Strategy

Our research is internationally recognised. We seek to recruit and retain excellent researchers and to develop an active research culture that fosters the highest achievements, encourages originality and innovation, and enriches the student learning experience. Our staff contribute to our excellent profile as a research-intensive university by:

• conducting research of global significance, including the development of multi-disciplinary, internationally-recognised research areas
• maximising the intellectual, scientific, economic, social and cultural impact of our research
• supporting excellence in the education, training and development of postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers
• ensuring effective publication, dissemination and communication of research
• sustaining research partnerships with other universities, business, government and non-government organisations, in the UK and internationally.

Strategic Vision

To provide an environment that promotes scientific excellence at all levels and maximises the application and impact of our research.

Goals for research

• To promote research of international excellence and impact through the development of our intellectual and physical capacity.
• To encourage a culture of creativity, enterprise and innovation, maximising the beneficial economic and social impact of our intellectual assets.
• To raise our international profile by developing strategic partnerships, increasing the visibility of our research and teaching, strengthening our alumni networks and influencing policy on global issues.

Strategic aims

• To recruit and retain excellent researchers and develop an active research culture that fosters the highest achievements, encourages originality and innovation, and enriches the student learning experience.
• To conduct research of global significance including the development of multidisciplinary,high profile, internationally-recognised research areas.
• To increase postgraduate research student numbers and forge a reputation for excellence in the education, training and development of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.
• To maximise the intellectual, scientific, economic, social and cultural impact of our research, and to engage with research users as appropriate throughout the research process.
• To ensure effective publication, dissemination and communication of our research.
• To establish and sustain research partnerships with other HEIs, businesses, government and non-government organisations, in the UK and internationally.
• To invest strategically in high quality research infrastructure, facilities, research support and research information management systems.
• To increase external grant and contract income and to achieve financial sustainability for research activities.

Operational Plan

The operational plan is in two parts. The first part specifies some indicators of performance to be regularly scrutinised by the University Senate, Council and Research Committee. The
second part establishes a set of strategic priorities to guide annual planning for the relevant professional support services and the academic departments.

Performance Indicators

Performance Indicators for University Senate and Council are submitted annually in October, against a comparator group of five institutions.

1. Grant and contract income - annually, with three year moving average
2. Total postgraduate research (PGR) students – Full Person Equivalent (FPE)

The University Research Committee will have a more extensive list of indicators to monitor performance.

1. People
1.1. Number of Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Readers and Professors by Department
1.2. Number of Research Assistants by Department
1.3. Applications and awards for Research Fellowships

2. Activity
2.1. Applications and awards by department by sponsor type with five year trends
2.2. Applications and awards with a value to the University of over £0.5 million
2.3. University Research Grant Portfolio Value
2.4. Number of academic staff with a research grant portfolio of greater than £5k
2.5. Evidence on preparations for the Research Excellence Framework, including assessments of publication quality profiles and other metrics
2.6. Citation analysis (Web of Science or other datasets as appropriate) by department, including total publications, total citations, number of papers with high citations (in bands as appropriate for discipline), estimated per cent of publications in high impact factor journals and trends over time

3. Postgraduates
3.1. New PGR Studentships by department and funding source, including supervisor(s) details.
3.2. PGR population FTE by department including supervisor details

4. Impact
4.1. Number of new entries on OPUS
4.2. Use of research outputs by external bodies

5. Communication
5.1. Number of media articles citing Bath’s research
5.2. Monitoring of take up RSS feeds, etc on websites

6. Partnerships
6.1. Applications and awards with external HEI partners
6.2. Income from collaborative research involving both public funding and funding from business
6.3. Contract Research – number and value excluding that declared in 6.2

7. Infrastructure
7.1. Expenditure on Research Capital projects for Buildings and Equipment (with funding source)

8. Income and sustainability
8.1. Research income by department by sponsor type, including investigator details.
8.2. HESA 'Research income from UK industry, commerce and public corporations'
8.3. RAS Project and capped capital income from eligible UK and overseas charities
8.4. Levels of FEC achieved

Strategic Objectives

People
1.1 Enhance support for training needs of early career researchers, especially probationers
1.2 Use workload management effectively to identify and support research and for succession planning

Activity
2.1 Support research in key areas and encourage multi-disciplinary research
2.2 Increase number of large research projects (above £0.5m or £1m as appropriate)
2.3 Broaden external funding base
2.4 Be ranked in top 15 in Research Excellence Framework rankings overall, with at least 70 per cent of submitted activity judged to be 3* or 4*
2.5 Increase the number of Bath publications in journals of high-impact (as defined by Web of Science and other databases, as appropriate).

Postgraduates
3.1 Establish Graduate Schools and associated graduate programmes
3.2 Increase PGR numbers to achieve a ratio of FTE PGR/academic FTE to >1.75:1.by 2012/13

Impact
4.1. Populate OPUS with full-text versions of Bath outputs from 2008 and maintain up-todate throughout the REF period
4.2 Systematically collect and disseminate information on the non-academic impact of research
4.3 Increase representation on external research funding bodies

Communication
5.1 Implement systems to maintain up-to-date research websites, RSS feeds, and other communications.
5.2 Develop systems to ensure regular flow of information about research to Communications Department

Partnerships
6.1 Lead/join consortia of peer institutions in research and research training
6.2 Develop international research partnerships in key areas

Infrastructure
7.1 Increase external funding for existing and new central research facilities
7.2 Implement improved management of research facilities, including systems for forward planning and internal usage and charging policies

Income and sustainability
8.1 Grow grant and contract award value by 25 per cent from 2008/09 by 2013/14.
8.2 Increase overall research grant and contracts success rates to 25 per cent by cash value between 2008-09 and 2013/14 while at the same time growing the overall value of the active Research Portfolio by 10 per cent.
8.3 Maximise negotiated full economic costs on externally-funded research, as appropriate
8.4 Establish appropriate systems of internal peer review for research proposals
8.5 Establish appropriate planning and monitoring systems for Research Excellence Framework