HEFCE welcomes support for HEIF and additional funding for top performers

13 September 2012

Today David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, announced an additional £6 million that HEFCE will allocate to the highest performing universities in knowledge exchange. The funding was announced in a speech at the Universities UK (UUK) conference today.

Twelve universities will benefit from this funding through the Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF), for the 2012-13 academic year only.

The funding aims to stimulate economic growth through research commercialisation activities. The funding had been found from efficiency savings in the science and research budget.

Experts have found that every £1 invested in HEIF generates an additional £6, a proxy for impact on the economy. The highest performing universities in the area of knowledge exchange (those benefitting from the top-up allocation) generate even greater levels of impact.

In return for the release of the £6 million funding the 12 universities will outline how they will use this funding to drive growth in the economy.

Notes

David Willetts speech at the UUK conference
Also see ‘UK universities contribute to growth’
The 12 universities which will receive additional funding are:
- University of Birmingham
- University of Cambridge
- University of Hertfordshire
- Imperial College London
- King's College London
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- University of Manchester
- Newcastle University
- University of Oxford
- University of Southampton
- UCL.