Thank you to everyone who joined the March All staff Executive Briefing. Once again, we had a great number of you taking part, from across our campuses. We will be planning some further interesting and important topics for future sessions and I am grateful for the ideas shared around future topics. As always, the slides and a recording of the session will soon be available on the SharePoint site, along with all the discussion.
It has been a landmark week for the National Robotarium, as we break ground on the construction of what will be a 40,000 ft² centre of excellence for Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Human and Robotics Interaction and High Precision Manufacturing. Establishing this facility on the Heriot-Watt campus, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, not only showcases our world-class abilities but puts the city of Edinburgh – and Scotland – in the global leadership spotlight for such a societally important field. I, for one, am very much looking forward to hearing about the research that will be a focus over the years ahead, and its applications on a global scale. Like all of our Global Research Institutes, it will need to play out in the research, education and policy fields.
This week has marked the introduction and go-live for our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for HR, a massive piece of work that enables a global system for our Human Resources activities. Thanks to the teams who have worked so hard to release this on time, giving us a properly connected and modern system. This week we have also had the first of our highly interactive sessions kicking off our new Annual Planning Process (“AP2.0”) across the schools and services – one colleague described this session “as truly refreshing in its style and to see ideas and co-working coming out of this new approach.” It is part of fulfilling our engagement with people across the University that space is found for genuine listening and crafting of future ideas. I know there is a lot still to do, but in taking these steps, we work toward clarity and understanding for all on our priorities and key objectives. And it gives the platform to discuss and agree on ways of working, new ideas and to consolidate the global collaboration that has been evident over the recent past. I’m sure we will hear much more about this as the process continues and as we reach agreements on investment and key projects for the future. In future Exec Meetings, we will keep track of how all this is going.
And while both of these exciting developments are very much about looking forward, I’m keen to recognise and acknowledge the vast amount of work that has gone into supporting our staff and students during the pandemic and the strides we have taken that will benefit us for some time to come. It has been almost a year now since the first lockdown and I don’t think any amount of scenario planning – across any organisation, I suspect – could have predicted or prepared us for the effects of a global pandemic. And I know you have heard me say before how proud I am of how we responded – across our University community – to some very challenging conditions. This week I spoke to Kathy McCabe, Global Director of Information Services, Iain Young, Head of Research Support and Resource Services, and Campbell Powrie, Deputy Registrar and Head of our Student Life Services – three very important roles in helping to support and enable our staff and students to continue their learning regardless of the restrictions placed upon us all. With very different roles, and a broad and, frankly quite diverse, range of responsibilities, our discussion covers not only the overarching principle under which we were able to achieve this, but also down to the detail of day-to-day practicalities that needed to be in place to make it all work. You can hear about all those areas here. I’m sure there were decisions made and actions taken that none of us had even thought possible, or necessary – before last year!
Next week we celebrate International Women’s Day and I would encourage you all to look at the information and online events we have and to join in the discussion where possible. I will be speaking more about this across the month as we celebrate the diversity and inclusion of our own community.
Professor Richard A. Williams
Principal and Vice-Chancellor