THEME PANEL CHAIRS
Responsibilities of the Theme Panel Chair:
1. Theme Panel Chair
2. Theme Leader
Responsibilities of the Theme Panel Members
Next Steps for the Theme Panel Chair
Agenda for the First Theme Panel Meeting
Some Guidance for Theme Panel Meetings
Where to get help
Responsibilities of the Theme Panel Chair 
As a Theme Panel Chair, you have two main responsibilities:
- Firstly to bring together your Theme Panel and to act as an independent Chair for evaluating research proposals for funding.
- Secondly to act as “Theme Leader” – helping researchers to come together to create a more dynamic and productive research environment in our region.
The sections below outline these responsibilities in more detail.
1. Theme Panel Chair
The Theme Panel Chair is responsible for convening the Theme Panel meetings and acting as chair. The Great Western Research Project Manager will support the Theme Panel Chair by acting as Secretary for the Theme Panel, but until the Administrator is appointed, the acting Executive Director has asked one of the institution coordinators to undertake this role. The names of the Theme Panel Secretaries are listed in the individual Theme pages.
1.1 Oversee Submission and Review Process for Proposals
The Theme Panel must determine the process it will use for submission and review of research proposals.
In general we expect the proposal submission and review process to be the same for all the themes, however each theme panel may add rules to promote certain research areas and to encourage certain types of consortia.
Once the submission and review process has been started, the Theme Panel Chair must ensure that the process is conducted in accordance with the rules for the Theme, that information is supplied to potential applicants and that proposals are reviewed by the Panel in a timely fashion. The Great Western Research staff will provide administrative support for keeping track of proposals.
1.2 Act as an Independent Chair
The job of Theme Panel Chair will require sensitivity and tact if (as is probable) the Theme Chair is personally involved in submitting a proposal for the Theme. The Chair must be an impartial champion for the whole theme, while at the same time creating his or her own proposals.
1.3 Member of Regional Research Board
The Theme Panel Chair will be a member of the Regional Research Board, which is the final decision maker with regard to awarding studentships across all theme areas. The Regional Research board makes recommendations about allocation of Fellowships to the Strategy and Management Board, which makes the final decisions.
2. Theme Leader
2.1 Create a Collaborative Research Environment
The Theme Chair will act as a figurehead for the theme inside and outside the HEI community.
The goal of Great Western Research is to create lasting research collaborations between HEIs and to improve the connections between HEIs and external organisations. Great Western Research will have failed unless new and lasting links are created inside and outside the academic world.
You need to think about your role in leading the process to create this collaborative research environment. You may want to act simply as a reference point for academics or you may want to organise events or activities to bring people into contact with each other. These might be seminars or workshops or visits to businesses. In some themes, innovative ideas may be needed to break down institutional barriers and to set the scene for new collaborations. In other themes, collaboration processes will already be understood by academic staff and business partners. Great Western Research staff can help you in thinking about what sorts of events would be appropriate for your theme, and they will help to organise events.
2.2 Connections to Businesses
Businesses and other potential funders will need to be convinced that Great Western Research projects will be a worthwhile investment. The Theme leader may be able to help consortia within the theme to get access to external partners by using his or her reputation to open doors.
You should encourage members of your theme to use the Business Support Teams in their institutions to help create and manage links to businesses. Great Western Research staff will provide you and your panel members with generic information and publicity materials to inform businesses about the initiative.
2.3 Tracking Business Connections
Everyone involved in generating applications should keep their institution coordinators informed about what contacts they intend to make and have made with potential external partners. The Executive Director will keep a database of all these links. This is to avoid situations where two groups of academics independently contact a business with competing Great Western Research theme proposals. It will also help us to build a database of business links in the South West.
2.4 Keep Track of Consortia
We expect HEIs and external organisations to join together to bid for Great Western Research funding. We will call these groups ‘consortia’ in this document. The smallest possible consortium will consist of 2 HEIs and one external funding partner bidding for a single PhD studentship. A large consortium might consist of several HEIs and businesses, proposing a research programme involving several Research Fellows and PhD students.
As Theme Leader, you should be approachable and should aim to have an overview of what consortia are being created and what sorts of research proposals they are likely to make. This will help to ensure that a balanced portfolio of proposals is being prepared. The Chair may help to put individuals in touch with each other in order to generate proposals in theme areas that are likely to be under-represented, or where collaborations seem like a good idea.
