The Research and Development Society

From the Chair
Iain Simpson writes…

I step down from my two year term as Chair of the R&D Society at the 2008 AGM. And what a busy, interesting and rewarding two years it has been!

Above: From left to right: our President, Sir Richard Sykes, Ann Davies, 2007 Duncan Davies Medallist Sir Robin Saxby.

In the past two years, I, and the Board that I chair, have continued a process to redevelop and renew the Society. This process started in 2006 at the suggestion of our President, Sir Richard Sykes. We continued in 2007, investigating several possible activities and future areas of work for the Society. This continues to the present day, and we are set to complete the review at the end of 2008.

I am particularly grateful to the Board for their continued advice and support during this period, especially the three new members – Martin Buxton Hoare, David Kingham and Kieran Quill – who hit the ground running, and brought fresh energy and fresh thinking to the Society. If you are interested in contributing to the work of the Society, I would urge you to stand at our AGM.

Meanwhile, we’ve steadied the Society’s finances, published the first print membership directory for many years, and held several successful events – you can see a summary in the next column. We are building on this in 2008, and I look forward to helping with this process in my position of Immediate Past Chair, in 2008 and beyond.

Finally, though strictly speaking outside the remit of this Review of the Year, I want to end by paying tribute to Bruce Doig, who sadly passed away on 1 February 2008. He was one of the founding signatories of the R&D Society as it is incorporated now, and was instrumental in the Society’s development.

He served as Chair and as a board member of the Society whilst head of research at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. Clive Jones, former Administrative Secretary remembers: “Having been one of the founder members of the Society his wisdom was always sought when it came to important decisions. Mr Doig”, as everyone knew him, was a very modest man; he never attempted to ‘pull-rank’ at committee meetings.

His wise thoughts and opinions were very much respected by other members. He will be sadly missed by those who remember him.”

In a nutshell
In 2007, the Society…

Will Hutton, speaking at the Society’s event at the Foreign Press Association on 26 April 2007

• Held five evening events, for a total of 167 attendees, with speakers including Allan Bradley, Will Hutton, David Edgerton and Richard Longdon.
• Held an afternoon seminar, for 29 attendees, on Trends and Current Issues in Intellectual Property Rights Protection.
• Awarded its Duncan Davies Medal to Sir Robin Saxby, founder of ARM, at a presentation lecture attended by forty people, including Hugh Davies and Ann Davies.
• Held the Society’s first event outside London for several years, supporting NanoMaterials07, Europe's first conference on the commercialisation of nanomaterials, at the Sage, Gateshead.
• Achieved press coverage for our activities and our speakers in titles including Research Fortnight, the Financial Times and IT Week.
• Encouraged two new Corporate and fifteen new Individual members to join the Society.
• Published a print directory of the Society’s membership, the first for several years.
• Launched a Noticeboard of policy initiatives, Government activities, events and activities relevant to the UK R&D community on our website.

Our events

• Thursday 18 January 2007, Keynote from Professor Allan Bradley, Commercialising the Genome: Facts, Failures, Fantasy and Opportunity
• Thursday 26 April 2007: Keynote from Will Hutton, The Writing On The Wall - China and the West in the 21st Century
• Monday 30 April and Tuesday 1 May: Associate event: NanoMaterials07, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
• Tuesday 19 June 2007: Afternoon seminar: Trends and Current Issues in Intellectual Property Rights Protection (right)
• Tuesday 19 June 2007: The 2007 Duncan Davies Medal Lecture, Sir Robin Saxby, Chairman Emeritus of ARM and President of the IEE, From start up in a barn in Cambridge to global standard and beyond
• Tuesday 30 October 2007: Keynote from David Edgerton, Imperial College London, How important is R&D?
• Thursday 22 November 2007, Panel discussion: Investing in R&D: the how, where, when, and why

Our publications

NanoMaterials07, the Sage, Gateshead

Our website gained an R&D Noticeboard blog, carrying items of interest for members of the UK R&D community, including policy inputs and funding opportunities. The Noticeboard builds on the success of the Members’ Update email newsletter, providing more immediate, timelier information for everyone working in UK R&D.

A printed membership directory was published and distributed to our members in 2007, following a warm response from members to 2006’s web directory. This is the first print members’ directory to be published by the Society for several years. Networking continues to be of major importance to our members, and we intend this will be a regular member benefit.

David Fishlock stepped down as the Society’s reporter for its print newsletter after many years of assistance, for which the Society is most grateful. The Society is considering how best to capture meetings for its members as part of the review of the Society.

Our membership

Our membership is the base from which we draw our strength and our mandate to operate. We need a strong, supportive membership for the Society to help make the UK the best environment for R&D in the world.

In 2007, we were pleased to welcome the following as Corporate Members:

• Rail Strategy and Safety Board
• University of Cambridge

Fifteen Individual members also joined during the year, bringing the total membership to 35 Corporate members and 114 Individual members.

The Board is drawn from our membership and governs the Society on behalf of the members. The Board elected at the 2007 AGM is:

• Iain Simpson, Chairman
• Stephen Allport, Ordinary Member
• Martin Buxton Hoare, Ordinary Member
• E A Gloag, Honorary Treasurer
• David Kingham, Ordinary Member
• David Knight, Honorary Secretary
• Graham Land, Ordinary Member
• Stephen Potter, Immediate Past-Chairman
• Kieran Quill, Ordinary Member
• Renate Siebrasse, Honorary Membership Secretary

This Board will stand until the 2008 AGM on 15 July 2008.