2. Terms of reference and method of working

The present organisation and policy of SERC's Central Computing Committee is based upon the report of the working Party on computing which was chaired by Professor Elliott in 1980. Most of the recommendations of that report have either been implemented or are included in the Five Year Forward Look (FYFL) plans submitted by the Central Computing Committee for the 1983 forward Look exercise. The Central Computing Committee therefore decided, at its meeting on 27th April 1983, that a new review was required in preparation for the next FYFL, and agreed that a Working Party should be set up to review Central Computing Committee's policy. It was agreed that the Working Party would need to look at computing in a national context, as the provision made for research computing in universities through the Computer Board and the UGC exceeded the amount provided by SERC and so would have to be taken fully into account in any SERC review. Because of the Working Party's broad remit the Computer Board was asked to nominate two representatives to sit on it. In order to keep the membership to a minimum it was decided that other interested bodies should be asked to submit written information. The Working Party did not, in the time available, address the problems of research computing provision for the polytechnics, although their general problems are covered in discussion of university provision.

2.1 Terms of Reference

The terms of reference and membership of the Review Working Party were as follows:

1. to review the provision of computing facilities and computing support by the SERC taking into account particularly:
   1. the requirements of the scientific and engineering programmes of Council;
   2. the impact of current technical developments;
   3. the Computer Board's plan for the provision of computing facilities for research in the universities;
   4. the efficient use of manpower and money including the efficiency of the users;
   5. the balance between computing facilities provided centrally and locally in the universities;
   6. the requirements for co-ordination of software;
   7. the possibility of nationally adopted common base policies for hardware and software;
   8. the Computer Board's plans for networking and the likely rapid development or networking capabilities;
   9. the likely increased use of computing and networking in electronic mail and office automation;
   10. the desirability of promoting closer links between SERC and the UK computer industry;
2. to provide strategic plans for the financial support of computing within SERC and to suggest ways of collaborating more closely with the Computer Board in planning such provision;
3. to report to the Central Computing Committee with a view to the report being forwarded to Council together with the recommendations of the Committee and the comments of Boards and Committees.

2.2 Membership of the Working Party

• Professor A. G. J. MacFarlane (Cambridge University), Chairman
• Professor A. J. Forty (Warwick University), Computer Board Representative
• Professor F. G. Heath (Heriot-Watt University), Computer Board Representative
• Dr. G. Manning (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
• Professor F. H. Sumner (Manchester University)
• Professor M. Wells (Leeds University)
• Ms. C. A. Iddon (SERC Central Office), Secretary

2.3 Method of working

The Working Party met six times. Three of these meetings were held in conjunction with visits to Daresbury Laboratory (DL), and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC). During these visits the Review Working Party met with users to obtain their views on future computing requirements and on the provision of computing. Users who were unable to attend these meetings wrote to the Working Party with their views. Presentations were also made by RAL, Daresbury Laboratory and ULCC computing staff. At the meeting at Daresbury Laboratory, submissions were also received from the Nuclear Structure Committee (NSC) and Synchrotron Radiation Facility Committee (SRFC) Working Parties.

Written information was obtained from the four SERC Boards setting out their views on future computing needs. The Science Board's Computing Committee Chairman also made a presentation to the Working party.

As the Working Party's remit included administrative computing, a submission was provided by the Steering Committee on Administrative Computing and Office Automation detailing its proposals for dealing with administrative computing and with the envisaged expenditure and computer capacity required over the next few years.

As well as the submissions which were requested by the Working party relevant background information that was already available was collected and considered.

The Working Party wrote to the Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils (ABRC), the Computer Board (CB), the University Grants Committee (UGC), the Head of the Alvey Directorate and the Secretaries of Agriculture and Food Research Council (AFRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) seeking their views on the possible options that the working Party might recommend.

The submissions and information which were received and considered by the Working Party are either attached as appendices to the report or are mentioned at appropriate points in the text.