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Research Operations Office

 

Published on 6 December 2013


ROOTS Tier 2 Research Administrators Programme 2014

The Research Operations Office is planning its 2014 programme for Research Administrators which consists of 6 morning modules from Feb – July 2014. Delegates will gain a greater understanding of how grants administration is carried out through a mix of skills development, learning from each other and contributors. The programme is intended for staff who support the Research Grants Lifecycle within their departments and have been in post for at least one year. There are 15 places available. 

For further details about the programme please e-mail Debbie.west-lewis@admin.cam.ac.uk

Wellcome Trust – changes to Grant policy

Changes to Wellcome Trust  Investigator Award and Senior & Principal Research Fellowship schemes assessment processes. Effective with immediate effect, and to  include recently-submitted applications.

Process to date:

  • Applicants submit full applications for consideration by an Expert Review Groups without providing information on:
    • data management
    • clinical trials
    • animals.
  • This information has only been required from those applicants shortlisted for interview.

With immediate effect:

  • this information will now be requested prior to the Expert Review Group meeting;
  • application forms will be updated by Christmas to reflect this change;
  • during the interim phase, applicants are being contacted by Trust staff and asked to provide this information.

The assessment process for these schemes is otherwise unchanged.

Open Innovation Collaboration with GSK

The University of Cambridge has entered into an open innovation collaboration with GSK located at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) that gives University researchers access to the drug development expertise of GSK and other pharmaceutical companies. The project focuses on therapeutic opportunities, but will benefit other healthcare technologies including devices and biomarkers (diagnostics, patient stratification and pharmaceutical biomarker strategies in discovery). GSK have no commercial rights to projects in the collaboration, but are not precluded from being a commercial partner.

The open innovation model at SBC allows Cambridge scientists to freely interact with other pharmaceutical biotech, contract research organisations, SBC tenants and academic institutions. It is anticipated that the Cambridge presence will grow to between three and five University research projects located at SBC at any one time.

Cambridge Enterprise is managing this project and researchers interested in learning more about are invited to contact Christine Martin (Christine.Martin@enterprise.cam.ac.uk) or Iain Thomas (Iain.Thomas@enterprise.cam.ac.uk). More information is available at http://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/news/2013/6/new-treatments-pain-and-ms-being-developed-open-in/