News round-up
University signs deal with China’s largest trading company
Sinochem, China’s largest trading company and first multinational conglomerate, has signed a formal agreement to collaborate in research and innovation with the University. The agreement builds on a successful long-standing relationship between Sinochem and the Colour Science and Chemistry departments, which will now be formally developed to include other strategic areas. Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer, Professor Richard Williams, signed the agreement in Beijing with Sinochem Deputy President Li.
Research Excellence Framework (REF) nominations
The funding bodies have published details of the new units of assessment for the REF and are recruiting to its expert panels. The document sets out the funding bodies’ decisions in relation to the following aspects of the 2014 REF:
- the configuration of units of assessment and grouping of subpanels under main panels
- the roles and responsibilities of main panels, sub-panels and their members in the assessment
- the criteria and process for recruiting panel chairs and members.
The document also invites organisations and associations with an interest in research to nominate candidates to become panel members (deadline for nominations is 8 October 2010).
For more information visit www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2010/
Joint Honours website
The Organisational Change website now has information about the Cross-Disciplinary Review Transition:
www.leeds.ac.uk/orgchange/CrossDisciplinary.html


