| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C004035/1 |
| Title: |
Additional Management Support for the Liverpool IMRC in e-Business |
| Principal Investigator: |
Kehoe, Professor D |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Management School |
| Organisation: |
University of Liverpool |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 February 2005 |
Ends: |
30 September 2007 |
Value (£): |
152,745
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Manufact. Enterprise Ops& Mgmt |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
Electronics |
| Transport Systems and Vehicles |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre in e-Business was launched at the University of Liverpool in April 2002 and since inception the Centre has:* Been awarded the Innovative Manufacturing Initiative Research Chair (Professor Kehoe)* Been awarded over 3.8m from the Northwest Development Agency for the creation of a centre of excellence within the IMRC for manufacturing business application of Grid computing* Been awarded over 2m from the European Regional Development Fund for the dissemination of the research output from the IMRCOver this period the research team has grown to over 30 staff and the group is now the largest academic centre of e-Business research in Europe. Major industrial partners include Westland Helicopters, Airbus, Jaguar, Chiron Vaccines and Compuware who together have contributed almost 0.25m in cash and over 1m in in-kind support since the formation of the IMRC.Currently the Centre is managed at three levels:The strategic direction and vision setting and the monitoring of achievements against objectives is the responsibility of the Steering Group which is industry-led and chaired by Dr Fred Mahoney formerly VP manufacturing at Cargill Inc. Academic leadership is provided by Professor Kehoe and the two co-investigators Dr Lyons and Dr Ismail. This group are responsible for research quality, research outputs, research training and disseminationThe third tier are the research project groups which are managed on a matrix structure with research teams typically comprising manufacturing operations specialists, information specialists and practitioners.From a research 'project' perspective the Centre is operating extremely effectively as testified by the value of the external income generated by the Centre and by the level and quality of the research outputs. However the part-time nature of the members of the Centre's Steering Group (even though the individual members are extremely supportive) together with the significant teaching and administrative duties of the Centre's academic staff has led to a number of deficiencies:* The strategy and research vision formulation process is under-resourced and as a result opportunities are currently being missed* The research dissemination process whilst efficient in terms of academic publications is not as effective as it could be in terms of impacting upon manufacturing practitioners and the adoption of leading-edge e-Business practice. The recent DTI report into the level of 'e-development' of UK manufacturers would add weight to this problem.* The commercial exploitation of the research output is certainly at a level lower than it could be and the economic impact of the research investment, in terms of new businesses created and new products developed (particularly from the research into Grid-based manufacturing optimisation) are not adequately exploited.The proposal therefore is to create a Centre Executive Management Group and to fund a new part-time post to manage and co-ordinate research collaboration both within and outside the Centre.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.liv.ac.uk |