12 February 2003
P/2003/91
£1 BILLION FUNDING INJECTION FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE
Universities and higher education institutions received a cash boost today as Science Minister Lord Sainsbury announced their share of a £1bn investment in scientific excellence. The Minister announced the allocations during a visit to the University of Birmingham where he opened two new labs funded by earlier awards.
More than 150 universities and institutions will benefit from this investment in world-class facilities to enable vital research in areas including:
- finding new drugs to treat diseases such as cancer;
- developing key new technologies like nanotechnology; and
- further understanding man’s impact on the environment.
The £1bn investment under the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) for 2004 to 2006 is allocated by formula. Institutions are able to spend their allocation in line with their own research strategy and must submit their list of proposed projects to their Higher Education Funding Council by 30 May 2003.
Lord Sainsbury said:
"The research carried out in our laboratories today is the foundation for the new products, medicines and technologies of tomorrow. British Science is among the best and most cost-effective in the world. Today’s injection of over £1bn is the largest ever Government investment in our science research infrastructure and will ensure that UK science remains at the cutting edge."
Higher Education Minister Margaret Hodge said:
"We cannot remain at the cutting edge of research if we are dependent on ageing and inadequate buildings and equipment. This funding will provide further crucial help in turning round years of under-investment. Together with the other substantial increases in funding we have recently announced, this investment will ensure that our higher education institutions have the resources they need to compete on the global research stage."
Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive of the HEFCE, said:
"These significantly increased funds will help to maintain the position of UK research, which is amongst the best and most productive in the world. They will contribute to the long term financial stability of research infrastructure and activities, redressing a substantial backlog in capital investment. By reducing the requirement for matched funding and encouraging greater collaboration, researchers and the users of research will benefit significantly. I am particularly pleased that the SRIF funds recognise for the first time the growing status of research in the arts and humanities subjects."
Funds can be used for the following:
- refurbishment of premises for research;
- replacement, renewal or upgrading of equipment; and
- replacement of premises by new-build or acquisition (subject to appraisal of best value and a business case).
The aim of SRIF is to move the research base onto a sustainable long-term footing. Higher Education institutions will be able to invest for the future with greater certainty but at the same time they will have sharper responsibility to ensure their research is funded on a sustainable basis.
In response to feedback from the research community the match funding contribution has been reduced from 25% to 10% in recognition of the scale and timescale required to address the backlog in infrastructure.
The grants are part of the Government’s science strategy, announced in Investing in Innovation: A strategy for science, engineering and technology, published in July 2002. Today’s allocation comes from the DTI Science Budget, the Department for Education and Skills and the devolved administrations. The funding will be distributed by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England (HEFCE - £845,123,871), Wales (HEFCW - £46,754,467), Scotland (SHEFC - £98,097,000) and the Department for Education and Learning Northern Ireland (£19,358,924). The funding councils in the devolved administrations will make separate announcements on the distribution of funds to their universities and higher education institutions. A further £50m is available over 2004-06 for strategic science research restructuring.
This new fund builds on the earlier success of the £750m Joint Infrastructure Fund (1999–2002) and the £675m allocations to institutions in the first round of SRIF (2002–2004). More than 450 projects at over 150 higher education institutions have been supported by this investment.
Projects in England funded in the first round of SRIF included:
University of Newcastle – The Northern Cancer Research Institute
£15m is being invested in The Paul O’Gorman Building the new home for cancer research in Newcastle, of which SRIF is providing £9.8m. 150 staff will be working in the same place for the first time and the new state-of-the-art laboratory will house contemporary bioscience equipment and promote multi-disciplinary, integrated research. Newcastle will get £21.5m from this SRIF allocation.
Aston Academy of Life Sciences – Clinical Sciences Research Centre
£1.8m from SRIF has enabled Aston to develop their Academy of Life Sciences and increase the scope of the facilities with additional funding from Advantage West Midlands to create a purpose-built facility for biomedical research. Key activities within the academy will include cornea and refractive surgery, paediatric cochlea implantation and rehabilitation and research into dyslexia and epilepsy. Brain imaging is a key element of the centre with the addition of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging suite. Aston will get £3.8m from this allocation
MRI scanner - joint project shared by Brunel, Reading, Surrey and Royal Holloway
£1,540,000 of SRIF enabled the institutions to obtain a whole body magnetic resonance scanner. The scanner will be used for state of the art imaging of the human brain to enable psychologists to carry out research into human cognition especially vision and including language and learning. The equipment has been installed at Royal Holloway and will be shared by the partner institutions. This is a good example of effective co-operation between institutions to achieve value for money in the use of public funds and to facilitate interaction amongst research workers.
