To find out more about the original Great Western Research project, and what we have been doing, you can Click the video icon below to watch a short video, Click the link below to read the article about GWR in the Independent, follow the links below to GWR publications, ordownload some of our case studies, updates & newsletters .
Links to more information about GWR
Video shorts of the GWR project and its research areas
The Latest GWR Update and Newsletter
The GWR Executive Review booklet
The GWR seminars and the GWR Access Grid
GWR at the Science & Innovation 2010 conference
The GWR Sustainability Exchange 2009
The GWR 2009 event in Westminster
Report on the Second GWR Research Symposium
Report on the First GWR Research Symposium
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The overall aims and some of the expected outcomes of the original Great Western Research Project.
The original project aims
The fundamental concept of Great Western Research is to promote collaborations between the highest quality research groups in the South West and regional businesses in order to attract international interest and recognition and to support the growth of the South West. The provision of research fellowships and research studentships was seen as an effective way to catalyse research partnerships between research groups in SW HEIs and industry.
The aims of establishing Great Western Research were:
- To build a strong cadre of research students and staff and to ensure the sustainability of internationally-excellent research in South-West England
- To catalyse the building of partnerships with major research funders
- To build collaborative, interdisciplinary research at the interface of existing disciplines by engaging with SWR-DA and business research teams as proposed in the Lambert Report
- To encourage growth in business funded R&D in the South West.
- To prepare the South West region for the technologies of the future and to provide the new technologists to lead change.
Direct outputs
GWR funded 20 Research Fellowships and 130 PhD studentships and trains PGR students through a discipline specific training network. We aimed to create 100 jobs, mainly through new postdocs appointed to university research projects and into industry. 60 Academic staff were expected to collaborate with a new industry partner. We hoped to stimulate 80 industry partners who have not collaborated with a particular academic or research group previously, and we expected to support at least 28 SMEs to engage in research projects with South West Universities.
Progress against the overall initial project objective indicators set by the SW-RDA for the GWR studentship program is summarised below :
- 60 Academic staff should collaborate with industry for the first time - 28 Academics were in fact in their first collaboration with industry.
- 80 business partners who have not collaborated with a particular academic or research group previously to support a GWR studentship project - 76 businesses are in this category.
- At least 28 SMEs to engage in research projects with South West Universities – A total of 40 SMEs have in fact sponsored projects.
- No more than 30 not-for-profit organisations to be project sponsors - 28 projects involve not-for-profit organisations as GWR business sponsors.
- To create two new centres of world-class research excellence arising from the collaborative approach - Aerospace and Meteorology research clusters have been established.
- To stimulate an increase of £2m in research funding from industry over the period of the project – ca £3.5M in business sponsorship of the PhD projects by South west businesses has been invested so far, GWR are still tracking new investment made as an outcome of these research projects.
Additional Output - The existence of GWR and the relationships fostered through GWR collaborations, has facilitated approximately £20M of new research funding coming into the South West Universities over the last 4 years.
Project management 
The GWR Strategy and Management Board has been established with Professor Mark Overton (DVC Exeter University) as Chair. The Board set up six Theme Panels and a Regional Research Board to advise it in making allocations for studentships and fellowships in the original project. If you need help or more information please contact the GWR team.
For more information on the structure of GWR, Please see the Great Western Research Organisation chart available from this link.
The overall final responsibility for the GWR program lies jointly with the Vice Chancellors of Bath, Bristol and Exeter Universities.
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GWR's work was presented at the Science & Innovation 2010 conference in London on 16th June.
Click the banner below for more details.
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The Second GWR Research Symposium, January 20th 2010
" 2020 vision : I can see clearly now....? "
- GWR held a highly successful Second Research Symposium entitled " 2020 vision : I can see clearly now ...? " on January 20th 2010 at Hewlett Packard in Stoke Gifford, Bristol, to showcase GWR funded research projects in progress and to demonstrate the excellent research which is being funded by GWR here in the South West. Please click Here for the agenda, and HERE for the latest GWR update & newsletter which was distributed at the Symposium.
- Almost 100 delegates attended the Symposium, including GWR students, GWR academics and senior university officers together with representatives from HEFCE, the EPSRC and local business.
- Keynote speakers addressed the challenges of 2020 renewable energy targets, and demonstrated how GWR research projects are paving the way to meeting these targets.
- Workshop sessions showcased the work of GWR students and GWR Fellows in five of our Theme areas : Applied Maths and ICT , Creative Arts , Materials Science and Psychology.
- A student research poster competition open to all GWR PhD students attracted over 30 posters and offered a first prize of £100, with runner up prizes of £50 and £25. The competition was judged by Dr David Billington, executive director of GWR, Dr Vince Osgood director of economic impact for the EPSRC and Professor Mark Overton deputy vice-chancellor of Exeter University .
- The winning entry (from a very strong field) was " Opportunities, barriers and challenges for co-management of air pollution and carbon emissions in South West England" by Simon Baldwin.
- The second prize went to Jon Winfield , and the third prize to Andrew Rhead
- Networking time was programmed into the days events, and an interactive professional development session " beyond networking" was delivered during the afternoon by David stone of Guru Marketing.
- The latest GWR update & newsletter was distributed at the Symposium, and you can download your copy HERE.
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The GWR seminars and the GWR access Grid
GWR broadcast a series of seminars, lectures and workshops in Psychology, Sustainability, Materials and Creative Arts over the internet based Access Grid video conferencing system. If you wish to be informed by email 'alert' about the schedule and content of the various seminars, please contact Paul Hudson.
Please click on the links below for more details of our seminar series.
With funding from HEFCE , GWR has invested over £1M in the creation of 5 purpose built seminar/training suites at Universities across the South West. GWR seminars are delivered over the Access Grid system to Universities across the South West and recorded for archive purposes. You can stream these recordings from the individual links above.
For more information on the GWR Access Grid please click HERE
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GWR held a very successful event in Portcullis House, Westminster on the evening of 29th June which briefed MPs, members of the new government department BIS (which represents the areas previously in DIUS) representatives of the Research Councils, and the Technology Strategy Board about its activities.
GWR , Students, Fellows, Supervisors and Business Partners were joined by senior academics from across the South West and representatives of the SW-RDA and HEFCE at the meeting , which was kindly sponsored by Phil Willis MP Chair of the Commons Select Committee.
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