Peter Simpson of N8: ‘deep collaboration is now the norm’
The N8 group of northern universities has a new director, Dr Peter Simpson. We caught up with the former AstraZeneca department head who nurtured collaborative projects at the pharmaceutical giant to find out his plans to encourage collaboration in higher education.
N8 highlights the impact of asset sharing across UK universities
The report, which reveals asset sharing's role in delivering innovation, increased productivity, and maximum value for public investment, helped to shape Thursday's Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money report by Universities UK.
Sharing made easy – Jisc support for equipment sharing
From anechoic chambers to wind tunnels, mass spectrometers to supercomputers, institutions are increasingly looking to share high value items of research equipment. Martin Hamilton outlines how Jisc is working with a variety of partners to help embed and accelerate asset sharing.
Raising the return – how do we do it?
In the final blogpost in our series on asset sharing, Sarah Jackson and Luke Georghiou say that despite the progress in this area, more work must be done to deliver full benefits.
The efficient lab – maximising the use of scientific research equipment
The S-Lab programme aims to improve laboratory efficiency and effectiveness in all dimensions, including scientific value, resource efficiency and staff well-being. Director Peter James discusses the laboratory good practice and improvement ideas that that have emerged from the S-Lab award scheme and events.
Sharing equipment – a welcome efficiency?
The dramatic cuts in capital funding in 2011 rocked academics working in scientific research. However as Lancaster University VC Mark Smith reports, this shock to the system has enabled the concept of equipment sharing to gain real ground.
Developing and supporting a sharing culture
Collaboration has led to efficiencies in areas such as procurement and shared services, but it can be a challenge to embed this culture. The University of Nottingham’s Paul Greatrix shares his experiences of a successful collaboration with the University of Birmingham.
Raising the return: the benefits and opportunities from equipment sharing
Sharing equipment will be a key theme in Professor Sir Ian Diamond’s forthcoming report on efficiency in higher education. Sarah Jackson and Luke Georgiou introduce findings from the study of this activity which show that it is helping to advance scientific research while delivering value to the public purse.
Making better use of spare lab capacity
An online tool that has been described as Airbnb for laboratories is enabling researchers for private sector firms in the USA to buy time in university laboratories with spare capacity, the Economist reports.
Jisc secures networks to enable safe sharing of medical research data
Jisc is enabling researchers across the UK to safely and securely share health data for their collaborative research projects. The UK’s research and education network Janet, provided by Jisc, is providing an efficient solution that secures the networks linking participating institutions and eliminates the need for them to develop and manage their own authentication systems.
