Consultancy & services

Consulting activity is one of the important means by which University staff can make available their knowledge and expertise to government, public sector organisations, community groups and business. This also benefits the University, as staff bring back insights, experiences and contacts, and consultancies may lead to long-term collaboration and relationships.

Council Regulations 5 of 2004 set out the conditions under which University employees may conduct work outside the University, including consulting.

Departments have expertise in highly specialised areas and often have access to instrumentation or facilities which are difficult to find elsewhere. Outside bodies (usually companies) often wish to take advantage of these facilities by paying for a department to undertake services work.

Examples of services work include a company paying for NMR spectroscopy to analyse their compounds or paying a department's technicians to construct some specialised instrumentation.