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REDACTED MINUTES OF THE 62nd MEETING HELD AT 11:00 HRS ON 22nd July 2014 IN ROOMS CR16 &17, R80, RUTHERFORD APPLETON LABORATORY

Council Members present: Sir Michael Sterling (Chair) John Womersley (CEO) Gill Ball Martin Barstow Brian Bowsher Gerard Connell Marshall Davies Julia Goodfellow James Stirling Ian Taylor Richard Worswick

Apologies: David Price Sharon Cosgrove (Executive Director Strategy, Performance & Communications)

In Attendance, full meeting: Sharon Ellis (Deputy Director, Research Councils, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS))

In Attendance, full meeting, (except for closed session) Tim Bestwick (Executive Director Business & Innovation) Grahame Blair (Executive Director Programmes) Neil Phimister (Executive Director Finance) Gordon Stewart (Executive Secretary & Executive Director Corporate Services) Andrew Taylor (Executive Director National Laboratories) Alison Davenport (Deputy Chair, Science Board) Zena Davis (Minute Secretary) Janice Masone (Executive Assistant to Professor John Womersley)

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1. WELCOME AND OPENING COMMENTS

1.1 The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting which was held at the ISIS TS2 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Apologies were received from David Price.

2.2 The Chair introduced Zena Davis who replaces Sharon Bonfield as minutes’ secretary.

3. CONFLICT OF INTEREST

3.1 The Chair asked Council members to declare any conflicts of interest and reminded members to keep the Executive Secretary informed of any changes to their personal register of interests. No conflicts of interest were declared.

4. CEO REPORT TEXT HAS BEEN REDACTED FROM THIS SECTION: OFFICIAL SENSITIVE

4.1 John Womersley reported on STFC activities since the last meeting of Council in May 2014.

4.2 New Minister of State for Universities and Science: Council noted the appointment of Greg Clark as Minister of State for Universities and Science. Mr Clark takes over from David Willetts as the minister responsible for British science and research (including Research Councils) higher education, innovation and the UK Space Agency in BIS. Mr Clark, an economist, has been the Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells since 2005. He visited the Harwell Campus in January 2014 as cities minister, a role he will retain.

4.3 European Facility (ESRF) Protocol: The new Protocol including the accession of Russia was signed in Grenoble on 23 June by Russia and all Member countries except Finland; Finland will sign in Paris on 15 July. Once Finland has signed, the ratification process will begin and is expected to take 1-2 years. Until the Protocol is ratified by all Member countries it will not come into force. Once the legal share transfer has taken place, the UK will be a 10.5% Shareholder for the ESRF.

4.3 Hydrogen as a “green” fuel: Council was informed of a new invention by researchers at ISIS which offers a viable solution to the challenges of hydrogen fuel storage and cost, using ammonia as a clean and secure hydrogen-containing energy source to produce hydrogen on demand in-

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situ. The discovery has been described as a game changer in hydrogen as a “green” fuel.

4.4 2014 MacRobert Award: Cobalt Light Systems, a company commercialising technology developed at the Central Laser Facility had been presented with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious 2014 MacRobert Award for engineering innovation. Previous winners have included Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce.

4.5 BIS ‘Finance Leader of the Year’: Philippa Foster, STFC Finance, was awarded BIS ‘Finance Leader of the Year’ at the BIS annual Financial Management Awards ceremony in London in recognition of her work as acting Finance Director. Council congratulated Miss Foster and the Finance Team for this impressive achievement.

4.6 UK Science Park Association’s (UKSPA) award: The STFC Innovations Technology Access Centre (I-TAC) received the UK Science Park Association’s (UKSPA) award for developing start up and high growth business. The UKSPA awards aim to recognise the important contribution that science parks make to supporting high-tech growing businesses.

4.7 Harwell Oxford roundtable at Buckingham Palace: Senior STFC staff and representatives from 15 major research-intensive businesses operating in the UK met the Duke of York and the Science Minister at a Harwell Oxford roundtable at Buckingham Palace. Discussions focused on the opportunities at Harwell and Lockheed Martin have now announced they will open a space technology office at Harwell as part of the UK Space Gateway.

4.8 Survey of companies at Daresbury: A survey of companies located at the Daresbury campus had been carried out. The focus of the survey was to look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Daresbury location. The survey revealed that there is a positive jobs position with over 100 FTE jobs created for a second year in a row and strong jobs growth predicted for 2014. However, around 20% of companies reported that there are constraints to growth as a result of skills shortage. The strong engagement with key government organisations was cited as an advantage of the Daresbury location.

