of 21 submissions involving over 180 academics were received, with all Colleges well represented across the submissions. The proposals were reviewed by the Heads of College, Project Sponsor (Neil Bowering) and the Principal.
The outcome of the review was the identification of five overarching themes representing a total of 15 of the original submissions. The initial thematic areas represent some of the strongest research fields across our University and each area has a theme lead:
Creative Economies and or Cultural Transformation (Professor Kate Oakley) - bringing together academics from disciplines such as creative and cultural policy, law, digital humanities and immersive technologies to have a significant impact on the creative economy of Glasgow and beyond.
Digital Chemistry (Professor Lee Cronin) - enabling molecules, compounds and materials to be autonomously discovered, synthesised and manufactured from code. Bringing together expertise from chemistry, computing science and engineering this has the potential to be huge for transforming the production of pharmaceuticals.
International Development (Professor Dan Haydon) - natural scientists, vets, medics, engineers, educators, social scientists come together to engage in poverty reduction in the global south.
Quantum and Nanotechnology (Professor Daniele Faccio) - bringing together researchers from engineering and science and collaborating with health, energy and security sectors, Glasgow will be the go-to-place for research in quantum imaging and sensors.
Technology Touching Life (Professor Andrew Tobin) - bringing together medicine, engineering and chemistry to focus on health care innovations such as drug discovery, regenerative medicines and stem cell technologies.
Evolving vision
The themes leads are now participating in workshops with the Research Hub project team to develop and articulate the collective vision for their respective research area and to build their research teams as required.
We are currently discussing the allocation of space within the Research Hub. It is important that we ensure there is capacity for expansion, providing capacity for growth from within the current themes and the potential to house new thematic areas.
As we move closer to the building opening, the Research Hub team will work with the theme leads to develop a programme of events designed to enable the wider university community to build collaborations and partnerships around these themes, growing our critical mass of research further and strengthening our capabilities in key areas.
First published: 10 November 2018