Portsmouth Business School
Research at PBS
The last year (2012) has seen significant structural changes in the Business School as we have moved away from the old Departmental structure to a new Subject Group/Law School format. The year has also seen significant changes since my appointment at the start of the year from a research perspective too. This has included a new forward looking Faculty Research Strategy to drive us forward over the next five years, and a new research framework which produces strong incentives to publish in high quality journals – thereby providing a clear career trajectory for researchers which could/should ultimately lead to appointment as Reader/Professor if milestones are met. We have also introduced a new workloads model which rewards our top researchers by allowing them more time to undertake research, encouraging them to produce such outputs in conjunction with our rapidly growing research degree student body and/or top external collaborators.
Most importantly perhaps in my view is that we now recognise that a Business School must, for the benefit of the student population, seek to encourage research by all and, moreover, research that infuses and motivates our teaching. Portsmouth Business School has historically been one of the top producers of widely used academic textbooks, an output of which we should be proud – and our new web-site devotes a whole section to our outputs in this area [click here – link to respective RIT page]. At the same time, it is important to recognise that the research needs of staff within such a large Business School are extremely diverse. Some are just embarking upon their research careers, others are now aspiring to produce excellent research, while yet others have produced, and continue to produce, world class publications. To reflect these needs we have taken various initiatives. An early career researcher (ECR) network has been created and is thriving. Other colleagues without a research background now complete a Masters course in Research Methods to enable them to step onto the research pathway. To encourage staff to step up to the research excellence level we now offer enhanced workload remission to those who attain this level of research performance. As a dynamic Business School we also expect staff to engage fully with business and the public and third sectors, through KTPS and consultancy, and 2012 saw us set-up a specific structure to advance this agenda.
Enhanced dissemination of our research output is an integral part of our strategy over the next five years, and details of the manifold ways in which to disseminate our research findings can be found here. Our growing reputation in research terms not only sees us leading or collaborating upon a number of important national and International research projects,but also sees us attract a growing number of visiting researchers for short-term collaborations.
2013 is likely to be a portentous year for PBS and the UK Higher Education sector generally. The REF process finally reaches its culmination in the final quarter of the year when we submit staff names and outputs. It is likely to be an important year for the University of Portsmouth too. The PBS-led review of the University’s Research and Knowledge Services costing and procedural process will complete in the Summer, and the expectation is that it will produce a more facilitating framework which further foments research activities. We have also taken a major decision to use some of our accumulated reserves to appoint a number of PBS Research Fellows and Research Professors in those research areas which we wish to grow over the longer-term in line with our new Research Strategy. These, and a number of other initiatives, leave me quietly confident that 2013 will be a good year for research within Portsmouth Business School.
Professor Andy Thorpe,
Associate Dean – Research (Portsmouth Business School).