December 15, 2014

Email sent by Martin Wilkins to Stefan Grimm - Imperial College

Email 1
Date: 10 March 2014


Dear Stefan

I am writing following our recent meetings in which we discussed your current grant support and the prospects for the immediate future. The last was our discussion around your PRDP, which I have attached.

As we discussed, any significant external funding you had has now ended. I know that you have been seeking further funding support with Charities such as CRUK and the EU commission but my concern is that despite submitting many grants, you have been unsuccessful in persuading peer-review panels that you have a competitive application. Your dedication to seek funding is not in doubt but as time goes by, this can risk becoming a difficult situation from which to extricate oneself. In other words, grant committees can become fatigued from seeing a series of unsuccessful applications from the same applicant.

I am of the opinion that you are struggling to fulfill the metrics of a Professorial post at Imperial College which include maintaining established funding in a programme of research with an attributable share of research spend of £200k p.a and must now start to give serious consideration as to whether you are performing at the expected level of a Professor at Imperial College.

Over the course of the next 12 months I expect you to apply and be awarded a programme grant as lead PI. This is the objective that you will need to achieve in order for your performance to be considered at an acceptable standard. I am committed to doing what I can to help you succeed and will meet with you monthly to discuss your progression and success in achieving the objective outlined.  You have previously initiated discussions in our meetings regarding opportunities outside of Imperial College and I know you have been exploring opportunities elsewhere. Should this be the direction you wish to pursue, then I will do what I can to help you succeed.

Please be aware that this constitutes the start of informal action in relation to your performance, however should you fail to meet the objective outlined, I will need to consider your performance in accordance with the formal College procedure for managing issues of poor performance (Ordinance ­D8) which can be found at the following link. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/collegegovernance/provisions/ordinances/d8

Should you have any questions on the above, please do get in touch.

Best wishes
Martin

From: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/imperial-college-professor-stefan-grimm-was-given-grant-income-target/2017369.article

5 comments:

UUBULLYING said...

THE TREATMENT OF PROFESSOR GRIMM IS AN OUTRAGE.

AT BULSTER WE HAVE HAD SEVERAL ACADEMIC STAFF WHOSE SUICIDE WAS ATTRIBUTED BY THE STAFF COMMUNITY TO MANAGEMENT BULLING.

HOWEVER, FOR CLARIFICATION, NONE OF THE MANAGEMENT DUNCES @ BULSTER COULD ATTAIN THE HIGH STANDARDS UNFAIRLY EXPECTED OF PROF GRIMM BUT DESPITE THIS WE HAVE HAD HYPOCRITICAL MANAGERS IMPOSING SUCH GRANT DEMANDS ON STAFF WHEN THEY COULD NOT MEET SAME THEMSELVES.

I APPEAL TO US ALL AS A COMMUNITY DEEPLY WORRIED BY ACADEMIC BULLYING, THAT WE REMEMBER PROF GRIMM IN AN APPROPRIATE WAY. HIS TRAGIC LOSS MOST SERVE TO REMIND US OF THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR STRUGGLE, AND OUR DEEP AND HEATFELT SYMPATHIES ARE WITH PROF GRIMM'S FAMILY

HE WILL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN

LETS CHALLENGE THE BULLYS

Anonymous said...

Further proof that post-secondary institutions are only concerned with money-harvesting.

Anonymous said...

It should be kept in mind that universities are money machines, part of the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned everyone about. And their existence depends largely on donors who work for various interests, as well as corporations who sponsor their research, including the US Naval and FBI, and various automotive giants.

We'd like to think that univesities are a safe haven for people to go to to become elightened about the world, a place that molds young men and women into wise adults. But the reality is that they too, sadly, are money machines who are not immune to the infiltrations of the evil aspects of capitalist societies. I think that's where the targeting of certain faculty and students is coming into play. So sad, because universities could be a beautiful place to learn and grow into a wise, enlightentened adult.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the article, especially with the observation that universities are not accountable in terms of their compliance with the employment law, at least, this seems to be the case in the UK. There are regulatory bodies which monitor various aspects of the operation of universities. For example HEFCE is monitoring how universities spend public funds, another one is responsible for assuring the quality of courses offered by universities and protecting the rights of students. However - to the best of my knowledge - there is no regulatory body which would monitor whether universities operate in compliance with employment law. I think this is a huge problem and setting up a regulatory body checking universities compliance with employment law would improve the situation a lot. The problem currently is that there are universities, which are in breach of the law, for example in their handling of their fixed-term members of staff, on an institutional level. In such cases, those employees, who have been treated unlawfully by the univerity, can go to an employment tribunal only addressing his/her individual case, despite the fact that it is not an individual problem, but a fault in the system, which can be for example a lack of certain policies. In such cases the employment tribunal cannot examine the operation of the university as a whole, but can only focus on the individual case. And then, even if the employee wins in the case, the system level fault and breach of law in the university's operation remains, and several other members can fall victims of it in the future. Out of which only very few will take the university to a tribunal and win again, so overall it is still worth for the university to maintain its unlawful system.

Anonymous said...

HOW CAN THIS B...D.....WRITE TO A COLLEAGUE WITH SUCH A THREATENING LETTER AND SIGN OFF "BEST WISHES"....THESE MANAGERS REALLY ARE SOCIO-PATHS.....