Core Capability for Chemistry Research

在许多论坛上，英国化学系基础设施投资的理由都很充分。这类投资将提供英国工业所需的知识生成和训练有素的个人，以及保持英国化学处于世界研究前沿所需的尖端基础研究。投资的工业效益是显而易见的：英国化学和化学品使用部门为英国经济贡献了超过2500亿GB(占GDP的20%)，支撑了600多万个就业机会，是主要的出口国(英国22%的出口是化学品和制药)。重要的是，这个行业要在未来几年繁荣发展，以实现经济再平衡。英国化学在学术界的地位反映在欧洲研究理事会预算的高比例(25%)，以及EPSRC 2010年国际化学审查的结果。上一次对化学系关键基础设施要求的重大投资-核磁共振、质谱学、X射线方法和原子尺度显微镜-是通过2002-2006年的SRIF过程进行的。因此，全国都迫切需要更新仪器。虽然大多数当前的设备需求是为了支持个别部门，但我们相信，通过在N8研究伙伴关系中提供设备齐全、支持良好的仪器中心网络，我们可以获得额外的价值。N8成立于2007年，是英格兰北部8所研究最密集的大学的合作伙伴；所有这些大学都是世界排名前1%的机构。参与此次竞标的N8化学部门将研究的卓越和强度与有效基础设施共享所需的地理位置接近结合在一起，并已经通过研究和培训合作建立了非常良好的联系。每个部门都有一个强大的EPSRC赞助的研究和广泛的工业联系，从中小企业到蓝筹公司。

The case for infrastructure investment in UK chemistry departments has been well made in a number of fora. Such investment will provide the knowledge generation and highly trained individuals required by UK industry as well as the cutting-edge fundamental investigations required to keep UK chemistry at the forefront of world research. The industrial benefits of investment are clear: the UK chemistry and chemical-using sectors contribute over £250 bn to the UK economy (20% of GDP), underpin over 6 million jobs and are major exporters (22% of UK exports are in chemicals and pharmaceuticals). It is important that this sector prospers and grows in coming years to rebalance the economy. UK chemistry's position on the academic world-stage is reflected by the high proportion of the European Research Councils' budget (>25%) the UK wins and from the outcomes of the EPSRC 2010 international review of chemistry.The last major investment in the key infrastructure requirements of Chemistry Departments - the "core 4" of NMR, mass spectrometry, X-ray methods and atomic-scale microscopy - was via the 2002-2006 SRIF process. There is, therefore, a pressing national need for instrument refresh. Whilst most current equipment needs are to support individual Departments, we believe that we can gain additional value by providing a network of well-equipped and well-supported instrumentation hubs within the N8 Research Partnership. The N8, founded in 2007, is a partnership of 8 of the most research-intensive universities in the North of England; all are world top 1% institutions. The N8 chemistry Departments involved in this bid combine research excellence and intensity with the geographical proximity needed for effective infrastructure sharing and are already very well-connected via research and training collaborations. Each Department has a strong portfolio of EPSRC sponsored research and extensive industrial links from SMEs to blue-chip companies.