Science and Technology Facilities Council
Our work in the Science and Technooogy Facilities Council (STFC) is a good example of the breadth and depth of support that are able to provide to clients. STFC was created from the merger of PPARC and CCLRC three years ago. It contains some world-leading research institutes/facilities e.g. Computational Science and ISIS, on two major campuses – Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (on the Harwell Campus) and Daresbury Laboratory (on the Daresbury Campus), as well as other centres. It also administers research grants and international subscriptions e.g. to the Large Hydron Collider in Cern, and has the majority stake in the Diamond Light Source. It is developing a new vision and strategy to address the Grand Challenges, set by Government, at the same time as dealing with funding pressures.
There are three main aspects of our work in STFC:
- Keith Williams of Spirals is seconded as Change Director of STFC, reporting to the CEO. He has been responsible for defining the overall Blueprint change programme and leading the design and implementation of a portfolio of change projects in all parts of the organisation. Projects include – leadership, culture, organisation, processes, infrastructure (IT and Estates), financial model and performance management
- In this role he is looking at how we can increase the external income of STFC e.g. through collaborative partnerships, spin-offs, direct sales of capability etc. A key element of this strategy is the development of the Harwell and Daresbury campuses as vehicles for collaboration between STFC, industry and academia. He is focusing on the culture, process and skills issues at the interfaces between the public sector scientific and private sector industrial organisations. Spirals has some distinctive insights and expertise in these areas
- Simon Pomfret also of Spirals has also been acting as the subject matter expert on the Estates strategy, which is at the heart of the campus collaboration initiatives