£250,000 A Year In Research Grants

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 14

£250,000 A Year In Research Grants

By the end of this quinquennium, research grants of the University Grants Committee would total £250,000 a year but there were already applications for grants three times as great in value, said Professor J. Packer, a member of the Research Grants Committee of the U.G.C., last evening.

He was speaking at a ceremony to start a £lO,OOO universal fatigue testing machine provided by such a grant to the mechanical engineering department of the University of Canterbury. Professor Packer said these grants were additional to funds provided in the quinquennial grants to universities. To ensure good value and priority for work of greatest importance, his committee made a point of examining all research proposals on the spot. Happily, many projects were of benefit to industry but the University Grants Committee was concerned to see that research also advanced scholarship, he said. Professor R. J. Rastrick, head of the mechanical engineering department, said that fatigue in humans was quickly repaired by rest. In engineering, fatigue almost inevitably resulted in fractures or failures. This was

costly and the value of research and the new machine was obvious.

Mr T. Hyde, whose firm paid half the cost of bringing a technician from Germany to install the machine and also sponsored last evening’s ceremony, said these gestures were in appreciation of the University of Canterbury. Since he was a student, the university had. made “fantastic development” and assistance to the community was a notable feature. “Community interests appreciate this and show it financially,” said Mr Hyde.