Research & Enterprise Office

Reporting to the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), and led by the director, Steph Bales, RIS supports the development and delivery of the research strategy, and works alongside researchers to support their activities and add value to the research process. RIS comprises two teams with a specific remit of research policy and research funding.

Research Policy Team

This team enables quality and best practice in research and research culture through supporting policy and governance in relation to ethics and integrity, open research and data, research evaluation practices, PGR supervision, researcher development, and impact practice.

The team also:

• manages the University's research systems and provides research intelligence and reports to inform evaluation, including quarterly business reviews, annual ethics audits and internal promotions and coordinates preparations for the Research Excellence Framework submission
• oversees research ethics, integrity and system administration, for the online research ethics review system, ERM
• manages all aspects of PGR student administration, including enrolment, record management, annual review, submission and examination
• provides secretarial and regulatory support to the University Research Ethics & Integrity Sub-Committee (UREISC) and to the University's Postgraduate Research Assessment Board (PRAB)
• leads on the development and embedding of research impact practice within the University through delivery of a research impact framework and impact and engagement training
• develops and delivers the University's Researcher Development Programme, alongside the research funding team.

Research Funding Team

This team supports academic staff in the preparation and submission of external funding applications - including the UK Research Councils, the National Institute for Health Research and the European Commission. Activities span the identification of funding opportunities, the preparation of budgets and other financial documents, the review and editing of funding applications, and the delivery of training and development of support materials - amongst many other things.

The team works closely with the Department of Academic Enterprise on enterprise, innovation and commercialisation opportunities. So, whether you're an early-career researcher seeking general guidance and advice on funding opportunities or an established academic keen to develop a complex, multi-institutional research partnership, the funding team is on hand to assist.

Once a proposal has become successful, the team supports all aspects of a live project until its completion, working with the School and other central services.

Staff list: