Research Councils UK has today published its response to the Treasury's "Science and innovation investment framework 2004-2014: next steps" consultation.
The Research Councils' response covers the main questions raised by the Treasury and outline how the Councils believe they are already well placed to meet future challenges and where future initiatives will ensure they are contributing to an effective and sustainable UK science and innovation base.
The main points of the Research Councils response are:
Support for high risk research
Speculative and novel research is the lifeblood of innovation and essential if the UK is to maintain its international competitiveness. All of the Research Councils provide flexible funding to support high potential, high impact research. Specific initiatives encourage such research and longer-term funding provides researchers with the time and freedom they need to explore new directions. However, there is evidence that in some sectors at least, further incentives are needed to stimulate more adventurous research.
Support for novel and interdisciplinary fields of research
The Research Councils see little evidence of stagnation in research funding or bias towards established fields. The intense competition for research funding drives innovation across all disciplines. In the last six years the Research Councils have made substantial improvements in stimulating and funding interdisciplinary training and research, helping to keep the UK research base at the forefront of science. It is vital that the 2008 RAE and future metrics based approaches recognise and reinforce interdisciplinary research.
Stimulating university-business collaborations
More analysis is needed to understand current business-university relationships and what different businesses want from collaborations with HEIs. This is particularly true of SMEs and sectors with low R&D intensity. Efforts are needed both to raise the appetite of business and to influence university culture to encourage and reward HEI-business partnerships. The Research Councils will continue to invest in collaborative research and business skills training and promote greater movement of individuals between the world of academia and business. The key to better regional innovation and effective business-university collaborations is visible networking and brokering arrangements; Research Council brokering activities and regional clusters centred around Research Council institutes provide good case studies for modelling best practice.
Proposal for a Large Facilities Council
All UK researchers must continue to have access to cutting-edge research facilities to keep the UK competitive and at the forefront of research. The creation of Large Facilities Council would help the UK to engage more effectively in international negotiations. Different Research Councils have different perspectives about the role and remit of such a body and these are clearly articulated in their individual submissions. All Councils agree that in order to maintain effective relationships, any new Council must be a full member of RCUK, and that all Councils must be involved in the discussions with OSI which will take place in the coming weeks.
The Research Councils will be responding separately to other consultations initiated as part of the "Next Steps", on a single health research fund and the replacement of the Research Assessment Exercise, the deadlines for which are 28 July 2006 and 23 October 2006 respectively.
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Contact
Matt Goode, Research Councils UK
Tel: 01793 413299
Notes to Editors
About Research Councils UK
The eight Research Councils are independent non-departmental public bodies, funded by the Science Budget through the Office of Science and Innovation. They are incorporated by Royal Charter and together manage a research budget of over £2.5 billion a year.
Research Councils UK (RCUK) is the partnership between the Research Councils. Through RCUK, the Research Councils work together to champion the research, training and innovation they support.
RCUK was created to increase the collective visibility, leadership and policy influence of the Research Councils; to stimulate multi-disciplinary research that encourages collaboration; to provide a single focus for collective dialogue with stakeholders and to encourage greater harmonisation of internal operations.
The partnership is led by the RCUK Executive Group, which meets monthly and comprises the chief executives of the eight Research Councils. The Group is currently chaired by Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council.
The eight UK Research Councils are:
- Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC);
- Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC);
- Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC);
- Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC);
- Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC);
- Medical Research Council (MRC);
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC);
- Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).