PPD Staff Meeting (23 March 2010) Norman McCubbin Director of Particle Physics Department.

PPD Staff MeetingPPD Staff Meeting(23 March 2010) (23 March 2010)

Norman McCubbin

Director of Particle Physics Department

PPD Staff Meeting; 23 March 20102

TopicsTopics

• H&S (Martin Gibson); SSC (Fred Wickens); Update on STFC and PPD issues (me); Towards future detector R&D activities (Mike Tyndel).

• Arrivals and departures; • BluePrint: news on “Infrastructure” project;• APRs this year;• STFC developments in last 6 months;• Update on PPGP Rolling Grant Round and “re-

prioritisation” and impact on PPD.• Aim to leave adequate time for discussion and Q+A,

immediately after my talk, and can also continue after Mike T’s talk.

• [I am not going to talk about science: LHC re-start, T2K first events….., unfortunately, as there is more pressing “other stuff”. ]


Arrivals + DeparturesArrivals + Departures

• During calendar 2008 the “head count” was 20 departures and 7 arrivals.

• During calendar 2009: 10 departures and 14 arrivals.

• Since start of 2010: Jennifer Telling has left, and we’ve learned that Alan Doo will be moving (within STFC), and Cathryn Laue will stop working for us when the FNAL liaison office closes.

• And we welcome David Petyt (1-year appointment) on CMS, based at CERN.

• ..and, not a departure, but rather “end of an era”: Mary Elizabeth will return from CERN this August, after running the UKLO for 27 years!


BluePrint BluePrint

• See http://hepwww.rl.ac.uk/ppd/blueprint/ , which is the BluePrint page for PPD (with lots of links to the wider BlueWorld), which Dave Cockerill updates periodically.

• Just to mention the IT “management” part of infrastructure. (This is IT “across the organisation”, so not Tier-1, Tier-2 and experiment-specific computing.)

• Two new committees (replacing previous committees):

• IMTSOC: Strategy and Oversight: Dave Sankey is deputy to Peter Allan, SSTD.

• ITOB: IT Operations: Chris Brew is a member.

• These do affect our lives: eg “legacy email addresses” – but I don’t want to start a discussion on that!


APRs APRs

• As you know, SSC includes a new process for “delivering” APRs, using SSC/Oracle.

• The new system is very different from the e-APR system we have used for several years, and is also rather ‘klunky’.

• After lots of discussion (Working Group, Ops Board, User testing), it has been agreed that departments can choose how to complete the 2009/10 appraisal, but all STFC will use the new system to input 2010/11 objectives and L&D.

• For PPD, it was easy to decide that we will use the familiar Word document (from the e-APR system) for the 2009/10 appraisal (sections 1-5)…

• …and will learn (like the rest of STFC) how to fill in objectives and L&D in new system.

• We won’t have the old sharepoint system as repository/control of the Word document, but it’s not difficult to handle between reportee/LM/SLM.

• More details soon…


STFC over last 6 months (1) STFC over last 6 months (1)

• As the 2009 PPGP Rolling Grants (RG) process was coming to an end (in late summer 2009), STFC realised that a hard look at 2010/11 finances was required, and this triggered the “re-prioritisation” of “all” PPAN and PALS activities. (This was getting under way at the time of the last departmental meeting: see slides.)

• The “re-prioritisation” process provided input to the STFC Council meeting in December, which led to the announcement of severe cuts to the science programme. The severity of the cuts was alleviated somewhat by the “last-minute” £14M “rescue package” from the other RCs. (For the full, official version, see in.brief, staff fora, news from Council etc etc.)

• The time-table for implementing the re-prioritised programme, eg in terms of announcement of (delayed) Rolling Grants, caused further anguish, and led to Science Programme Office being “bounced” (as they would see it) into announcing grants by mid-March. This has been achieved, but has consequences, as discussed later.


STFC over last 6 months (2) STFC over last 6 months (2)

• Meanwhile… the Science Minister came to the conclusion that handling the combination of grants to universities plus international subscriptions (CERN, ESA, ESO, ..) plus domestic facilities (ISIS, Diamond, CLF) was too much for a single research council , and he launched the Sterling-Drayson “review”.

