| Description | Minutes of meetings of a steering committee set up to advise the Senate on the general policy of the Neurocommunications Research Unit, established in 1962 with Dr I. C. Whitfield as Director, 'to study those functions of the nervous system concerned in the reception transmission modification and storage of "information"'. For the quinquennium 1962-1967 the Unit depended on outside sources of finance, but was later financed by the University and by the Scientific Research Council, though it also received other external grants. It was initially accommodated in the University of Birmingham Medical School and staff consisted of Research Fellows and Senior Research Fellows from a number of disciplines. It was an inter-disciplinary and inter-Faculty organisation
Membership consisted of academic staff and the Vice-Chancellor. The first meeting was held on 20 January 1962 and minutes of this meeting contain information about the institution and development of the Unit. Meetings then took place on an annual basis
Minutes typically discuss the Unit's financial position and include details about recurrent grants; financial statements including income and expenditure accounts; information about staff appointments and salary reviews including some personal information about individuals; Progress Reports of the Director of the Neurocommunications Unit which give an overview of research and training, staffing, research fellowships, accommodation, and finances; and proposals for new degree courses
Minutes of meetings held in 1962 and 1963 contain information about the construction of the Wellcome Building, funded by the Wellcome Trust
Minutes of the meeting held on 9 Februrary 1966 contain a copy of the Neurocommunications Research Unit Quinquennial Application 1967-1972. Minutes of the meeting held on 2 November 1966 discuss the likely growth of the Unit and the need for additional accommodation, setting out the space required for office accommodation and laboratory facilities, and including floor plans of unidentified building, possibly the Medical School. There is a further report on accommodation requirements with minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 1967
Minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 1976 contain discussion about the possibility of the Unit joining a Faculty, probably the Faculty of Science, following re-organisation within the University. Minutes of the meeting held on 13 January 1977 include a copy of a Statement by the Director of the Neurocommunications Research Unit on the proposed establishment of a Working Party in the 'area of Neurocommunications' intended to consider changes which the Director thought were necessary in order for the Unit to continue to 'play a significant role in the scholastic work of the University'. Minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 1979 include a copy of the Director's Progress Report covering the period February 1978 to January 1979 which contains criticism of the Senate Working Party on the future of the Unit which had apparently rejected the Director's propossals, and expresses dissatisfaction with University policy. The minutes record that the University had proposed that the Unit should become a Department within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry from 1 October 1979 and that the Neurocommunications Research Unit Committee would cease to exist from that date. It is assumed, therefore, that this was the last meeting of the committee |