University of Bristol – Dorothy Hodgkin Building
Jointly funded by The Wellcome Trust, the University and SRIF this project is to create a state-of-the-art Clinical Research Institute. The laboratories will provide radical new approaches to the treatment of stress-related disorders, hormonal and psychiatric diseases and Alzheimer’s disease. It offers co-location to scientists that were scattered across a number of buildings and will also allow scope for expansion. SRIF are contributing £5m towards this scheme. Bristol has been allocated £26m under the new SRIF.
University of Leicester – School of Archaeology and Ancient History
A SRIF grant of £2m has been awarded towards a £3m refurbishment of an existing research building to provide the School with improved facilities in an integrated space. The facilities will provide laboratories and support facilities and include exhibition space for the work of students and staff. Leicester has been allocated £13.1m from the new SRIF allocation.
University of East Anglia – Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research.
SRIF is providing £1.5m towards an £8.5m investment in a building that will house a number of research programmes calling on the extensive use of computers and computer aids. The building is designed with high standards of energy efficiency. UEA will get £9.5m in this allocation.
University of Bradford - Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation (IPI)
New multi-million pound research unit which will be a focal point for international research excellence in drug design and medicines development. There is an increased desire for new drugs to be more quickly and effectively assessed during development and then to be brought faster to the marketplace. The IPI will work closely with local companies and large multinational pharmaceutical industry in exploiting research excellence in computer modelling and mathematical manipulation for speedy design and testing of drugs. These new sophisticated computer methods, based on artificial intelligence will examine data and predict which drugs and their formulations are most likely to succeed. The Institute has been funded by a £2.63m SRIF grant.
University of Manchester multidisciplinary nanoworkshop
£1.4m SRIF funding to enable researchers to work with objects from a few microns to 10 nanometers in size and establish a world leading centre in an important niche area of nanotechnology. State of the art research equipment (photo electron beam and scanning probe lithography facilities) is essential for leading edge science departments and will stimulate cross disciplinary research across the frontiers of more traditional subjects. Nanotechnology has enormous commercial potential in many fields. For example in computing, sensors, telecommunications, magnetic materials and devices, in advanced pharmaceuticals, drug delivery, nerve and tissue repair and in surface coatings and catalysts. And centres like these will help UK manufacturing sectors exploit the opportunities that these new technologies will provide, and indeed lead to investment in completely new industries.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The allocations have been made on a formula basis, as in the first SRIF. Half the allocation will be based on institutions’ 2002-03 quality-related (QR) research income and the other half on total research income received by the institution in 2000-01.
2. SRIF funds will be available from April 2004 and must be spent by March 2006. Earlier funding will be considered for projects that start after 1 August 2003.
3. The own or third party contribution has been reduced from 25% in the 2002-4 scheme to 10% in the new scheme.
4. The first SRIF round was a £1 billion investment by Government (£775m) and the Wellcome Trust (£225m). This included an allocation of £675m of Government money to higher education institutions for science research infrastructure.
5. The £750m Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) was announced as part of the overall Comprehensive Spending Review in July 1998. Funding came from DTI (£300m), HEFCE (£150m) and the Wellcome Trust (£300m). JIF funded more than 150 science research infrastructure projects at more than 40 universities across the UK.
6. To aid the sustainability of the research base the Government is providing, as part of SRIF 2, £50m over 2004-06 for strategic science research restructuring, including possible mergers between Universities
7. Recognising the future creation of the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and the scope for complementary interactions in Higher Education between arts and humanities and science research, SRIF 2 provides additional flexibility for institutions to invest a proportion of their allocations on research infrastructure for humanities, language-based disciplines, and design and creative arts. No more than around 5 per cent of the £845.1 million of research funding allocated to English institutions will be invested in arts and humanities research infrastructure.
8. The following figures show the allocation of the funding for the higher education institutions in England and are also available at www.hefce.ac.uk
For the allocation of funding by English institution see Annex A of HEFCE 2003/06.