The Open University (OU)

The Open Uni­ver­sity Research Portfolio

The Uni­ver­sity sup­ports a broad and vibrant research and enter­prise port­fo­lio and fos­ters research teams able to com­pete with the best in the world.

The results of the UK’s lat­est Research Assess­ment Exer­cise (RAE 2008) placed The Open Uni­ver­sity in the UK’s top 50 higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions, accord­ing to the Times Higher Edu­ca­tion Table of Excel­lence pub­lished on 18 Decem­ber 2008. The Uni­ver­sity achieved the sec­ond largest improve­ment in UK research rank­ings, ris­ing 23 places to 43^rd.

More than 50% of the University’s research is rated ‘inter­na­tion­ally excel­lent’ (3*) and 14% is ‘world-​leading’ (4*). Sub­mis­sions to the RAE were made by each of the OU’s seven faculties.

The RAE results evi­dence the qual­ity and stature of the Uni­ver­sity and its research.

• The University’s design group — span­ning design think­ing, through to sus­tain­abil­ity and com­plex­ity — now ranks third in the UK out of a field of 72.
• The Cen­tre for Research in Com­put­ing leapt firmly into the top 20, achiev­ing joint 16^th place with Bris­tol, Bath, York and Aberys­t­wyth Universities.
• The strength and excel­lence of the research sup­ported by the OU Cen­tre for Earth, Plan­e­tary, Space and Astro­nom­i­cal Research was also acknowl­edged with more than 70% of its mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary sub­mis­sion deemed world lead­ing (4*) or inter­na­tion­ally excel­lent (3*).

The Research School

The Research School is the pol­icy and oper­a­tional unit sup­port­ing research across the whole insti­tu­tion. It embraces five inter­linked units: –

• The Research Grants and Con­tracts team pro­vides exper­tise and sup­port for the devel­op­ment and sub­mis­sion of research grants and contracts.
• The Inno­va­tion and Enter­prise team sup­ports the OU’s grow­ing research and enter­prise port­fo­lio and man­ages intel­lec­tual property.
• The Research Careers Devel­op­ment team is respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing the frame­work to sup­port researchers at all stages of their career and pro­vides struc­tured sup­port in col­lab­o­ra­tion with spe­cial­ist fac­ulty and HR offerings.
• The Research Degrees team is the main point of con­tact for post­grad­u­ate research stu­dents and their supervisors.
• The Research Strat­egy, Infor­ma­tion and Gov­er­nance team devel­ops, imple­ments and mon­i­tors the insti­tu­tional research strat­egy. It also has respon­si­bil­ity for research gov­er­nance, pol­icy, man­age­ment and report­ing of research-​related man­age­ment infor­ma­tion, and devel­op­ment and dis­sem­i­na­tion of insti­tu­tional research pub­li­ca­tions and other com­mu­ni­ca­tions. The remit includes man­age­ment of insti­tu­tional sub­mis­sions to research assess­ment exer­cises (e.g. RAE 2008, REF 2014), statu­tory returns, coor­di­na­tion of research and enterprise-​related con­sul­ta­tions and man­age­ment of insti­tu­tional strate­gic research investment.