Impact QM
Contact Us
ImpactQM is directed by Professor Ursula Martin.
The Advisory board includes representatives from EPSRC, Microsoft, NPL, Qinetiq and Rolls Royce.
If you would like to get involved in ImpactQM, or would like further information, please contact impactqm@eecs.qmul.ac.uk
@impactqmThe goal of ImpactQM is to provide opportunities to enhance transferable and career skills, and broaden students’ understanding of the context and impact of research.
We do this through partnerships with industry, the public sector and third stream organisations which embrace a variety of broad impacts of research, in addition to traditional technology transfer.
PhD students in the scheme augment their studies with an embedded fully-funded three-month external internship. Places are awarded competitively, based on the student’s vision of what an internship might achieve, and a supervisor’s report. Award winners are not spoon-fed, but offered a programme of mentoring and training, developed by Queen Mary’s Learning Institute, to support them in assessing and developing their skills; approaching partners; developing and executing their own successful internship; and following through after it ends.
The impact on the student, the partner, and future research, is evaluated through the student’s final report to the advisory board, which includes representatives from Microsoft, Rolls Royce and SMEs. This includes a follow-up plan for the student’s next steps, continuing relations with the partner, and the development of research, including a review of any possible technology transfer.
Around 20 PhD students a year have won places since 2009, with a 90 per cent success rate in finding placements in organisations such as Shell Global, GlaxoSmithKline, start-ups, consultancies, the Government Office for Science, and research charities. A variety of successful outcomes include new research, new external partnerships, and, from the first cohort, three permanent job offers so far.
Three years pilot funding for this, and other schemes, has come from Queen Mary’s £ 3 million EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account, with matching funding from industry partners. We expect to mainstream it from 2012, funded from our HEIF allocation.
ImpactQM Scholarships
The application process for this year’s ImpactQM scholarships has now closed. Congratulations to those PhD students who were successful in being awarded a scholarship.
Case Studies
Students and supervisors have responded enthusiastically, and both tell us they value the students’ improvements in confidence, motivation, networking and understanding how business thinks, as well as the new research opportunities.
Jonathan Dunn on his Collaborative Research Venture
Jonathan Dunn, a chemistry PhD student, successfully approached Cancer Research UK. He worked on a synthetic molecule for cancer treatment, improved his understanding of real-world drug discovery, and established a continuing collaboration.
Kotub Uddin on his work with Jaguar Landrover
Kotub Uddin, an astronomy PhD student, had little real-world experience, but a hunch that his mathematical skills might be transferable from galaxies to the motor industry. He was mentored in an approach to Jaguar, and his placement working on motion control systems was so successful he was offered a permanent job.
Cassian Edwards on his research with Emu Ltd
Cassian Edwards, a Biological and Chemical Sciences PhD student, was awarded an ImpactQM scholarship for a collaborative venture with marine consultancy company Emu Ltd. While there he had the opportunity to apply his skills in statistical methods to compare various ecological surveying methods, and has since taken up a permanent position at Emu Ltd.
Rita Jorge on her work with GO Science
Rita Jorge is a PhD student in the School of Biological and Chemical Science. She was awarded an ImpactQM scholarship for a collaborative venture she is planning to do at The Government Office for Science where she will work on science policy projects.
