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Executive Summary next up previous contents
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Executive Summary

This report provides background information about the Armagh Observatory and a summary of the Observatory's principal achievements in research and other areas during the reporting period, which is the Calendar Year 2002. For convenience, all financial matters in the report are taken to refer to the corresponding Financial Year 2002/2003, i.e. 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003.

Staff at the Observatory attracted external income totalling £ 315,000 during this period (a record £306,000 in external grant receipts), and published more than 30 papers in refereed scientific journals during the year. This is a fraction of their total research output. In the same period, staff made 71 presentations at specialist and non-specialist meetings, arranged some 30 seminars at the Observatory, and attracted 267 identified citations in various mass-media including the national and international press, radio and television. The Observatory is a significant information resource, its principal web-sites (http://star.arm.ac.uk/, http://climate.arm.ac.uk/ and http://arpc65.arm.ac.uk/ ) together attracting in excess of 354,000 distinct e-visitors during the same period. The number of `hits' (i.e. successful page requests) on the Observatory's web-sites during this period was in excess of 5.5 million.


Table 1: The yearly trend of various performance indicators together with the total DCAL grant income received for the corresponding financial year, including slippage funding, and the announced budget for 2003/2004. Targets for calendar year 2003 (financial year 2003/2004) are expressed in round figures.
             
  External Refereed Identified Distinct   Total DCAL
Calendar Year Grant Income Journal Media e-Visitors RAE Grade Grant Income
  (£000s) Publications Citations (DEVs)   (£000s)
             
1992     -   4 457.3
1993 35 13 -     445.0
1994 58 22 11     425.6
1995 172 19 14     468.5
1996 264 45 45   4 480.0
1997 275 42 108 66,000   473.2
1998 195 43 147 80,000   443.0
1999 293 32 233 134,000   458.5
2000 212 31 233 174,000   538.5
2001 221 32 302 318,000 4 713.5
2002 306 33 267 354,000   733.5
2003 Targets: 250 33 200 370,000   666.5


Table 1 shows the yearly trend of various performance indicators. Whilst devoting considerable effort to restoring several historic telescopes and telescope domes, and so improving the fabric of the main Grade A listed building, Armagh Observatory staff have maintained a substantial level of research activity. The Observatory has also maintained an exceptionally high public profile at national and international level. For a group that currently comprises only 5 Research Astronomers, the frequency with which it or members of staff appear in or are quoted in newspapers and other types of mass-media is probably second to none. During each of the past five years tens of millions of people have probably been exposed to reports of astronomy at Armagh.

The significant interest shown by the mass media in the Observatory's work is an indication of the wider public interest in astronomy and space science, and reflects well the activities of both the Armagh Observatory and its core funding agency, the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), presenting them both in a very positive light. The Armagh Observatory thus makes a valuable contribution to projecting a positive image of Armagh City and District -- and of Northern Ireland -- on the world stage.

Efforts continued throughout 2002 to widen the Observatory's access to third-level research funding opportunities similar in character, if not identical, to those available to university and other third-level research groups against which the Observatory's research output is frequently compared, for example through the quality of published work or in the periodic Research Assessment Exercise. The Observatory's senior management, leading members of the UK astronomical community and the DCAL have been extremely supportive in assisting efforts to widen the Observatory's access to research development funds so as to increase the Observatory's capacity for scientific research and strengthen its research infrastructure, but these efforts have so far been to no avail.

The Observatory's principal objectives during the coming year 2003/2004 are to:

Apart from maintaining the level and quality of astronomical research carried out at the Observatory, the key task for the year is to continue to work with the DCAL to widen the Observatory's access to research development funds. A successful result in this area would enable the Observatory to recruit three additional research astronomers, thereby maintaining the number of active research staff at the level entered in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It would of course be preferable to increase the number of research astronomers further, to strengthen the Observatory's position in the next RAE, expected to take place during the period 2005-2008. Additional research astronomers would give the Observatory the capacity not just to respond more flexibly to new research funding opportunities as and when they occur, but to operate more effectively as an independent research institute in an increasingly competitive sector.

Appended to this report for Calendar Year 2002 (Financial Year 2002/2003) are lists covering (A) Membership of the Management Committee and Board of Governors, (B) Staff Members, (C) Refereed Journal Publications, (D) Lectures and Seminars presented by Observatory Staff, (E) Seminars held at the Armagh Observatory, and (F) Identified Media Citations. The Observatory's New TSN Action Plan for 2002 is included as Appendix G.

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