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Funders Forum Reports

First Annual Report on Research Staff

This report has been produced in response to the request from the UK Research base Funders’ Forum in 2007 that the funding bodies should report annually on trends in research staff. This first report covers the period of academic years 2003/04 to 2006/07. It does not look further back than this due to changes made to the Individualised Staff Record in 2003/04. The report includes an overview of the position for contract research staff (CRS) compared to permanent research staff. The report is available on the right under related documents.

Streamlining University / Business Collaborative Research Negotiations (July 2007)

Following on from discussions at the Funders Forum Plenary Conference in November 2006 a small working group drawn from universities and business, led by Peter Saraga, looked at the issue of university / business collaborative negotiations and reported back to the July Forum meeting. Their independent report to the Funders Forum found that whilst the system was generally working well, there were some problems that if addressed could improve negotiations, and it made a number of recommendations. Their report is available on the right under related documents.

Researchers: What is the situation (July 2007)

The second Annual Report to the Funders forum on research staff in the UK is available on the right under related documents

Monitoring Financial Sustainability in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

Indicators of progress for the Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 include a requirement to report on the financial sustainability of research across the higher education sector. The UK Funding Councils on behalf of the Funders Forum presented their second report on monitoring arrangements in HEIs in July 2008. The report is available on the right under related documents.

There are two elements to the monitoring arrangements: 'institutional frameworks (or statements) towards achieving long-term sustainability' and a related set of 'trigger metrics'. Looked at together, these provide an indication of the sustainability of an institution's 'adaptive capacity'. The monitoring arrangements are relatively light touch with the data used as the basis for the 'trigger metrics' being wholly derived from existing sources.