VEAT NOTICE: Accommodation and IT costs for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring team at the University of Plymouth

VEAT NOTICE:

Option 1 – Stay at the University of Plymouth

The Programme has a long standing relationship with the University built over 16 years of collaborative working and have always been based at the University. The PCO team occupy an office in the Marine Building which is one of the marine research hubs of the University. They use IT leased university equipment which comes with all cyber/virus security, support (particularly useful during the decamp for remote working during C-19), backups and safe storage for their large data archive. It also includes free access to a global portfolio of scientific journals for which individual access to a portion of this would cost >£1500 per annum. PCO have access to academic and technical staff who provide time and advice willingly. The information exchange and ability for PCO to participate in discussion forums, including the highly active Coastal Process Research Group and COAST - Coastal, Ocean And Sediment Transport team, provides them access to up-to-date research and gives additional credibility to our work. The workshop/equipment store comes with access to the university’s tools and technical assistance – this was used to design and build the CoastSnap stands at cost price. The team’s survey area covers South Devon and South Cornwall so being based in Plymouth facilities that.

Option 2 – Move to another site in Plymouth

Cheaper rentals are available in Plymouth, however few come with the IT infrastructure, storage and IT servicing solutions and the team would lose access to the academic network they so greatly benefit from.

Option 3 – Move back to Forde House, Newton Abbot

This option would not only take the team away from their survey area, but it would also move their key place of work, which is stated as Plymouth in their contracts. The team would also lose the access to technical software that they need which is available on their University computers. They would not be able to access all the academic papers they need without significant costs, and it would adversely affect their ability to access and influence research.