4.9 Stakeholder Relations: John Womersley updated Council on a number of stakeholder engagement activities that had taken place since the last Council meeting in May 2014:

a. Philip Hammond MP visited the Harwell Campus during which he gave an announcement about the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which had agreed an historic Growth Deal with the Government.

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The Deal will see at least £108.6million invested in Oxfordshire. This deal will help to create up to 5,700 jobs, allow over 4,000 homes to be built and generate over £100m in public and private investment.

b. Energy Minister Michael Fallon visited STFC’s Boulby Underground Laboratory to witness a key experiment looking at the monitoring of carbon capture and storage, potentially part of the solution to the problem of carbon emissions.

c. Professor Jackie Hunter, CEO of BBSRC, attended and gave a talk at a WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) network meeting at RAL. John Womersley said that other Research Council CEOs will be encouraged to visit RAL.

d. Daresbury Laboratory hosted the UK Big Data Day as part of the International Festival for Business in Liverpool. Big Data Day, organised in partnership with the UKTI, provided an opportunity for businesses to come together to learn more about the insights and value that can come from Big Data. There was also a POST/RCUK Big Data Event at the House of Commons as part of the Research Council's work in Big Data. The event provided a spotlight on the latest developments in UK ‘big data’ research, and in particular, the Hartree Centre work at Daresbury Laboratory in High Performance Computing

e. Tim Bestwick attended a National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) event on financing of science. The aim of NCUB is to develop, promote and support world-class collaboration between universities and business across the UK. There were discussions around how to encourage people with a financial background into university campuses.

f. HMT representatives are due to visit RAL 28 July and will attend the Science and Innovation Strategy meeting: BIS has advised that the open discussion session will provide the opportunity for Research Councils, TSB and UKSA to offer input and perspectives on the S&I Strategy, as well as highlight recent updates.

4.10 Management update: John Womersley had led a number of staff forums across STFC. The main issues raised were pay, recruitment and retention, and the location of future facilities (especially at Daresbury). Council agreed that it had become increasingly difficult to recruit and retain engineers and technicians and that this is probably because of the comparatively low rates of pay offered by STFC. Sharon Ellis said that there had been discussions at BIS on the potential for moving to more flexibility within the overall pay envelope so that Research Councils might have more autonomy for setting rates of pay.

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4.11 Diamond Chair interviews: Interviews for the new Diamond Chair had taken place and the successful applicant was Professor Adrian Smith. Council approved the appointment of Professor Smith, noting that this information remained confidential at the present time.

4.12 Recruitment for new Head of Strategy: A recruitment exercise to replace David Moores as Head of Strategy is underway.

4.13 CERN Pension fund: Council had been informed at the March 2014 Council meeting that there were a number a of concerns regarding the CERN Pension Fund; the under-capitalisation of the Pension Fund is recognised as a serious issue by the management of both CERN and ESO (European Southern Observatory) and the Member States. STFC Audit Committee had discussed the issue Council noted that a paper is going to the upcoming CERN Council meeting recommending a Pension Fund working group be set up which will (broadly) address the concerns of the Audit Committee. It was agreed that BIS should be consulted on any proposed resolution.

4.14 Review of Diamond: The Triennial Review requires STFC to review the governance and operation of the Diamond Light Source as part of a general recommendation that councils review their “institutes”. John Womersley and Tim Bestwick met with , CEO of , at the end of June. The review will be undertaken in close partnership with stakeholders, including BIS, Wellcome, and Diamond’s own management. It will be overseen by a board on which all of these groups will be represented. STFC aims to ensure the review is done and seen to be done “with" and not “to" Diamond

4.15 Capital allocation 2015/16: STFC Executive Board (EB) has allocated the additional capital for 2015/16 according to principles agreed with Council. £3M has been allocated to start work on CLARA at Daresbury, a new accelerator test facility for the UK.

4.16 Hartree next steps - STFC/IBM initiative: The next phase for Hartree is to build on the existing strategy, focusing on delivering robust solutions for UK and global enterprises. The aim for Hartree is to act as a research hub, sharing expertise between universities, research consortia, and to continue to be a resource hub for UK researchers. The plans will involve substantial contributions of value from IBM, STFC and others, with parties committing five years of operations to firmly establish the UK as an international leader in data centric and cognitive technologies.

4.17 A University Quarter at RAL: Council noted the plan to develop space at RAL to enable universities to conduct long-term research and teaching programmes on the Harwell Campus. The aim is to maximise the potential

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for joint working between universities, campus partners and STFC-run facilities.

