Press release

Monday 18 December 2000

HEFCE makes final allocation to JREI: £100 million for scientific research in England

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) today announced the results of the Joint Research Equipment Initiative (JREI) for 2000. The 32 awards made in this round represent a total investment this year of £15.6 million, and bring the amount that the HEFCE has invested in research through the fund to just over £100 million.

The JREI funds equipment required by scientific research projects, and has been in existence for the last five years. The HEFCE has announced that this will be the last year it takes part in the initiative; in the future it will put all the funds it provides specifically for research capital into the new Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) to maintain this funding stream.

Sir Brian Fender, Chief Executive of the HEFCE, commented:

'JREI is a great success, and we are pleased with its results. The initiative has provided a very valuable source of research funding for UK science, and will continue to do so through the work of the Research Councils. It has also been instrumental in fostering valuable partnerships between higher education and industry. In the future, however, we will be funding larger projects through the SRIF, which represents a much bigger pot of money for the sector and will not impose the burden of an annual bidding exercise.

'However, there remains a need for smaller equipment to be funded, and I am glad that the research councils are continuing to administer the section of the JREI which addresses this need.'

The largest award in this round is £1.38 million to Professor D Hawkes at the Guy's, King's and St Thomas School of Medicine, which will purchase an advanced MRI scanner for research and diagnosis.

Some examples of the other projects receiving awards this year include:

Professor J Collier at Imperial College, who has been awarded £174,000 for a sonar system capable of imaging the seabed and assisting in work on coastal engineering, archaeology and earthquake monitoring
Professor H Waldman, at the University of Oxford, whose work into the study of the immune system has been awarded £184,000 for a cell sorter
Professor L Frostick, from the University of Hull, who will use £350,000 to build a 'total environment simulator' to model the behaviour and interaction of sediments, rainfall, waves and water flow

Ends

For further information:

General enquiries about JREI to Margaret Birdsall at HEFCE on 0117 931 7037, e-mail m.birdsall@hefce.ac.uk

For press and media enquiries only:

Philip Walker, HEFCE Press and Media Manager 0117 931 7363
Julian Burnell, HEFCE Press and Media Officer 0117 931 7431

Notes to editors

1. The HEFCE already provides funding for research projects as part of its recurrent grant, which is announced annually at the beginning of March. This year's research budget was £867 million, and full details are available in HEFCE publication 00/12 or electronically at http://www.hefce.ac.uk under 'Publications'.

2. The JREI funding is specifically aimed at purchasing equipment for advanced research programmes. It is an initiative funded by the four UK higher education funding bodies, the Office for Science and Technology (OST) and the Research Councils. In addition to the scientific aspects of their work, academics are expected to forge partnerships with industrial bodies in order to further research.

3. The JREI scheme comprises two competitions:

Competition A is jointly funded by the Research Councils and the Office for Science and Technology, and covers bids for research equipment with a total cost of between £12,500 and £150,000, including VAT. This exercise will continue in the future.
Competition B is supported by the four UK HE funding bodies, and covers bids with a total cost of £150,000 or more. This exercise will be wound up after this round of allocations and replaced by the SRIF (see note 4).

4. The Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) was announced by the Treasury in July, and is the result of a collaboration between the HEFCE, the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), the Office of Science and Technology (OST), and the Wellcome Trust, and totals £1 billion over three years.

5. The fund is made up of the following:

£300 million from the HEFCE for allocations linked to research excellence and volume
£375 million from OST for UK-wide provision
£225 million from the Wellcome Trust, of which £150 million will be allocated to buildings for sciences within the Trust's remit, the remainder to be devoted to equipment for biomedical science research
£100 million retained by OST to modernise Research Council institutes and to contribute to large national projects.

6. A regional list of English projects is attached.

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