• Drayson announced outcome of this review on 4th March. Key points:– For 2010/11 STFC will be “protected” from exchange-rate effects in a

fashion similar to 2009/10 and before;– For 2011/12 onwards, BIS is “looking at managing the currency risks

better”, and will work closely with the Bank of England to this end;– Funding for domestic facilities will still be routed through STFC, but

the level of that funding will be set in consultation with RCUK, and managed separately.

• And, as a result of another Drayson initiative, the ESA subscription will be handled by a new Space Agency, which is being announced today (23rd March).

• Looking ahead to next CSR, (2011/12, 12/13, 13/14), STFC is launching an internal exercise on how to cope with “efficiency savings” of ~2.5% per annum. (I heard about this for first time last Friday; much detail lacking...)


From Oct 2009 meeting: From Oct 2009 meeting: PPGP 2009 round (4)PPGP 2009 round (4)

• As with previous similar difficulties, we will tackle this as a Department: we are all in this together.

• I have urged upon RW and WJW the need for a thought-through, strategic approach.

• A strong PPD, which enhances UK PP, needs to be “staffed and led by scientists motivated to carry out research in particle physics”. (Recommendation 1 in Action plan arising from Mason Audit.)

• We will surely have to handle some cut in our PPGP support, by increasing other support (PPRP, and… ), by some moving around of who does what, by some people doing (some) non-PPD work, and I cannot of course rule out a redundancy exercise.

• The PPD leadership (Division Heads, group leaders) will strive for best possible outcome.

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PPGP and “re-prioritisation” (1)PPGP and “re-prioritisation” (1)

• After the PPGP announcement in October 2009:– we (= Div Heads, group leaders) have done some re-arrangement of

effort (move effort to other projects, move effort from PPGP to PPRP);– Bids submitted to EU and ERC, and we already have some positive

results there (Marie Curie, EU/FP7: AIDA). • The “re-prioritisation” :

– stopped certain future projects (eg Dark Matter after Zeplin III), at least for now;

– applied a 10% cut to the PPGP Rolling Grant award to universities for the period after October 2010;

– …but for PPD this PPGP cut is at least 15%!! – I have received no satisfactory explanation of the basis for this.– SPO tried to help, by inviting projects to meet the total cut, and to treat

the differing cut levels from the re-prioritisation as notional.– This had some success (thanks!), though not in the largest projects.

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• As I indicated in October, PPD faces a funding shortfall of ~15 fte wef April 2010. This includes the cuts from the initial PPGP award (after “re-arrangement” of effort mentioned above) plus the “stopped projects” from the re-prioritisation, but not the additional ~15% PPGP cut that kicks in from October 2010. (~3fte)

• We must also expect that we will not get everything requested in future PPRP bids, eg LHC upgrades.

• On the ‘plus’ side, we have not yet deployed (in the planning spreadsheet) all our funding (eg CMS upgrade), and we will get something from AIDA (EU/FP7) and we may get something from the ERC bids.

• Help via Detector Centre?? See Mike T’s talk. • In addition, SPO is exploring possibilities of UK effort carrying out

work for CERN, eg in computing. • However, it is clear that we (PPD and STFC) face an exceptionally

difficult situation. • And there is understandable concern about the next CSR.

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• Working with Division Heads, I have written a near-to-final note to Wade/Womersley analysing the short-term situation for 2010/11, and suggesting a basis for discussing a fairer long-term basis for PPD funding – a discussion suggested by the PPGP.

• We have started seeking and finding solutions, and will of course continue, with the support of senior management in STFC.

• I have no doubt about that support in principle (see eg Wade at recent Staff Forum): the “devil is in the (financial) detail”, as there is unquestionably a tough year (2010/11) coming up.

• My original plan was to retire at end June 2010, but I have consistently said I would not leave (unless requested to do so.. ) until we are in calmer waters. (However, I should leave long before the 2012 PPGP round.)

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PPD Staff Meeting (23 March 2010) Norman McCubbin Director of Particle Physics Department.

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Transcript of PPD Staff Meeting (23 March 2010) Norman McCubbin Director of Particle Physics Department.