Queen's University Belfast Core Equipment Call 2022

2030年贝尔法斯特女王大学战略确定了我们的目标，即成为一所全球性的研究密集型大学，产生国际领先的研究成果，并拥有出色的教学和学习能力，专注于当地和全球的社会需求。一个关键环节是让我们的研究人员获得全球认可，与我们的学术优势和高影响力的研究保持一致。北爱尔兰和更广泛的英国经济发展的中心是在EPS学院进行的研究活动，该设备赠款将在那里举行。教员计划的一个关键方面是持续致力于加强我们的设施，找出基本研究设备方面的差距，从而确保为我们重塑的研究组合和资本投资的要素提供适当的资源。这项投资还将有助于支持EPSRC对地方议程的承诺，并纠正研究委员会在北爱尔兰(GB 5,708)的人均研究支出低于苏格兰(GB 11,402)、威尔士(GB 7,955)和英格兰东南部(GB 24,391)的情况。皇后学院通过向EPSRC提出竞争性申请，获得设备和计算资源，以补充其在基础设施和设施方面的投资。以前的例子包括：GB 1.8M“支撑多用户设备”项目(EP/P030246/1)，以支持新的“成像和构图中心”；GB 5M开尔文-2(EP/T022175/1)提议建立一个新的高性能计算设施；以及第一台GB 1.1M固态核磁共振仪器在北爱尔兰(EP/W021390/1)。虽然BRCD交易的重点是在互联健康和制造业方面提供资本投资，但这一请求希望加强EPS学院已建立的具有战略重要性的研究组合中的其他领域的研究，即微电子、传感器、心理学、土木工程、物理和材料研究。该设备具有潜力，将允许工作人员促进和支持整个大学的多学科机会。例如，药剂师、医学研究人员、机械和化学工程师将使用4K数字显微镜；土木工程、地理学和考古学领域的粒度分析仪将被使用；心理学家和电子工程师将使用Xsens运动跟踪系统；药物配方、陶瓷和材料科学研究人员将使用扫描声学显微镜；物理学家和药剂师将使用ICCD相机和光谱仪。这一方法直接与UKRI战略2022年至2027年保持一致，该战略名为“为世界级研究和创新提供安全的尖端基础设施”。我们的目标是增强我们的研究能力和雄心，创造并维持一个世界级的研究环境，其特点是拥有尖端的设施，并与高质量的培训和支持相联系。这些请求是通过一次详细的演习确定的，这些项目的优先事项是该大学的战略2030研究需求、是否适合核心设备调用以及提供维护和持续运行的能力。如果成功，设备将被安置在建立良好和管理良好的EPS学院实验室，并得到训练有素的技术人员的支持。ECR和研究生将始终能够利用这些资源，因为我们认识到它们的重要性。事实上，ECR是这次演习的目标，并领导着三个设备请求(Shakeel、Newton、Larraneta)。按照标准，博士生将被分配到研究小组，因此可以直接使用这些设施。

The Queen's University Belfast strategy 2030 defines our goals to be a global, research-intensive university generating internationally leading research, coupled with outstanding teaching and learning and focused on societal needs, locally and globally. A key strand is to allow our researchers to gain global recognition in line with our academic strengths and high impact research. Central to Northern Ireland and the wider UK's economic development are the research activities undertaken in the EPS Faculty where this equipment grant will be held. A key aspect of the faculty's plan is an ongoing commitment to enhance our facilities, identifying gaps in essential research equipment and thus ensuring appropriate resourcing of the elements of our reshaped research portfolio and capital investment. This investment will also help to support EPSRC's commitment to the Place Agenda and redress the research council lower spend per researcher in Northern Ireland (£5,708) compared to Scotland (£11,402), Wales (£7,955) and the Southeast of England (£24,391). Queen's supplements its own investments in infrastructure and facilities by acquiring equipment and computational resource through competitive applications to EPSRC. Previous examples include: the £1.8M 'Underpinning Multi-User Equipment' project (EP/P030246/1) to support a new 'Imaging and Patterning Centre'; the £5M Kelvin-2 (EP/T022175/1) proposal to establish a new, high performance computing facility and; the first, £1.1M solid-state, nuclear magnetic resonance instrument in Northern Ireland (EP/W021390/1). Whilst the BRCD deal is focused on providing a capital investment in connected health and manufacturing, this request looks to strength research across the other areas of the EPS Faculty's established and strategically important research portfolio, namely microelectronics, sensors, psychology, civil engineering, physics and materials research. The equipment has the potential will allow staff to promote and support multidisciplinary opportunities across the University. For example, the 4K Digital Microscope will be used by pharmacists, medical researchers, mechanical and chemical engineers; the Particle Size Analyser across civil engineering, geography, and archaeology; the Xsens motion tracking system by psychologists and electronic engineers; the Scanning Acoustic Microscope by researchers in drug formulations, ceramics and materials science; the ICCD Camera and Spectrometer by physicists and pharmacists. This approach directly aligns with the UKRI strategy 2022 to 2027 under 'secure cutting-edge infrastructures for world-class research and innovation'. Our aim is to enhance our research capabilities and ambitions to create and sustain a world-class research environment characterised by cutting-edge facilities, linked with high quality training and support. The requests were identified from a detailed exercise with items prioritised on the university's Strategy 2030 research needs, fit to the core equipment call and capability to provide maintenance and sustained operation. If successful, equipment will be accommodated in well-established and managed EPS Faculty laboratories which are supported by well-trained technicians. ECRs and postgraduate students will always be able to avail of these resources as we recognise their importance. Indeed, ECRs were targeted in this exercise and are leading three of the equipment requests (Shakeel, Newton, Larraneta). It is standard that PhD students will be assigned to research groups and will therefore have direct access to these facilities.