With the ending on 31st July 2012 of the National HE STEM Programme which provided continuation funding for sigma to enable it to continue work started during the period of CETL funding the team have been drafting final reports for the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) who have overseen the Mathematics strand of the programme and for wider audiences. In the welter of data being collated as part of this process - £200 000 provided to institutions beyond the original CETL partners Loughborough and Coventry Universities to establish or enhance mathematics and statistics support over 1500 students supported by sigma funded centres 99 Higher Education Institutions represented at the three CETL-MSOR Conferences and sigma Hub events (just to give some examples) – I have been pondering what this all actually means.
Any of you who like me have been at times bemused and entertained by the BBC series Twenty Twelve (which provided a fly on the wall style documentary following the fictional Olympic Games Deliverance Team) will I am sure have reacted with the same bouts of hilarity when presented with the challenge of describing the legacy and sustainability of our activities. But surely this is the most important aspect of our work and of the HE STEM programme as a whole. So what has sigma achieved that will continue in 2012/13 and beyond?
