STRATEGIC SCIENCE ADVISORY PANEL
SUBJECT: RCUK FUNDING
MEETING: 15&16 JANUARY 2007
SUMMARY
This paper sets out:
- A summary of recent developments in RCUK funding
- A description of how these changes affect the future sustainability of the Main Research Providers
ACTION
The panel members are invited to:
- Note and discuss the developments in RCUK funding
Professor Maggie Gill will be happy to answer any questions on RCUK funding
Science & Analysis Group
December 2006
RCUK FUNDING
1. The seven Research Councils in the UK ( RCUK) which are NDPBs of the Office of Science and Innovation (OSI) provide funding for scientific research in their specific remit areas on a UK basis, mainly to Higher Education Institutes and their own Research Council Institutes.
2. Most Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) are currently unable to bid into all of the Research Council funding streams. However up until now, most PSREs and Private Sector Research Organisations were able to apply for funding through specific initiatives which were considered to require the widest participation/access to facilities (referred to as "Thematic" initiatives). Over the years that such funding has been open to them, the SEERADMRPs have done reasonably well in winning BBSRC and NERC(?) funding through the thematic mode stream.
3. The OSI, through the RCUK, recently announced that the eligibility of the SABRIs and SAC to bid for Research Council funding has been withdrawn and that of the RBGE significantly reduced. The announcement and the lists of organisations now eligible to bid for RC funds are available at http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/eligibility.htm
4. The application of the eligibility criteria by RCUK is difficult to follow as the reasoning behind the choice of organisations that retain eligibility seems inconsistent. (For example SAC which is neither owned, established or primarily funded for research purposes is excluded while RBGE, which is a SEERAD NDPB, is included.)
5. A major report commissioned by OSI (OST as it was then known) in 2004 which examined the sustainability of PSREs recommended, among many other things, that Research Council funding should be opened up to a wider range of research suppliers and suggested that access by the SABRIs to RC funding should be increased not decreased. This RCUK decision runs counter to the recommendations of the OST RIPSS report.
6. When SEERAD drew up its revised research strategy "Strategic Research for SEERAD" published in January 2005, predictions about the sustainability of the MRPs in the longer term were based partly on the assumption that RC funding would be available at an increased level to the MRPs, as suggested in the RIPSS report. If this is no longer the case, the future sustainability of the MRPs becomes more precarious.
7. The MRPs have been informed that appeals against the RCUK decision have little chance of success. They have however submitted appeals to RCUK. A number of other research organisations - notably those funded by Defra have also been subject to this withdrawal of eligibility (and will no doubt also be appealing the decision. The effect on their sustainability will also be potentially serious).
8. For many years there has been a strong relationship between SEERAD and the Research Councils, especially with BBSRC and NERC. SEERAD has worked hard to ensure that the research it funds contributes in a complementary way to the UK science base, is of international quality and is carried out in well resourced facilities. The RCUK decision has serious consequences for collaboration between funders to provide a "joined-up" approach to maximising the usefulness of the UK science base in informing policy development to all parts of the UK. A solution to this potential loss of co-ordination is needed and SEERAD intend to take forward discussions with the Research Councils - BBSRC and NERC in the first instance - to find a mechanism to ensure that the benefits of collaboration and co-ordination of our research strategies and programmes are not lost as an outcome of the RCUK decision
SSAP Secretariat
December 2006