Research Libraries Access Fund

The Research Libraries Access Fund was created in 1998 to compensate institutions whose libraries are heavily used by visiting researchers from other institutions for the additional costs this causes. It is a condition of grant that researchers from any UK institution be allowed access for reference on the same terms as the host institution's own researchers.

In 2004-05 we allocated £4.4 million to 39 institutions. Following a review of the fund in 2004, the HEFCE Board agreed that the majority of the associated funds should be returned to our block grant for research from 2005-06, giving institutions discretion over how the money is spent in future. This decision was taken in the context of the Council's commitment to reduce the number of special funding streams and the substantial investment we have made in the new Research Libraries Network.

There is also an element of transitional funding for a small group of the most heavily used libraries. The institutions in receipt of transitional funding are:

London School of Economics
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of Cambridge
University of London
University of Manchester
University of Oxford

Last updated 25 November 2008