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Report of the General Board on the establishment of Royal Society Professorships and related matters

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. For many years the Council of the Royal Society have awarded Research Professorships to individuals of proven ability to enable them to undertake independent, original research. Under new arrangements for the Royal Society Research Professorships scheme, introduced in 1995-96, the holders of such Professorships are employees of the host university; the award covers an initial period of Royal Society funding (normally ten to fifteen years) and the host university is required to provide an assurance that, on the expiry of that funding, the holder of the Research Professorship will be able to occupy an established Professorship with tenure to the retiring age. The Royal Society Research Professorships are highly competitive, prestigious awards and the University has gained considerable benefit from the presence of Royal Society Professors in Cambridge. In their Notice, dated 21 March 2001, on appointments to unestablished posts at the level of Professor and Reader (Reporter, p. 552) the Board emphasized the need for the University to have appropriate arrangements, consistent with the Statutes and Ordinances, to enable such awards to be held in Cambridge.

2. The Board are pleased to announce that the Royal Society has made the following awards tenable from 1 October 2001: a Research Professorship to Professor C. M. Bate, Department of Zoology; and the Royal Society Napier Research Professorship to Professor A. Kouzarides, Department of Pathology and Wellcome/CRC Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology.

3. The Royal Society have agreed to provide funding for Professor Bate's Professorship for a maximum of eight years, subject to review after the first five years. The Board propose that Professor Bate's existing Professorship be retitled the Royal Society Professor of Developmental Neurobiology for the duration of his tenure.

4. The Royal Society have agreed to provide funding for Professor Kouzarides' Professorship for a maximum of twelve years, subject to review after the first five years. The Board now propose the establishment of a Royal Society Napier Professorship of Cancer Biology in the Department of Pathology for Professor Kouzarides. The Head of the Department of Pathology has undertaken to meet the cost of the Professorship on the expiry of Royal Society funding.

5. The Royal Society have also agreed to extend until 30 September 2007 the tenure of the Royal Society Professorship which Professor Sir Martin Rees has held since 1992. This appointment was made on an unestablished basis under the arrangements which formerly obtained for Royal Society Professors prior to 1996. In the light of the review of their policy on unestablished posts at professorial level, the Board consider it would now be appropriate to establish a Professorship for Professor Rees for the remainder of his tenure.

6. The General Board recommend:

I.  That a Royal Society Napier Research Professorship of Cancer Biology be established for Professor A. Kouzarides from 1 October 2001, assigned to the Department of Pathology, and placed in Schedule B of the Statutes.

II. That a Royal Society Professorship of Cosmology and Astrophysics be established for Professor Sir Martin Rees for the period from 1 October 2001 until 30 September 2007, assigned to the Institute of Astronomy, and placed in Schedule B of the Statutes.

III. That the title of the Professorship of Developmental Neurobiology in the Department of Zoology held by Professor C. M. Bate be changed to the Royal Society Professorship of Developmental Neurobiology from 1 October 2001 and for the remainder of Professor Bate's tenure.

 

11 July 2001 ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor MALCOLM GRANT A. C. MINSON
  P. J. BAYLEY J. C. GRAY KATE PRETTY
  N. BULLOCK BRIAN F. G. JOHNSON M. SCHOFIELD
  KEITH GLOVER PETER LIPTON  

 


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Cambridge University Reporter, 25 July 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.