The Research Councils welcome today’s announcement of the Science Budget allocations for the period 2008- 2011. The average annual growth of 5.4 per cent over the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period demonstrates the vital role that research plays in sustaining the UK’s prosperity and the faith that the Government has in the Councils’ ability to deliver high quality research and a substantial economic impact from our investments.
The UK is second only to the US in terms of the quality of its basic research. This settlement will enable the UK at least to maintain that position. The Research Councils will also use the funding to tackle national and international issues where they believe that the outputs from significant strategic research programmes can make a real difference:
- Energy
- Living with environmental change
- Global security
- Ageing research: lifelong health and wellbeing
- Nanoscience through engineering to application
- The digital economy.
These programmes will bring researchers together from a wide range of disciplines and will involve organisations from across government and business. The energy and living with environmental change programmes have been designed to complement each other.
Speaking on behalf of Research Councils UK (RCUK), Professor Ian Diamond said, "The Science Budget settlement will enable us to continue our world leading research and to respond to the major issues facing the UK. The Research Councils believe that multidisciplinary research is needed to solve many of the next decade’s major research challenges. Extra funding will allow us to continue our collaborative work to address the emerging problems of the 21st Century."
Over the CSR period, the Research Councils will strive to maximise their economic impact across all their investments, through their research and training programmes and from their facilities. On 9 October 2007, RCUK published its report Excellence with Impact, which reveals the substantial impacts from past investments and sets a path to increase these further. A key part of this strategy is the flourishing relationship between the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). Over the next three years, Councils will invest £120 million in collaborative projects with the TSB.
The Science Budget settlement will allow the Research Councils to extend their international activities. Major research investments by India and China provide new opportunities for the UK to extend its already impressive international research links. RCUK will open offices in Beijing and Washington DC this autumn and will open an office in Delhi early in 2008.
The Comprehensive Spending Review will enable the Research Councils to ensure the long-term health of UK research. All new Research Council grants are awarded on the basis of the full economic cost of the project, with Councils funding 80 per cent of that figure. The settlement will ensure future grants can continue to be funded in this way and that higher education institutions have the funds to invest in their research infrastructure.
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About the Cross-Council research programmes
Energy
Energy is at the top of our national and international policy agenda. We need secure and sustainable energy supplies to facilitate our economy and way of life. However, energy provision is the major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The Stern Review emphasises the need for an urgent global response to climate change including the development of low-carbon and high-efficiency technologies.
The Research Councils’ Energy Programme brings together energy-related research and training across the Research Councils to address the outstanding international issues of climate change and security of energy supply. EPSRC, on behalf of the Research Councils, is a member of the Energy Research Partnership, the high level energy innovation advisory group. The programme’s aims are to sustain the strong research portfolio in power generation and supply, and to grow the portfolio in demand reduction, heat, transport, security of supply, research capacity building, and international engagement. Collaborative development of the portfolio with business, government, regional development agencies, devolved administrations and other funders, and non-governmental organisations will remain a priority. In particular, the programme will work closely with the Technology Strategy Board, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) company members to help to realise the enormous potential of ETI to bring a step change in applied energy RD&D in the UK and internationally. In particular, the Research Councils will seek to ensure that ETI work is highly focussed in appropriate technology areas, addresses relevant environmental, social and economic issues, and pulls through the most promising work from the research base.
Participating Research Councils are EPSRC, BBSRC, ESRC, NERC and STFC.
Living with Environmental Change
Living with Environmental Change will be a new interdisciplinary programme seeking sustainable solutions to environmental challenges, such as those posed by global economic and population growth and increasing consumption of resources. In an unprecedented collaboration of research and policy partners, six Research Councils and nine departments of state, governments and agencies are joining forces to design a programme that will help people mitigate or avoid the worst impacts as our climate and environment changes. The combined effort over the next 5-10 years, involving other stakeholders, will focus on the regional and local impacts of environmental change from seasons to decades — the time and space scales on which the economy is managed.
A successful Living With Environmental Change programme will enable society to secure more resilient ecosystem services — such as clean water, fresh air, disease protection and flood regulation — and natural resources in the face of environmental change. Sustained investment over the next decade will enable the UK to play a world-leading role.
