Digital Research and Innovation Board Terms of Reference

The Digital Research and Innovation Board (DRB) is the governance and oversight body for data, compute, and software intensive research in UCL.

The DRB is the oversight body for the UCL Advanced Research Computing Centre (UCL ARC), UCL’s centre for research, teaching, innovation and services in Computational Science and Digital Scholarship. [1]It is the governance and oversight body for the UCL Digital Research and Innovation Change Portfolio, scrutinising progress and reviewing activities, and has spend approval authority for that portfolio for costs above the delegated authority threshold for the Portfolio Owner (the ARC Director Professor James Hetherington).

An important part of UCL’s strategy for ARC is synergy between ARC-led research in the methods of digital science and scholarship and the provision of services and platforms enabling data and compute intensive research across all UCL Faculties. The Board will review & comment on the interface between service delivery, research, teaching and collaborations, and scrutinise the success of this strategy.

The Digital Research and Innovation Board (DRB) reports to the UCL Change and Digital Committee, (chaired by  Professor Paola Lettieri – UCL's Vice-Provost (Strategy)) and to the University Management Committee Sponsor for the portfolio,  Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost RIGE (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement).

The DRB is a stakeholder group whose broad representation of representatives have the authority to vote on matters discussed by the Board. Board members include:

• The Chair of DRB, currently Professor Lynn Ang, who is the representative of and appointed by the Vice-Provost for Research, Innovation. and Global Engagement.
  • When an urgent decision is needed, in between meetings, the Chair will circulate an email to consult members, with a deadline for response and a recommended decision. The Chair's decision will apply following consultation.
  • In the event of Chair's absence, a DRB member (normally a faculty nominee) will be nominated to hold delegated authority for Chair's actions.
  • If the Chair is absent and a delegated authority has not been defined, delegated authority will be held by the Portfolio Owner and Director of ARC.
• The Director, Advanced Research Computing (UCL ARC), and portfolio Owner.
• Chair or similar of any community groups created through the portfolio[2].
• A representative of each faculty, nominated by Vice Deans (Research).
• Membership representing relevant research-related professional service teams.

All members are voting members. A quorum of a majority of faculty representatives, plus the chair and portfolio owner is required. Proposals for new membership will from time to time be recommended by faculties or the ARC Director and authorised by the Chair (or the Vice Chair if the Chair is absent) to ensure cross-faculty balance.

To deliver on this remit the board will:

• Meet once per term (normally around March / June / September / December).
• Review and recommend amendment to UCL’s strategies related to Digital Research,
• Review and approve or recommend amendment to UCL ARC’s Strategies, Roadmaps, and the funnel/backlog prioritisation criteria.  
• Charge UCL ARC with the development of any papers or reports that may be needed to inform discussion and decision making.
• Advise UCL ARC on changes to priorities and activities that are relevant to ARC.
• Receive reports and updates on work funded by the Portfolio and vote on whether to approve these.
• Receive reports and updates on previously approved business cases, particularly on the stated benefits within the business cases and progress in realising these benefits.
• Scrutinise performance and reliability of ARC services and give feedback and recommendations. 
• Approve or reject business cases for spend from the Digital Research and Innovation Portfolio fund which are above delegated authority thresholds held by the Portfolio Owner. These thresholds are set by the Change and Digital Committee, based on cross-portfolio norms.[3]
• Make recommendations to CDC for budget allocation across proposed business cases and on overall budget allocation to the Digital Research Portfolio.
• Monitor ongoing spend and budget of the Portfolio.
• Maintain oversight of the major risks to UCL ARC by reviewing proposals for their control and mitigation and monitoring their implementation
• Monitor success of initiatives sponsored through the portfolio, such as funding calls and conferences.
• Propose new areas for change initiatives.

The process flow for the selection, development and approval of Portfolio business cases is as follows:

1. Proposals for investment may originate as university or faculty strategic concerns, or are sourced from members of UCL’s academic and researcher community groups across all Faculties, ARC staff, members of DRB, the Digital Strategy Committee (DSC), faculty research IT professionals and others. These are held in the Digital Research and Innovation Portfolio "funnel" which is used to capture all new digital research computing ideas from these sources.
2. The portfolio team will, on a quarterly basis, consult with user communities, review the funnel’s backlog, consider UCL’s strategic priorities and recommend to the Board investment areas for prioritisation.
3. Feasibility of delivery and resourcing for prioritised features is assessed at the UCL digital technology Termly Increment Planning event (“TI Planning”), to which community group stakeholders are invited.
4. Business cases (LBCs, lean business cases) are prepared on the basis of strategic priority and resourcing.
5. Business cases above delegated authority thresholds are reviewed by DRB and approved or rejected.
6. The DOB is quorate when 50% of voting members are present.
7. Participation of Board representatives will be reviewed regularly to ensure positive and proactive representation of all parts of the university. Board members are expected to participate in meetings once per semester or send a delegate.
8. Expediated business cases may, from time to time, be reviewed by the DRB within a 2-day timescale via digital communication tools (e.g. Email or MS Teams) and approved or rejected via Chair’s action.

The ToR will be reviewed by the Chair in consultation with the Board at the beginning of each academic year.

Last update: 11^th February 2025