Once successful proposals have been identified, the Theme Panel Chair should ensure, through a reporting mechanism to the Theme Panel, that project progress is satisfactory. The Great Western Research staff will assist in this.
2.5 Summary
The Theme Leader should
- Ensure that information is disseminated.
- Lead and encourage meetings, workshops and events.
- Help others to establish links to external funding partners.
- Keep track of what is happening across the theme.
Responsibilities of the Theme Panel Members
Theme Panel Members will:
- Ensure that all researchers in the theme area in their own HEI are kept informed about GWR possibilities. Theme Panel members should work across department and research group boundaries in order to help all relevant researchers in their HEI to participate in GWR. The institution coordinator will help with this.
- Represent all researchers in the theme area within their own HEI.
- Participate in Theme Panel meetings, discussions and events.
Please see the ‘Theme Panel Members’ pages for more information.
Initial Topics for Theme Panel Discussions
At the first meeting, the Theme Panel should focus on preparing a call for the Studentships. This is the first priority because it will take some time to raise interest in the studentships amongst business partners and to build HE collaborations, and we want to have as many PGR students in place by the RAE census date of 31 July 2007. Fellowships will be subject to a separate call and should be discussed at the next meeting. There is quite a lot for the Theme Panel to discuss (see list of discussion topics below). Please decide how you want to deal with each of the topics, for example:
- Email discussion before and after the first panel meeting.
- Discussion during the meeting, possibly based on a proposal.
- The Chair makes a strong recommendation for confirmation by the Panel.
We strongly recommend that the Panel should meet face-to-face. Electronic communication is no substitute for personal contact in forming relationships. You may want to arrange off-agenda activities, such as seminars or overviews of departmental activities, in conjunction with Panel meetings, in order to foster a collaborative research environment for the Panel members and others. A lot of time can be saved by sending documents to the panel members beforehand, outlining the issues to be addressed and suggesting possible solutions.
Agenda for the First Theme Panel Meeting
1. Note overall Great Western Research background and operational framework.
- Questions arising about the overall Great Western Research initiative.
2. Note process and overall rules for submitting and evaluating studentship proposals
- Time plan (call for proposals, submissions, decisions)
- Criteria for evaluating submissions
3. Review and clarify subject areas for the theme
- The Theme Panel should review the subject areas for its theme, based on the Theme description in the project proposal, and make sure that the panel members have a common understanding of the theme.
4. Decide what sorts of proposals will be encouraged and supporte.
The theme panel may have preferences for the sorts of projects it will support and the sorts of consortia it would like to see proposals from:
- Is there a preference for big vs. small projects?
- Does the panel want to allocate PhD studentships in pairs, so that each institution will receive fees and RAE count for a student?
- Does the Theme Panel want to propose the formation of some consortia? It may want to suggest that a particular group of academics and external organisations should get together to make a proposal.
5. If there is time, discuss the role of the Theme Panel members in encouraging collaboration between HEIs and businesses in the South West
- How will the Theme Panel Chair and members play a role in encouraging collaboration between HEIs?
- What sorts of events are needed? (Seminars, workshops, other events)
Some Guidance for Theme Panel Meetings
Here are some operational rules:
- The Panel Chair is responsible for calling the meeting, setting the agenda and acting as meeting chair.
- A member of the Great Western Research staff or nominee will act as secretary for the meeting
- A panel member may, in extremis, nominate a deputy to attend a meeting in their place. The nomination should be sent to the Panel Chair and the Secretary before the meeting.
- The Theme Chair is expected to attend all panel meetings in person. In an emergency, the Secretary will act as meeting chair.
- Decisions will be made by majority voting of the panel members. The Panel Chair has the casting vote.
- The panel members and the Theme Chair are allowed to submit proposals to the panel for funding. Individuals will not be required to leave the panel meeting when applications from themselves or their institutions are being discussed.
Where to get help
Great Western Research has Executive Director, Project Manager and Project Assistant (GWR team). Also the Bath, Bristol and Exeter Institution Coordinators will provide administrative support as well as your own Institution coordinator.
If you need help, the best people to ask are your Theme Panel Chair (listed on relevant Theme info page), your Institution Coordinator or GWR team.