Welcome everybody to our May newsletter. There's lots of activity and much to report from the Foundation, and if you'd like more information then please check out our website and social media channels. At the moment we're in the midst of some major technical reviews to help guide our future funding priorities. One such review is mentioned below in the field of structural integrity and systems performance, and in recent newsletters we've mentioned other ongoing reviews in the areas of big data (data-centric engineering) and resilience engineering. These will subsequently underpin major grant opportunities in these areas, which we look forward to telling you more about in the very near future.
In this newsletter there's also an update on how we are approaching measuring the impact of our grant giving and the work we support. As the Foundation connects science, safety and society, its important we track the benefits to society generated by our grants community.
These newsletters are for the benefit of all our stakeholders and as such we always welcome feedback on future topics and types of information you'd like to see included. Please send any suggestions to info@lrfoundation.org.uk
Structural integrity and systems performance foresight review
In June there will be two international workshops held as part of that will generate the foundation of a foresight review in the field of structural integrity and systems performance; one of our priority research areas under the Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s strategic theme of supporting excellent scientific research. The workshops will aim to address the following questions:
- In the context of the Foundation’s mission, what are the potential applications in structural integrity and systems performance that the Foundation could focus funding into to maximise societal benefit?
- What are the gaps in our ability to understand, communicate or implement these applications?
- In which technological areas should the Lloyd’s Register Foundation focus its research to ensure research excellence and maximised impact.
The first workshop will be held at 71 Fenchurch Street in London on 4-5 June and the second workshop will take place at the University of Singapore on 15-16 June.
In July we will be posting the key findings of the review on our website for an open consultation to ensure that we draw on the widest possible input into this review process. We will provide more information on how to participate in the open consultation nearer the time.
The findings of the foresight review will provide the Foundation with guidance on its future priorities in this funding priority area, in particular guiding our recent £15-million grant to TWI based in Cambridge, UK, that we announced last year.
Measuring and reporting on our impact
The Foundation must demonstrate to itself and its regulator, the Charities Commission, the impact it is having in delivering its charitable aims. Our Board of Trustees discussed this at their latest meeting and as a result the Foundation has updated its guidance on measuring impact and benefit and reporting. Case studies will remain the most compelling way to report on impact. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Professor Jeom Paik awarded the prestigious William Froude Medal
Professor Jeom Paik of the research centre we fund at Pusan National University, has been honoured with the William Froude Medal, awarded by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). Professor Paik is just the third person to receive both RINA’s William Froude Medal and SNAME’s David W Taylor Medal, which are two of the most prestigious medals in the world of naval architecture and offshore engineering. The others are Emeritus Prof. John B. Caldwell of Newcastle University and late Prof. Douglas Faulkner of Glasgow University. More information can be found on the UCL website.
Professor Paik, left, being presented with the medal at a ceremony on 30 April 2015 by Bruce S Rosenblatt, present president of RINA.
Digitisation update May 2015
As part of its support of LR's heritage collection, the Foundation is supporting two connected pieces of work looking at generating a vision for the digital archive of the future and secondly getting some practical experience by piloting digitisation of some of our 'first and famous' records of ships in the archive.
The month of May has proved to be an eventful period for the Information Centre’s Digitisation Project. The digitisation team kicked off May by auditing a portion of our archives at the Brass Foundry at Greenwich, allowing us to grasp the scale of the archive’s material. The review raised a number of questions regarding the process of cataloguing our records, which has developed the project’s pilot year plan. As well auditing our archive, the team also uncovered a number of rare items, including a small article in one of our survey reports from 1837, which decreed that all future drawings be submitted on tracing cloth.
Next, the digitisation team met with Max Communication at their headquarters in Chislehurst. The team were given a tour of their facilities and met with the staff who were kind enough to take time out from their busy day to talk to us. Furthermore, Max Communications has started to send us scanned samples of our Pamir records, giving the Information Centre an idea of what our archive will look like in a digital format.
Finally, the digitisation team has started to compile a list of LR’s famous and first ships from the 19th and 20th century, which will establish a priority-status for the digitisation of our archive. The list already includes over 60 LR classed vessels, from ships such as the Cutty Sark to the world’s first fully welded ocean-going ship, Fullagar. If you’d like to recommend a vessel then please contact Sean Clemenson via email.