A report by Digital Science published today, raises questions important to the production of better indicators of research activity. Indicators used included measures derived from analysis of the text of grant applications, the text of research papers, publications cited in these papers, and the departmental affiliations of the authors of these papers.

EU students eligible for RCUK support under current rules will continue to be eligible if currently undertaking or about to start in the 2016/17 academic year.

The progress report demonstrates that an engaged community has developed around the concordat and highlights the excellent work being done in universities to create a strong and supportive culture around research integrity.

In his Autumn Statement today the Chancellor of the Exchequer outlined a new National Productivity Investment Fund that will add an extra £2 billion a year for research and development by the end of this Parliament.

In her first speech to the CBI Annual Conference today, Prime Minister Theresa May  has announced investment worth £2billion per year by 2020 for research and development.

The UK and Indian science ministers announced the investment during the UK-India Tech Summit in New Delhi where today they also opened the inaugural meeting of the Research Councils UK-India Strategic Group on AMR.

A series of joint UK/India research initiatives worth up to £80 million were announced today by the UK Science Minister, Jo Johnson and Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, India.

Five new members have been appointed to the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Strategic Advisory Group. The new members with varied backgrounds from academia and international development have been appointed for an initial two years to provide advice and support to the GCRF.

RCUK has co-signed a statement from the research community to inform the implementation of the new EU Data Protection Regulation to better support research. All seven research councils, and several other research organisations, are also signatories.

Research Councils UK have announced the open access block grant allocations for 2016/17, worth a total of £14 million and distributed across 79 institutions.

Research Councils UK is pleased to announce continuation funding of £600,000 for its Public Engagement with Research Catalyst Seed Fund, designed to support universities in strengthening their public engagement activities at a strategic level.

The RCUK website will be offline for a short period on Saturday 15 October for routine maintenance. It's expected that the site will be down for several hours.

The RCUK Gateway to Research will be displaying researchers ORCID iDs and a hyperlink to their ORCID profile. ORCID iDs will be displayed for any researcher who has connected their ORCID iD to their Je-S account and who has any completed or live research projects.

The Department for International Development (DFID) are currently recruiting new members of their Research Advisory Group (RAG). The provision of independent scientific advice by the RAG assists DFID to assure the quality and appropriateness of Research and Evidence Division’s research portfolio for DFID’s objectives.

The Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science (CEPAMS) was formerly opened in Shanghai by Jo Johnson MP, the UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation and the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bai Chunli.

The UK’s Research Councils are this week leading a series of announcements, events and launches in China that demonstrate the growing strength of the research and innovation relationship between the UK and China.

On Wednesday 28th September, the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Collective Fund is currently inviting applications for strategic programmes to grow research capability to meet the challenges faced by developing countries.

A group of research funders, sector bodies and infrastructure experts are working together in partnership to promote the responsible use of research metrics. The 2015 independent report ‘The Metric Tide’ highlighted growing pressure on higher education institutions, researchers, funders and policymakers to use metrics in managing and assessing research.