When I hear of items relevant to UK research strategy, funder policies and other information in relation to research funding, I will post them here.

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UK Universities are in a ‘financially sound position’ but many still not recovering research costs

HEFCE have published a report outlining the financial state of the university sector. The main finding as reported in the THE are:
1. Using data from 2014-15, they found that the financial ‘gap’ between lowest and highest performing institutions is getting bigger
2. There is a shortfall in research costs of approximately £2.8 billion.

All the details are in the report itself – Financial Health of the Higher Education Sector

[21 March 2016]

HEFCE to Office for Students

The much anticipated Nurse Review of the Research Councils and the Government’s spending review were published close to each other in November 2015. The good news is that research funding will continue to be ring-fenced and in some cases increased, the (maybe) not so good news is that how this is administered through RCUK and HEFCE will change, with the latter on course to become part of a body called the ‘Office for Students’, although the research councils are expected to stay separate entities despite pre-Nurse fears of mergers.

These are indeed exciting times to be involved in research funding in the UK, and the forthcoming EU referendum (23 June 2016 – for your diaries) leads to questions surrounding the continuation of EU calls being available to UK researchers if ‘ Brexit’ occurs.

[21 March 2016]

Deferred start of responsive mode grant scheme raises fears of BBSRC budget squeeze

Recently awarded responsive mode grants cannot begin until at least January 2016, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have stipulated. This is due to the council ‘allowing for additional investments’ such as the Synthetic Biology Research programme.

Read the article in the Times Higher at http://THE at https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/grant-delay-unrelated-spending-review-fears-bbsrc-insists

[28 August 2015]

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Scottish Universities fear loss of income if Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill is implemented.

Full story in The Herald.

[26 August 2015]

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Pharma funds for UK Health Research decline

A report by the Medical Research Council found that pharmaceutical funding for health research declined by £700m from 2009 to 2014. However, funding from charities and the public sector increased marginally over the same period, with the largest proportion of funds directed to infection research, due the report suggests, to ‘probably’ the challenge of anti-microbial resistance. The full report is now available.

[24 August 2015]

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ESRC’s very low success rate (2014/15)

The THE report that the ESRC’s success rate has fallen to 13% due to ‘high volumes of weak applications’ despite institutions screening applications prior to submission. Sociology is as low as 8%, whereas Psychology fares a little better at 15%. Pressure on academics to secure grant income is seen as a likely cause.

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The costly (approx £250m) REF

The policy group Technopolis have estimated, based on surveys and interviews with 20 institutions, the total cost of the REF to be in the region of £240m, although they admit, according to the THE, this is likely to be an overestimate.

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HEFCE Knowledge Exchange consultation

As part of the Government’s Science and Innovation strategy, the Higher Education Funding Council in England will issue guidance on best practice in knowledge exchange activities. Consultation currently in progress; respond by 6 July.

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/kess/goodpractice/

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Nurse Review of the Research Councils

This is expected during summer 2015, with a call for evidence to the research community having closed. Much of the evidence submitted points to avoiding a major re-structuring of the councils (e.g. merging of councils). Thanks to Adam Golberg (http://www.socialscienceresearchfunding.org) for informing us of the summary of the evidence publicly available collated by Annalisa Jones at the University of Hertfordshire, with the main points:

• Many responders advise against a major restructuring and the current portfolio is well balanced, apart from a call to increase funds in Arts and Social Sciences [which currently is much lower than science, medicine and engineering].
• Dual support system should remain
• Interdisciplinary research should be encouraged
• Greater transparency on funding decisions and more 2 stage applications

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1 in 6 universities set targets for grant income – according to The Times Higher

Interesting article in THE this week (12 June 2015): https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/grant-income-targets-set-one-six-universities-poll-suggests

Response from Nottingham’s Professor Moriarty: https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/the-use-of-raw-grant-income-performance-as-a-target-has-got-go-now

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Universities in the firing line?

Another article from THE – about the Universities UK report emphasising higher education sector as vital to economic growth. A response top impending cuts? (https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/content/universities-firing-line-bis-faces-almost-half-billion-new-cuts)

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/back-universities-grow-economy-says-uuk

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Funding councils allocations of QR to universities

HEFCE published the allocations for 2015-16 in March 2016 – http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,103785,en.html

Scottish Funding Council published allocations to Scottish Universities for 2015-16
http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/Announcements/2015/SFCAN062015.aspx

HEFCW (Wales) published allocations to Welsh universities for 2015-16
https://www.hefcw.ac.uk/working_with_he_providers/data_collection/funding_calculations.aspx

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