This blog summarises the discussion between Kara Bailie and Sarah Scullion from the Belfast Region City Deal programme team at Queen’s University Belfast and Fellows in the Queen’s Fellowship Academy. You can access the slides from the event here. 

The Belfast Region City Deal unlocks £1billion of transformative co-investment, which will deliver more than 20 highly ambitious projects and programmes, creating up to 20,000 new, and better jobs to help make the region a global investment destination over the next decade to 2030 and beyond. 

At the request of the Fellows, Kara and Sarah were invited to talk with the Fellowship Academy about BRCD, to find out what it is and how researchers, such as the Fellows, can connect and consider how their research could fit with BRCD plans.

What is BRCD?

Kara provided an overview of BRCD, explaining how Queen’s vision as a City Deal partner is to create tangible impact where it truly matters and drive progress for generations to come through the delivery of three Innovation Centres in advanced manufacturing, clinical research and secure, connected digital technologies. 

BRCD initiatives need people with the right skills to ensure the projects are successful.  Having a pipeline of skilled people, through schools, colleges and universities is central.  Researchers in universities, PhD students, post-docs and academics, can provide many of these skills but also be part of creating a learning environment across NI that supports the development of skills for the new roles that will be created through BRCD.

A role for Fellows

Researchers have a role in taking forward the BCRD projects, with many Queen’s researchers already key to their development.  Sarah spoke about how BRCD needs Fellows to engage in ongoing and future activities as they have an in-depth knowledge of and an understanding of how NI can develop its research environment to make it an attractive, go-to location for investors.  BRCD can be the magnet that facilitates meaningful and enduring academic partnerships, connecting nationally and globally, and will help Queen’s deliver leading edge research and innovation activity in partnership with industry.  Fellows have the potential to help shape and drive these partnerships, ensuring Queen’s University has the research ecosystem that attracts, keeps and supports the best talent, thus driving economic prosperity for the region.

How do researchers get involved?

Kara outlined examples of current projects where NI based researchers are working with BRCD, collaborating across industry and local communities:

• Smart City-zens: empowering the local community through the promotion of active citizenship within the community and in the wider city of Belfast. The Markets Development Association strives for equality, and promotes a rights based approach when dealing with the many socio-economic issues that impact on the Markets community.
• Calculating The Human Proteoform Maximum Theoretical Peptide Index as A Novel Commercial Resource for Industry and Academia: The personalized medicine process to therapeutic invention is based on the principle of ‘right drug, right person, right time’. Powered by sophisticated instruments and complex science, the identification and measurement of any physiological molecule in the body is now possible.

BRCD supporting your research

BRCD structures and staff provide NI researchers with a platform to connect with potential partners in industry, public sector, third sector etc. and develop these into real world collaborations.  BRCD is creating spaces, both physical and virtual, where researchers can explore and evolve their research ideas.  These ideas can support Fellows’ current and future research agenda and play a key role in their academic career.

Stay connected

If you couldn’t attend our meeting, don’t worry. We share details of further BRCD activities such as:

• AIM days -  The first step in enabling and growing academic-industry partnerships will be through ‘Academic-Industry Meeting Days’ or AIMDays.  These events will pair challenges brought by industry with Queen’s University Belfast research experts, leading to productive partnerships that BRCD projects can support.
• GII workshops and Multidisciplinary Coordination Teams – we delivered multidisciplinary design thinking workshops which brought academic colleagues from different disciplines together under a range of themes (for example, remote healthcare, smart cities), which have resulted in multidisciplinary project development. We have established Multidisciplinary Coordination Teams in Health, AgriTech, Smart Cities, and FinTech, which help to identify opportunities and drive multidisciplinary bids.

This was a very informative and encouraging session, and through the Fellowship Academy we’ll make sure that Fellows get a chance to continue and get involved in this ongoing conversation with Kara, Sarah and their colleagues.

Contact Details

Kara Bailie	Deputy Director Strategic Programmes, Belfast Region City Deal	kara.bailie@qub.ac.uk
Sarah Scullion	Project Manager, Belfast Region City Deal	sarah.scullion@qub.ac.uk

 

Paul Monahan

Learning and Development Manager (Researcher Development), People and Culture