Global threats to security
Trans-national global crime such as drugs, people smuggling, money laundering and cyber crime, is increasing in sophistication and scale as criminals exploit today’s open and "globalised" world. Terrorism in pursuit of particular aims is increasing across the globe as many disparate groups see violence as a means to achieve their aims. Environmental stresses will continue to interact with human vulnerabilities to provide a powerful basis for insecurity in many parts of the world. Systemic research is needed to capture the direct and indirect contributions to global security arising from the continuing experience of extreme poverty - the world's poorest people are often those most vulnerable to harm from security threats.
All seven Research Councils will work together to address four inter-related global threats to security - crime, terrorism, environmental stress, and global poverty, each linked in a systematic way to address three themes - causes, detection, and possible interventions to prevent harm. Research will be pursued that seeks to understand how crime, terror, environmental stress, and poverty create vicious circles through positive feedback. A particular challenge is to move debates away from a narrow definition of national interests to one in which national interests are best served by mutual attention to causes, detection, and prevention in the international domain.
Ageing research: lifelong health and wellbeing
Ageing research is a long standing priority area for the Research Councils and there have been a number of specific initiatives in addition to normal response mode funding. Previous Research Council initiatives have largely been focussed on smaller scale grants. The proposed new interdisciplinary initiative will provide substantial longer term funding for new interdisciplinary Centres (up to £10m each) targeting healthy ageing and factors over the whole life-course that may be major factors of health and wellbeing in later life rather than focusing on older people per se. Centres might be focussed on specific themes drawing on the interdisciplinary strengths of the Research Councils - such as Determinants of Quality of Life, Physical Frailty, Ageing Brain. Existing Cross-Council resources such as ESRC and MRC funded longitudinal cohorts will be an excellent source of data for further studies. The primary potential impact of the initiative will be economic and social gains associated with healthy ageing and reducing dependency in later life.
Participating Research Councils are MRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, AHRC and NERC.
Nanoscience through engineering to application
Nanotechnologies can revolutionise society. They offer the potential of disruptive step changes in electronic materials, optics, computing and in the application of physical and chemical understanding (in combination with biology) to generate novel and innovative self-assembled systems. The field is maturing rapidly, with a trend towards ever more complex, integrated nanosystems and structures. It is estimated that by 2015 products incorporating nanotechnology will contribute approximately US$1 trillion to the global economy, and that the UK has a 10 percent share of the current market.
To focus the UK research effort we will work through a series of Grand Challenges. These will be developed in conjunction with researchers and users in areas of societal importance such as energy, environmental remediation, the digital economy, and healthcare. An interdisciplinary, stage-gated approach spanning basic research through to application will be used. This will include studies on risk governance, economics, and social implications. The challenges will be addressed via interdisciplinary consortia supported jointly by EPSRC, AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, and STFC, and the Technology Strategy Board. The Research Councils will also work with the cross-Government Nanotechnology Research Coordination Group to respond to the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering report on Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies.
Digital economy
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is everywhere, it is embedded in every aspect of our lives. Business, Government, the Health Service and other users depend on how we capture, manipulate, and share information. ICT has the power to transform the way business operates, the way that government can deliver, and the way society interacts. In an ever-changing world, being able to respond rapidly to new opportunities and challenges is key to the future economic and social prosperity of the UK. A World Bank report identified that "early adoption of ICT tools supported by research capacity and skilled people better positions a country to reap the economic and social benefits of those tools".
The Digital Economy will link the world class research base in ICT with the other disciplines needed to deliver its benefits and match those with a strong user pull to deliver a programme of multidisciplinary, user focussed research aimed at building a base of people and expertise to put the UK at the forefront of the Digital Economy. Through the Digital Economy we will make a step-change in the type of user engagement to pursue key research challenges so that the transformational possibilities of ICT are fully realised. The initiative will concentrate on those areas where the management and presentation of information can have maximum transformational impact: healthcare, transport, and the creative industries. Participating Research Councils are EPSRC, AHRC, ESRC, MRC and STFC.
About Research Councils UK
The seven Research Councils are independent non-departmental public bodies, funded by the Science Budget through the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). They are incorporated by Royal Charter and together manage a research budget of over £2.8 billion a year.
Research Councils UK (RCUK) is the partnership between the UK's seven Research Councils. Through RCUK, the Research Councils work together to champion the research, training and innovation they support.
The seven UK Research Councils are:
- Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC);
- Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC);
- Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC);
- Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC);
- Medical Research Council (MRC);
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC);
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Contact
Julia Short
RCUK Media Officer, Tel 01793 444435