8625 Showcase FINAL

The Wealth of a Nation An Evaluation of Engineering Research in the United Kingdom Preface THIS REPORT of the second International Review of Engineering comes at a time when there is quickening appreciation of the importance of innovation to economies and societies around the world, for which engineering research is of fundamental importance. The rationale for such a review is clear; the UK needs to know how it is doing in engineering research and who better to ask than 26 of our most eminent peers in academia and industry from other countries. The findings should have value not only to the research community itself but also to those concerned with the direction of policy in Government, industry and beyond. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Royal Academy of Engineering have been working in close partnership for more than a year in the planning and preparation of this review. This report, the culmination of these activities, is entirely the work of the International Review Panel. We would like to thank our colleagues on the Steering Group and staff in both our organisations for helping us to set the framework for the review in such a way that the panel was able to do its work so effectively. To the International Panel itself we are truly grateful – their expertise, breadth of vision, enthusiasm and capacity for sheer hard work impressed all those who came in contact with them. To Professor Tom Everhart, President Emeritus of Caltech and chairman of the International Review Panel, we are hugely indebted; his authority and leadership were vital to both the review and the completion of this report. Finally, we warmly thank all those in the UK academic research community, together with their collaborators in industry who are so vital to engineering research, for rising to the challenges and opportunities that this review presented. To have your peers from around the world descend upon your research group can be both daunting and exhilarating for those directly affected. It was a delight to see the enthusiasm of the engineering research community, not least at the celebratory event held in Docklands, London, during the review week. There was a sense of pride in the achievements presented at this event and it was clear that there are many exciting opportunities open to the UK. We hope this report will stimulate further debate around the issues and recommendations highlighted and we genuinely welcome your feedback on any issues raised. Professor John O’Reilly FREng Lord Broers FRS FREng Chief Executive President EPSRC The Royal Academy of Engineering Chairman of the Steering Group for the International Review Contents Foreword iii Executive Summary iv Engineering Contributions to Society 2 Engineering Research Evaluation 5 General Impressions 5 Context of the Panel’s Evaluation 6 Evaluation Results 6 Characteristics of Successful Groups 8 Engineering for Health 9 Sustainable Development 10 Knowledge Transfer 11 Recommendations with Discussion 15 Acknowledgments 19 Appendices 21 I The Steering Group 22 II Panel Membership 23 III Data Provided to the Panel 25 IV UK Engineering Research Groups Visited 27 V Panel Methodology and Activities 29 VI A Celebration of UK Engineering Research and Innovation 30 VII Questionnaire to International Researchers in Engineering 34 VIII Questionnaire to UK University Engineering Department Heads 37 IX Preserving Inventions through Patents 39 The Wealth of a Nation i ii Foreword A STEERING group1 of distinguished engineers selected an international review panel of twenty-six people from outside the United Kingdom (UK) to evaluate engineering research in the UK2. The panel was requested to: ■ report on the calibre, standing and research potential of engineering in UK universities; ■ discuss the potential impact of university-based research on the UK’s knowledge economy; ■ provide comparisons with international research in engineering; ■ make recommendations on future actions and/or priorities. One week was allowed for this task. The panel was provided with data3 on funding sources for engineering research, faculty and students, together with the results of questionnaire returns from 124 international researchers and 43 UK engineering department heads. Forty research groups selected by the steering group after nomination by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)4 were visited by subsets of the panel, and a summary of each visit was presented to the entire panel5. An exhibition of engineering research and innovation was held in London so that the panel could see research from universities not visited6. This report is based on our reading of the data, observations during our visits and at the exhibition, plus other relevant information as interpreted through our experience. The Executive Summary provides key panel observations, conclusions, and recommendations. To set the context, the report describes some of the contributions of engineering and engineering research to society, and how this is changing. Our evaluation, which follows, is based both on our visits and experience and also on the background materials provided. Succeeding sections discuss engineering for health, the increasingly important constraint of sustainable development, as well as how knowledge is transferred from research to application (to provide products, services, and infrastructure that benefit society). The report concludes with a more detailed discussion of the recommendations, based on the material presented above. The appendices provide backup information about the people involved, the panel methodology and activities, more details about how intellectual property is preserved through patents, and summaries of the surveys of international researchers and of UK engineering department heads. 1 The steering group membership is given in Appendix I 2 The panel membership is given in Appendix II 3 The data document is published on the web and the contents are given at Appendix III 4 The research groups visited are given in Appendix IV 5 Details of the panel’s methodology and activities are found in Appendix V 6 Details of the exhibition are found in Appendix VI The Wealth of a Nation iii Executive summary ENGINEERING creates goods, services and infrastructure that benefit humankind. In so doing, engineering stimulates meaningful employment, economic growth, and contributes to sustainable national competitiveness. Engineering research advances our ability to improve established fields of engineering and to develop new fields based on recent discoveries in both science and engineering. We believe that engineering includes traditional fields, such as civil, mechanical, electrical, industrial, and chemical as well as several newer fields, such as materials, computer, optical, medical and biological, and micro and nano structure engineering. To gain a perspective on engineering research in the UK, we studied data provided, read surveys of colleagues from many countries, and met forty research groups of various sizes in Scotland, England and Wales. These chosen groups came from the best university research departments in engineering in the UK, most being rated 5* and 5 by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). We were very favourably impressed with how the research we observed was advancing the traditional fields of engineering. Research on structures, transportation, urban design, geotechnical, earthquake and environmental engineering, electrical power systems and controls, combustion, and rheology, to name a few, was deemed world-class. We saw less research that was building on recent discoveries in both science and engineering than we expected. Such discoveries can lead to new fields and pioneering applications. We did visit excellent research groups in applied optics and bio-medical engineering and imaging, examples of more modern engineering applications. We observed less interaction among researchers from one discipline with colleagues in other disciplines, less interaction between research engineers and scientists, and less strategic planning than occurs in some other countries represented on the panel. We found some research that had great impact outside the university, but more that did not, and some researchers who were not well informed or motivated to produce external impact. iv Executive summary These general observations, discussed in more detail in our report, and more detailed observations and analysis of what we observed have led to the following recommendations. Recommendations 1 We observed much excellent engineering research during this evaluation. We recommend that the UK continues to support the excellent engineering research being carried out in universities. 2 We observed relatively little interaction between basic science and engineering. We recommend that academia, industry and government develop strategies to encourage increased linkage of engineering research to more basic mathematical, physical, chemical and biological sciences, so that scientific and engineering discoveries may stimulate even more and broader discoveries and their applications. 3 We observed that engineering research is not well understood or appreciated by industry and the public and we observed relatively little engineering outreach to the public. We recommend that programmes be developed so that creative engineering research in academia is recognised and utilised by industry and the public, both to plan for future directions and to create new and improved products, services

Load more