Third corporate plan September 1991

The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) published its first Corporate Plan in 1985 and its second in 1989. This third plan comes at a time of considerable change for the Council. Funding is tightly constrained, with the costs of research rising. Changes in funding patterns have made the pursuit of research in the higher-education sector - where the SERC deploys much of its resource -much harder, yet major new challenges and opportunities are opening up. The refocusing of a large organisation like the SERC is not accomplished overnight and needs careful preparation. This plan is therefore an interim document describing some important decisions recently taken and the reviews now being carried out to set future priorities. A fourth plan, to be published early in 1993, will describe the outcome of this reappraisal and set a definitive path towards the end of the century. The aims for the following programmes are stated and the funding objectives stated: the science board materials commission, engineering board, astronomy and planetary science board, nuclear physics board, fellowships, central computing, repayment work administration. Corporate plan actions for the neutron facilities, nuclear structure research, particle physics, information technology, engineering and international cooperation are presented. The impact of the reused plan on the manpower requirements is discussed. (author)