Alvey Directorate
Between April and September 1982, the Alvey Committee formulated the
research programme that was submitted to Kenneth Baker on 3 September 1982.
The Alvey Directorate was established by mid-1983.
The major events over that period were:
- the SERC original plan for an IKBS-led programme was changed to a broader-based programme
based on four technologies with members of the Committee taking the lead in each:
- VLSI: Derek Roberts
- Software Engineering: Philip Hughes
- IKBS: Charles Read
- Man Machine Interaction (MMI): Colin Hayley
- The VLSI programme was a modification of the UK's input to ESPRIT
- The Software Engineering programme drew on the Software Technology Initiative and the ESPRIT
software technology strategy
- The IKBS programme was significantly influenced by SERC's proposed SPP in IKBS
- The MMI programme was the one that was devised almost from scratch.
- The Alvey Report was published on 6 October 1982.
- Kenneth Baker presented it to industry at an IT82 event at the Barbican Centre in December
- Mrs Thatcher accepted the proposals on the 28 April 1983.
-
Brian Oakley, who was at the time Secretary of SERC, became Director of the Alvey Programme
in May 1983 with Laurence Clarke, GEC, as his deputy. Laurence had been Chairman of SRC's Information Engineering Committee.
- The Directors of the four programmes and the infrastructure were:
- IKBS: David Thomas from SERC, previously Head of Technology at RAL supported by Bill Sharpe of Informatics
- Software Engineering: David Talbot from ICL with Rob Witty from Informatics as his Deputy
- VLSI: Bill Fawcett from RSRE
- MMI: Chris Barrow from Plessey
- Infrastructure: Derek Barber
- The Programme put together 210 projects lasting on average 3 years and involving 2500 people at its peak.