Executive summary
Purpose
1. This document sets out our proposals for the further development of the Capital Investment Framework (CIF). These proposals are solely about the assessment process: the amount of capital funding that will be available from April 2011 is dependent on the outcome of the next government spending review.
Key points
2. Higher education institutions (HEIs) need to be able to demonstrate that public funds are being well used and that capital funding is delivering real value. The second CIF will continue to enable them to demonstrate this, and it addresses two new areas:
- Reducing carbon emissions: in the 2008 and 2009 grant letters to HEFCE from the Secretary of State, he set out the need for HEIs to contribute to the Government's targets for reduction in carbon emissions.
- Improving space usage: there is a need to improve space usage in HEIs, as identified in the most recent Estate Management Statistics annual report (HEFCE 2008/41).
3. The second CIF has updated questions and self-assessment categories. The requirements for supporting evidence and metrics have also been reviewed. We are now seeking comments on these changes, and the proposed second CIF is presented in Annexes B and C.
4. The HEFCE Board agreed in November 2009 how it would take account of the outcomes of the second CIF assessments in distributing any capital funding through the capital investment fund.
Action required
5. Comments are invited on the proposed second CIF using the response form at Annex A. Respondents should download and complete the electronic version of the form and e-mail it to capital@hefce.ac.uk by Friday 12 March 2010.
