UCC targets ‘greater impact’ from research

“Quality over quantity” is a key factor in University College Cork setting research income targets lower than current levels in its plans for the next five years.

In a 2017-2022 strategic plan presented to staff yesterday, management set out plans to keep research income at more than €90m a year. However, the university secured €96m for or from research last year.

Rónán Ó Dubhghaill, UCC’s vice-president for external relations, says there will be a focus on research that has a high impact beyond the campus for society and the economy: “We want to maintain external research income over €90m a year, and converting that to greater impact is important to us.”

With this income already above €90m in each of the last two years, and less than two thirds of research funding coming from non-exchequer sources, a focus will be on widening the mix of revenue streams.

The risk of a smaller EU pot of research funding, due to the likely loss of UK contributions to the wider fund after Brexit, is a possible factor in the absence of growth being targeted.

But while Brexit poses challenges such as possible tariffs on the massive food export market there, UCC president Prof Patrick O’Shea also spoke about opportunities that can arise.

“We’re in a great position [in UCC] because of the work we do here to help re-focus on quality, and not just quantity, so that we can get through that tariff wall because we’re known for excellence of our product.”

Elsewhere, he said, the enormous market for baby-milk powder in China is just one example of the areas of opportunity for expansion that can be supported by the university. “We have to be creative in terms of quality, and not be excessively dependent on old markets like we were before,” he said.

UCC’s 2017-2022 strategic plan aims to increase international students by one third to 4,400. But Prof O’Shea stressed that this would not be at the expense of capacity for Irish students, and overall enrolments are expected to jump from 21,000 to 23,000.

The plan does not detail the non-capital costs of the core activities, but Prof O’Shea said various targets are open to upward revision if there is political delivery on requirements to significantly increase funding from the exchequer or from increased student fees, or both.

Mr Ó Dubhghaill said it was crucial the Government acted on last year’s Cassells report. It flagged a potential €600m funding shortage in third-level education by 2021 and the different options for bridging that gap.

“It’s important that the process is followed through, for the good of all parties in higher education. It’s an investment in this country and will enable us in universities to assist society and the economy,” he said.

As reported by the Irish Examiner yesterday, the UCC plan proposes that €100m can be raised through philanthropic sources to fund building projects, extra staff and other resources. The figure would require average annual fundraising returns to more than double on the €9m raised last year, which itself was an increase from €5.3m in 2015.

A significant proportion of philanthropic income would help fund a range of development projects with an expected total cost of €350m. Some of these are already under construction but others are still only at a cost-benefit analysis stage.