Catalogue description Records of the Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils

The Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils was set up in 1966 by the Secretary of State for Education and Science, following the recommendations of the report of the Joint Working Group on Computers for Research (the Flowers Report). The Computer Board's terms of reference stated that it should review computer needs in university and research council establishments; set up a rolling programme of procurement; and ensure that all computers provided under the programme should be effectively commissioned, adequately used and efficiently managed. As well as board members appointed by the secretary of state there would be representation from the University Grants Committee (UGC) and each of the research councils. The secretary was supplied by the Department of Education and Science.

The constitution of the Computer Board stated that a Computer Consultative Council should be set up. Its function was to review the progress of the programme and identify any problems. It first met in 1968 and though its role was reconsidered in 1972, appears to have survived until 1985.

Throughout the board's existence close contacts were maintained with the UGC, and following the setting up of the Universities Funding Council (UFC) in 1988, responsibility for the board passed to this new body. At this point it was reconstituted as the Information Systems Committee and was an integral part of the UFC.