Planning the End Before You Start Anticipating the
Planning the End Before You Start: Anticipating the death of the project! Professor John Wood 24 October 2011, Trieste
Most projects have a finite life • Research has a natural lifecycle, so be realistic about this. Do not keep an RI beyond its useful life (e. g. telescopes) • Many governments will have booked the capital investment as an asset that depreciates over time. • Check this and the impact of any upgrades to the project or significant investment during the life which will have increased the depreciation time
Closing Daresbury, Building Diamond • 25 years old Daresbury SRS was due to be replaced by the new synchrotron source at the Rutherford-Appleton laboratory (North v South of England) • Extremely sensitive political decision as to when to close the SRS! • Local MPs fighting to keep it open and recent upgrades of the SRS meant it was expensive to shut down early. . .
Diamond • Set up as a separate not-for-profit company: 86% UK Government – 14% Wellcome Trust • Became liable for VAT at 17. 5% on top of £ 256 million initial investment! • 250 employees at SRS and Diamond started recruiting at construction some 6 years before the closure of Daresbury – the best scientists moved, depleting the capability of Daresbury • Diamond scientists were paid more and had better conditions • Decision when to shut Daresbury was to be taken by UK government, ignoring the scientific basis. . .
How to decide closure date and disposal of assets • The Research Council wanted to close 2 years earlier than the government, but without increased funding, they had to offset Treasury asset base if this was done as well as consider the political fall-out • Date and time of final announcement made with politicians and press • Up to 5 minutes before the announcement, the minister and I were discussing tactics. . .
Various Issues. . . • How do you keep a team together to close the RI? • There are long-term legacy issues: data, history, residual contamination • Remember the local schools and tradespeople. . . • Where radioactive components are involved, how is the long-term liability to be resolved?
More issues. . . • Impact of giving components to other parties • Who will continue to own the IPR, copyrights etc. ? • If countries are shareholders, then how is any residual value to be dispersed? • Often the host country accepts liability, but how will new generations of politicians accept this? • Retraining of staff and interacting with local companies/universities and councils • Handling international reputation • Returning site to pre-RI status • Capturing the history • For virtual RIs, who is really responsible and how will long term records be kept as media changes?
Thank You Professor John Wood 24 October 2011, Trieste
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