Research Councils UK today publishes a draft Large Facilities Roadmap for 2007 and invites the views of its research communities.
The Roadmap provides a comprehensive picture of the new facilities which are already planned or under construction in the UK and Europe, and provides details of further potential large facility and infrastructure projects that the Government and the UK's Research Councils would like to see available to UK researchers over the next 10-15 years. The Large Facilities Roadmap is produced biennially to provide UK policy makers and researchers with a clear, strategic view of how best to provide scientists access to world class research facilities and also how best to manage the investment of public funds in such facilities.
Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation said, "UK researchers are world class and punch above their weight in terms of their highly valued scientific output, but they can only remain at the forefront of their fields of research if they have access to leading edge experimental facilities. This consultation will play an important part in ensuring that the strategic investment decisions we take for the next generation of large capital facilities meets their scientific research requirements whilst also addressing wider considerations such as economic impact and the need to generate technologies that can enhance all aspects of our quality of life."
Speaking on behalf of RCUK, Professor John Womersley said "This draft roadmap has been developed after extensive discussions with our research communities and between the Research Councils. We recognise that we have a responsibility to researchers to ensure that the roadmap reflects their needs, and so we want to know whether the balance of activities is appropriate, how important they are and what facilities we will need to think about for future roadmaps."
Comments are requested as soon as possible and until 18 January 2008. The final version of the Roadmap will be published in early 2008.
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Contact
Julia Short, RCUK Press Officer. Tel: 01793 411561
Notes
The Large Facilities Capital Fund (LFCF) is administered by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and has an annual budget of in the region of £100 million per year. It was established to support Research Councils' investments in large research facilities with capital funding that could not be sensibly accommodated from within Research Council baselines. The LFCF provides a funding contribution to the capital costs of:
- The construction of new facilities either nationally or internationally;
- The expansion or enhancement of existing facilities;
- The upgrading or replacement of existing facilities.
To qualify for LFCF funding facilities must be included in the RCUK Large Facilities Roadmap and satisfy one or more of the following criteria:
- Over £25 million capital costs;
- Representing a high proportion (> 10 per cent) of an individual Research Council’s annual budget;
- Serving the research communities of more than one Research Council.
Research Councils provide advice to DIUS on prioritisation of the use of the LFCF budget. The Research Councils will give particular consideration, during the course of this prioritisation process, to the Institute for Animal Health (Compton), European Bioinformatics Institute Upgrade (ELIXIR), European Systems Biology Centre, Research Facility for Birth Cohort Studies, High End Computing, MAST Upgrade, a new Laboratory for Molecular Biology, a new National Institute for Medical Research (as part of the development of the BLISS Medical Centre with The Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College London), DIAMOND Beamlines Phase III, a Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), development of the Harwell and Daresbury Science and Innovation Campuses, ISIS Target Station 2 Phase III and the Square Kilometre Array.
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).