UNIVERSITY of Ulster academic, Professor Gerard Parr, has been invited onto a prestigious UK government committee.
His appointment to the Strategic Advisory Team of the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) acknowledges a distinguished academic career.
Selected from across the UK scientific and industrial community the committee identifies priorities for research and early career science training funding.
Professor Parr, the Chair of Telecommunications Engineering in the School of Computing and Information Engineering at Ulster’s Coleraine campus, is currently the only representative from Northern Ireland serving on the government committee. The EPSRC is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences with an annual budget of over £800m.
It covers a broad range of subjects — from mathematics to materials science, and from information technology to structural engineering.
Professor Parr will have a specific focus on the ICT sector and will be joined by other leading UK academics and representatives from global companies to help identify research and research fellow training priorities and strategy within the Research Council Portfolio.
Explaining his new advisory role Professor Parr said: “EPSRC supports excellent, internationallyleading, long-term research and high quality postgraduate training in order to contribute to the economic competitiveness of the UK and the quality of life of its people. At any one time, it supports a portfolio of research and training between £2-3bn.
“Our role will be to ensure that the funding of early career researchers and fundamental science support the skills and the research base to meet the future needs of government, industry and society in the UK.”
Professor Parr believes that the vision for ICT capability is to support UK scientists to meet future needs by delivering internationally recognised excellence, research and training.