This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Funding for university research
29/11/2004
Investment worth £37 million to help Scottish
universities maintain their place as world leaders in
research was announced today.
The money will be distributed over four years and will
help top scientists work together on cutting edge projects
as part of Research Pooling Initiatives.
These initiatives will see university departments across
Scotland forming close links in the fields of physics and
chemistry.
Deputy First Minister and Minister for Lifelong Learning
Jim Wallace said:
"The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's
decision to invest £15.9 million in these first Scottish
research pooling initiatives is very good news, and follows
our increase in funding for the sector by 23 per cent in
real terms. I am also delighted that other organisations
and the institutions themselves will provide money to take
the total investment in this research pooling initiative up
to £37 million over four years.
"Collaborative and creative initiatives such as this
will be crucial to ensuring the Scottish research base is
able to maintain its competitive edge both internationally
and within the UK.
"There is already a great deal of excellent research
done in our universities. By helping these institutions to
work together we will be encouraging the sharing of best
practice and exciting ideas. A strong research base is
crucial to achieving our key priority of growing the
economy. That is just one of the reasons why we invested so
heavily in higher education during the recent Scottish
budget. Annual funding for higher education will be more
than £1 billion by 2007/8. To see that money being used in
such an innovative and productive way is hugely
encouraging.
"I believe the research pooling agenda is one of the
most exciting developments in how research is conducted in
our universities for years.
And I have above all been very encouraged by the
enthusiasm for the research pooling concept from the
"bottom up". It demonstrates that a real pioneering spirit
is out there.
"I do not exaggerate by saying that the competitiveness
of our research is fundamental to our efforts to build a
flourishing knowledge economy, fit for the 21st century.
Today will, I am sure, be an important milestone in this
endeavour. From it I hope will flow a new drive and
determination to see what can be achieved by collaboration
across institutions and across disciplines."
The investment was announced at a seminar in Glasgow
today, and will mean over 180 chemistry researchers, and
their teams, and over 200 physicists, and their research
groups, in Scottish HEIs will pool resources across
Scotland in two world class research alliances.
In physics, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
(SUPA) involves six universities - Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Heriot Watt, Paisley, St Andrews and Strathclyde. SUPA
will have a Chief Executive heading an executive committee
that is advised by an external advisory committee and will
operate a single pan-Scottish Graduate School.SUPA will
receive £6.9 million from SHEFC over the four years, with
further support coming from the universities themselves and
the Office of Science and Technology. The universities'
physics departments will collaborate to ensure cohesive
research programmes in astronomy and space physics,
condensed matter and materials physics, nuclear and plasma
physics, particle physics and photonics.
ScotCHEM - the chemistry pooling plan - brings together
under one umbrella two new groupings. WestCHEM comprises
Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities and EastCHEM brings
together Edinburgh and St Andrews. A separate proposal
from Heriot-Watt University will also go ahead under the
ScotCHEM heading and eventually Dundee and Aberdeen
Universities could be involved. EastCHEM will undertake
research on biophysical chemistry, chemical biology,
organic synthesis, structural chemistry, materials
chemistry and physical chemistry/chemical physics.
WestCHEM's direction will be inorganic materials synthesis,
functional materials synthesis, analytical biological
chemistry, chemical proteomics and theoretical chemistry
and modeling. At Heriot-Watt, researchers are likely to
look at biomimetic and medical organic chemistry, inorganic
synthesis and computation, synthesis and properties of new
materials, photochemistry and applied spectroscopy and
biomanufacturing.SHEFC will be contributing around £9
million to the ScotCHEM research pool, again with support
from the institutions and the OST.