4.18 European Spallation Source (ESS): The text of the Letter of Intent (LoI) for the ESS construction has been agreed and there is ongoing discussion over who will sign the LOI - the Science Minister or STFC. STFC, acting as an agent for the UK government, worked with the representatives from the Swedish Government to develop the ESS agreement. Construction is expected to begin during the late summer and a legal commitment is expected to be in place by the end of 2014.

5. SCIENCE BOARD PRESENTATION AND REPORT

5.1 Alison Davenport presented to Council an overview of the measurements of Higgs Boson decay mechanisms recently made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and how these fit into our understanding of the origin of mass.

5.2 Alison Davenport presented the Science Board report from the meeting of 10/11 July 2014. SB discussed the Programmatic Review recommendations and was disappointed that the recommended transfer between areas had not been implemented but hoped that should the next Spending Review be more favourable, the Executive will return to the Programmatic Review recommendations and use them as a basis for future planning.

5.3 SB welcomed the cross membership between the Skills & Engagement Advisory Board (SEAB) and hoped that there would be a similar level of cross representation between SB and the Innovation Advisory Board (IAB.)

5.4 The Chair of the Large Facilities Steering Group (LFSG) gave a presentation to SB on the role of the LFSG and the current process to capture the large facilities science requirements. The need to ensure coherence between the future strategies developed by SB and the LFSG was discussed and SB expressed concerns about the level of scientific input to the science requirements document and the subsequent decision-making process. SB welcomed the opportunity to engage with the LFSG and the development of the science requirements document and a further discussion with the Chair of the LFSG will be held in October.

5.5 SB met with the Chairs of the Nuclear Physics, Particle Astrophysics and Particle Physics Advisory Panels. The panels were thanked for their input to the Programmatic Review and their continuing role in providing a two-

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way conduit for communication through regular engagement the community was emphasised.

5.6 The directors of CLF and ISIS and the CEO of Diamond presented their visions for the facilities and discussed opportunities for cross working at the Harwell Campus. SB noted the need to develop the Harwell Campus as a more attractive place for researchers to spend time away from their home institutions. SB noted the facility directors’ concerns about their ability to retain staff owing to the cap on salary increases and national shortages of skilled people, particularly high level technicians. SB and the facility directors discussed improved mechanisms for engagement and agreed to meet on a regular basis.

5.7 SB discussed the neutron strategy proposed by the Director of ISIS and noted recent developments with regards to ESS, ILL and ISIS. SB supported the strategy to increase capacity at ISIS through the internationalisation of ISIS and, further into the future, to develop a major upgrade (new build) of ISIS.

5.8 SB discussed a report provided by a sub-group of SB members which had formed the SB input to the ESFRI Review of Neutrons. The sub-group agreed that the demand for neutron scattering will continue to grow up to 2030 and beyond it is difficult to look beyond 2030 but up to this date, neutron facilities should include a high power long pulse source (ESS) and a European high power short pulse source at ISIS. ILL should be maintained at an internationally leading level beyond 2025 to at least 2030.

5.9 SB discussed the key recommendations of the Review of the Implementation of Consolidated Grants, which are three year grants with extension of core posts for a further year; earlier grant assessment and announcement; encouraging research themes for larger groups within astronomy; splitting the Astronomy Grants Panel into two panels – Astronomy Observation and Theory, and Solar Studies and Planetary Studies; briefing grants panels on Pathways to Impact by public engagement team. SB noted the need for further consultation with the community before the implementation of these recommendations.

5.10 Statement of Interest (SOI) for Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA): SB considered a proposal to build the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray instrument. SB requested clarification on how the project plans to engage with the larger UK community and invited a full proposal.

5.11 Statement of Interest (SOI) for continued engagement in the International Linear Collider (ILC): SB expressed concerns about the future of this project given the international funding situation and high cost of this

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project. It was agreed that funding for travel to maintain a modest engagement would be appropriate and that a robust case would need to be made for anything other than travel. SB recommended a light touch PPRP review.

6. BIS UPDATE

6.1 At the May 2014 meeting, Council agreed that Sharon Ellis will be invited to provide an update from BIS at each Council meeting.

6.2 Sharon Ellis informed Council that the Capital consultation has closed and more than 500 responses have been received. Analysis of the written inputs is on-going. The consultation will feed into the wider science & innovation strategy due for publication alongside the Autumn Statement.

6.3 Sharon Ellis reported that work was underway to develop a patch for the current version of Oracle at UK SBS Ltd, since support for the current Oracle system, (version 12.06) will cease January 2015.

