23 August 2004

To	Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of universities in Northern Ireland

Direct Line	0117 931 7300
Direct Fax	0117 931 7203

Circular letter number 15/2004

For further information contact Ian Lewis, tel 0117 931 7336, e-mail i.lewis@hefce.ac.uk

Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal

Science Research Investment Fund round three (SRIF 3)

1. This letter provides advance notice of arrangements for a third round of the Science Research Investment Fund. It also gives further information on the electronic submission of proposals.

2. The outcome of the Government's 2004 Spending Review and the 'Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014' were published on 12 July 2004. These announced that funding for SRIF would continue at £500 million a year in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

3. The funding provided through the current round (SRIF2), over 2004-05 and 2005-06, has been made available to help address the past under-investment in the research infrastructure. Institutions should assume that they will be expected to demonstrate that SRIF3 funding is being used for:

continuing to address this past under-investment in the research infrastructure
encouraging investment that improves the utilisation of space, or improves the efficiency of the research infrastructure.

4. Institutions should also expect that they will be asked to explain how their proposals take account of the Science and Innovation Investment Framework, which includes making institutions' expertise and facilities more open to access by business, as well as how proposals fit with their own sustainable research strategies.

5. As with previous rounds of the scheme, SRIF3 funding will be allocated to institutions by formula, and the release of allocations will be subject to submission of acceptable proposals. In the interests of streamlining the proposal and review processes, institutions will be asked to submit their proposals electronically, using a system based on the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system developed by the Research Councils.

6. In order to access the SRIF3 submission system, institutions will need to be fully registered users of the Je-S. Institutions that expect to receive SRIF3 funding should therefore take steps now to register as Je-S users, if they have not already done so. Further information about Je-S is available at www.rcuk.ac.uk/je-s; institutions wishing to register should contact the JeS helpdesk, e-mail JeSHelp@rcuk.ac.uk.

7. We intend that full guidance on arrangements for SRIF3, with conditional allocations for institutions, will be published early in 2005, and that institutions' proposals will be required no later than May 2005.

8. We would therefore encourage institutions to begin to develop their thinking about the proposals that they would submit under SRIF3.

Yours sincerely

Howard Newby
Chief Executive

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