Cash fillip aims to boost Oxford Brookes' research base

Oxford Brookes University is taking £500,000 out of its recruitment chest to attract five new professors to bolster its research strengths, writes Tony Tysome.

It hopes that the posts in architecture, engineering, education, international relations and psychology, advertised in this week's Times Higher , will lead to the creation of new research teams and attract more funding from industry and through increased student numbers.

The professors will join established departments that the university plans to turn into flagship areas of international excellence.

Bob Price, director of human resources, said the university had earmarked a "significant sum" for the next three years to develop such areas while merging or closing weaker departments.

"Knowledge transfer is a strong feature of these departments. They are mostly oriented towards applied research and interaction with relevant industries."

In engineering, the university hopes to attract more industry cash for research in motorsport engineering. It has plans to open a £2 million motorsport engineering building.