Research and Innovation Directorate

In order to support and deliver the University’s mission it is Research and Innovation’s strategic intention to drive the exploitation of research and knowledge transfer opportunities in order to deliver significant added value to the University, the wider economy and community.

Research and Innovation will do this by:

maintaining and developing organisational capabilities
creating, enabling and communicating research and knowledge transfer opportunities
providing information and intelligence

Broadly speaking, the Research and Innovation Directorate’s activities fall into three groups:

Winning funding and generating income for University activities and projects aligned with the University’s intentions and ambitions
Generating new knowledge and supporting the generation of new knowledge in the University
and with partners
Exchanging, transferring and exploiting knowledge for the economic, social and environmental benefits of the University, staff, the City, the region and wider

Team structure

Below gives an overview of the Directorate’s functions which support academics in wining funding for their research and the wide range of innovation activities managed to enable the transfer of the knowledge of the University through collaboration with industry, business, public sector, research and community based partners regionally, nationally and internationally.

Team & Web Link	Description
Research Development & Support »	Works with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and Faculties to support the development of research in the University and in particular the growth in external research income and to position the University for the future Research Excellence Framework (REF). The team provides advice and assistance to the academic community on all aspects of research grants and contracts.
SERIO »	SERIO is an inter-disciplinary research team whose purpose is to apply the University’s expertise to real world issues through the provision of targeted research and intelligence. The team work across all sectors of the economy, delivering a range of commissioned socio-economic research services from feasibility studies and market research to evaluation and impact assessment.
Rural Enterprise Solutions »	Provides an information and knowledge transfer service to the rural sector predominantly in the South West of England. It achieves this through a dedicated website, regularly updated and by direct on-line delivery of information to interested parties.
Conferences & Events »	This team is broadly concerned with the scheduling, co-ordination, management and support of events. Events handled vary enormously from simple room-only bookings at one end of the scale, to large international conferences encompassing social programmes, at the other. In addition to event management, Summer accommodation which involves the letting of student accommodation in the vacation period is also managed through this team.
Graduate School »	The Graduate School’s core purpose is to serve the University’s research student community to ensure that students and their supervisors are well supported to deliver high quality research training which results in excellent highly employable research degree graduates.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships »	KTP is a UK wide programme helping businesses and organisations to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. The Plymouth KTP Office provides a well experienced centralised function for managing KTP. This function takes a pro-active lead on sales, marketing, proposal development, graduate recruitment, project management and administration. The team is available to support academics with potential KTP ideas as well as work with businesses and organisations to identify how academic expertise and funding can deliver their strategic ambitions. Further information can be found at www.ktponline.org.uk
Enterprise Support »	The team helps turn new ideas into business opportunities. Support includes: providing dedicated and supportive pre-incubation and incubation space at Formation Zone Formation2.0 Pool Innovation Centre* Tremouth Innovation Centre Tamar Science Park developing the knowledge and expertise of entrepreneurs through Enterprise Workshops Business Ideas Challenge Proof of Concept Funding Social Enterprise *Innovation Centres are part funded by the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme
Intellectual Property Management & Exploitation »	This involves the identification, protection and exploitation of the knowledge created within the University.
Commercially Funded Research & Consultancy	The team provides high level expertise to effectively support the University in all aspects of successfully delivering major corporate projects – including the identification of opportunities, negotiation with stakeholders, proposal development, project management, project implementation and output monitoring.
Consultancy & Project Management Expertise	Commercial and contract research projects are managed through the University’s wholly owned trading company Plymouth University Enterprise Ltd (UoPEL).
Knowledge Exchange for PRIMaRE (The Peninsula Institute for Marine Renewable Energy) »	PRIMaRE, a joint venture between Plymouth University and the University of Exeter, has brought together a team of international researchers and world class facilities to accelerate the development of technology and address the most critical challenges facing the marine renewable energy industry. The dedicated team of project managers and supporting marketing strategy aims to optimise opportunities through business engagement in the field of marine renewable energy developments.
Enterprise Solutions »	Enterprise Solutions is the brand which provides an umbrella for all the University’s expertise, services and facilities for individuals, businesses and the community. The Enterprise Solutions team is responsible for developing the brand and the supporting tool-kit, managing the Enterprise Solutions Service which is the entry point to the University for business enquiries.