7. RAINBOW SEED FUND

7.1 Ian Taylor gave a presentation that gave an overview of the Rainbow Seed Fund.

7.2 The Rainbow Seed Fund (RSF) is a £24m “evergreen” seed capital fund established 10 years ago mainly by Research Councils. It invests public funds in high risk concepts coming out of the public sector research base and is managed by private sector professionals and leveraging in private sector investment. The fund aims to kick-start ventures to generate economic impact and invests in technologies created by the Partners' laboratories, such as technology companies on the campuses supported by Babraham, Harwell, Daresbury and the Norwich Research Park. The fund recently took on £10m BBSRC Synthetic Biology Fund. RSF also provided funding for Cobalt Light Systems

7.3 26 companies would not exist without the RSF and the total co- investment in the portfolio to date is over £160M. This has led to the creation of over 300 jobs and realisations from the sale of shares should return £10M to the RSF over 2-5 years. RSF has been widened to include campuses as well as Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs).

7.4 Council asked about the ownership of Intellectual Property (IP) and Tim Bestwick explained that STFC licence IP to the company; it is not owned by the RSF.

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7.5 The impact of the funding from RSF is validated independently and its overall aim is to identify potential commercial benefits from the Research Base and provide a visible trail of science exploitation. Council agreed that it was important that the benefits that the RSF brings to the science community be demonstrated to Government.

7.6 Council retired for lunch at 13:30 and received a short informal talk and viewed poster boards about the Harwell Campus Master Plan.

8. WELCOME BACK AND OPENING COMMENT

8.1 The Chair welcomed everyone back for the afternoon’s proceedings and thanked Tim Bestwick for the interesting and informative presentation on the Harwell Campus Master Plan.

9. FINANCE UPDATE TEXT HAS BEEN REDACTED FROM THIS SECTION: OFFICIAL SENSITIVE

9.1 Neil Phimister gave an update to Council on STFC’s financial position since the last meeting of Council in May. The Annual Report & Accounts 2013/2014 had been signed by the Accounting Officer on 30th June 2014 and certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) of the National Audit Office (NAO) on 2nd July 2014. STFC had received an unqualified Audit Opinion and the accounts had been laid before Parliament on 15th July 2014.

9.2 .

9.3 Neil described the process of capital allocations for 2015/16. The Executive Board had received bids totalling £85.4m against the available core capital funds of £20.8m. In addition a re-profiling of £4.1m of expenditure already planned was made, and the bids then prioritised against scientific priority within the £24.9m funds available. Some proposals will be subject to further review and included in future BIS funding consultations.

9.4 The Executive Board had reviewed the impacts and risks of rolling forward flat cash budgets in core resource for 2015/16. Some headroom had been created by small adjustments in some areas in order to retain a viable programme.

9.5 Since the last Council meeting in May, Neil Phimister had met with key stakeholders, including Facility Directors and the Chair of LFSG to discuss facility budgets and how to better determine the needs. It is planned to improve the quality and transparency of current reporting and Neil Phimister and the relevant Finance Manager will attend the next LFSG

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meeting and present Financial Report. A plan is under preparation to derive robust long term Facilities Funding Model Needs to include stakeholder transparency and consistency requirements, facilities ownership of the numbers, international facility benchmarks to be timed to match the STFC/LFSG required timetable given the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

10. CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT (CSD) CHANGE PROGRAMME UPDATE

10.1 Marshall Davies provided Council with an update on activities on the CSD Change Programme since the last Council meeting in May.

10.2 The CSD Management Board has developed a CSD Strategic Framework document to guide the development of CSD to 2020: Our Strategic Framework: 2014 – 2020. Council welcomed the document and agreed that the framework was clear and well-written. Gordon Stewart confirmed that the framework had been rolled out to staff and had been received relatively positive. He added that the framework is a working document and will evolve over time.

10.3 The Information and Communications Technology project continues and the majority of sub-projects are expected to complete their business cases by the end of July. The emerging findings and recommendations from each sub-project were discussed at the last Programme Board meeting. The emerging findings and recommendations from each sub- project were discussed at the last Programme Board meeting. Once business cases are received, the CSD Change Programme Board, EB and Council will need to consider whether the proposals presented adequately address whether the financial savings target of £500k per annum has been met, or exceeded.

10.4 Work to create the Estate Cost Model has been completed and this has been validated by Finance and agreed by Executive Board. The Cost Model also models the impact of a reduction in the savings by 5% to mitigate against them being less completive than expected.

10.5 The HR strategy is now in place and sets out the people management practices that will support STFC to achieve its vision and strategic goals and addresses the main challenges STFC will face in the years ahead.

10.6 . The Programme Board will undertake regular reviews to monitor the benefits arising from the changes made.

11. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

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11.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 20th May 2014 had been circulated. Gerard Connell will be added to the list of the attendees for that meeting and Council agreed the minutes of the last meeting as a true record of that meeting. Action: Zena Davis

11.2 Council approved the redacted minutes for publication on the STFC website

12. MATTERS ARISING

20 May 2014 12.1 Minute 6.7: Neil Phimister to provide an update on the plan to create a transparent Facility Funding Model which meets the transparency requirements of STFC’s key stakeholders as part of the Finance Report at the July 2014 meeting. Action closed – See minute 9.5

12.2 Minute 6.6: Chair raised the issue of the impact of proposed cuts in Administration Budgets at the Research Council Chairs Meeting. Action closed

13. RECRUITMENT PROCESS TO COUNCIL SUB COMMITTEES

13.1 At the May 2014 meeting, Council discussed the review of Council’s advisory structure and the proposals for how the advisory structure should evolve in the future. As part of the proposed advisory structure, Council agreed to the formation of an Innovation Advisory Board (IAB) and a Skills & Engagement Advisory Board (SEAB) and approved the Terms of Reference for both boards. Council requested the Executive draft a proposal for recruitment of members for discussion at the July 2014 Council meeting.

13.2 Gordon Stewart provided Council with a proposal for recruitment of members for Council advisory boards. The proposed process will encompass Science Board, Audit Committee, as well as IAB and SEAB. The Remuneration Committee is outside of this process and is therefore excluded from the proposed procedures.

13.3 Council agreed that the final selection of candidates for all Council sub- Committees will be decided by interview panels which will be headed by the appropriate Chairs, or by a designated executive director and Council can co-opt Council members to join the boards. The list of recommended candidates will be submitted for formal approval to Council.

13.4 Council approved the proposed recruitment process.

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14. SKILLS AUDIT

14.1 Gordon Stewart presented the outcomes of the recent Council skills audit. Council agreed to complete a skills audit every three years in order to ensure that appropriate skills are reflected by STFC Council membership as a whole, and to inform recruitment of new members.

14.2 The Skills Audit was carried out in two stages during June 2014. The first stage invited Council members to identify the skills and qualifications they believed as beneficial to STFC Council membership as a whole and at stage 2, they were asked to assess their own skills.

14.3 The outcomes of the audit were presented to Council in a tabular and numerical form with the addition of a column that identified the skills gaps that would exist from 1st April 2015 following the loss of existing Council members whose second terms on Council come to an end.

14.4 Council agreed that overall, the results showed that the current skills mix of Council members is represented to a sufficient level, and that High Performance Computing in particular, will be underrepresented from April 2015.This should be taken into consideration as part of the Autumn 2014 Council member recruitment exercise.

15. AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT

15.1 Marshall Davies introduced the report of the Audit Committee covering FY 2013/14. Council noted the main activities of the Audit Committee, which included the Audit Committee self-assessment, UK SBS performance monitoring and the review of the STFC Annual Report and Accounts.

15(i). QUARTERLY SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT, Q4 2013/14

15.2 Council noted the Q4 report, in particular that during 2013/14 the number of non-injury incidents, opportunities for learning, increased by 14%, the highest recorded with a third related to contractor activities. The increase was due to more near misses being reported and a doubling of reported vehicle incidents, and in line with the 2013/14 objective to increase non-injury incident reporting.

15.2 Council agreed that it would be useful to include comparative data from organisations similar to STFC to enable STFC to assess its performance on health and safety. Action: Gordon Stewart

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16. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Succession planning: Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee 16.1 Gordon Stewart informed Council that Marshall Davies’ second term as a member of Council is due to end 31st March 2015 and therefore, his term as Chair of the Audit Committee will end. It is proposed that Gill Ball, Council member and Deputy Chair of the Audit Committee will take over as chair of the Audit Committee from 1st April 2015.

16.2 Gerard Connell, also a member of Council, has agreed to join the Audit Committee and will take on the role of Deputy Chair.

16.3 Gill Ball is currently Chair of the Remuneration Committee. As of 1st April 2015, Gerard will take on this role and Gill will remain as a member of the Committee.

16.4 Marshall has agreed to continue as an ex-officio member of the Remuneration Committee.

16.5 Council approved the proposed future membership of the STFC Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee.

17. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS

17.1 Council agreed that the action item “ESA Telecommunications Building” will be added to the agenda in spring 2015 Action: Gordon Stewart/Zena Davis

17.2 Gordon Stewart reminded Council that they are welcome to suggest agenda items for future meetings

17.3 At 15:30 the Open Session ended. The STFC Executive left the meeting. Closed session was not minuted.

17.4 The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 23rd September 2014 at Polaris House in Swindon.

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