Research capacity development

In partnership with Research Councils UK (RCUK) and other dual support funding bodies, we have provided £30 million from the Strategic Development Fund to support research capacity development in science, engineering and technology.

Current initiatives

All funding partners are managing the allocation of these funds jointly. Current initiatives are set out below.

EPSRC Science and Innovation Awards
Integrative Mammalian Biology
Language-based area studies
Quantitative social sciences

These funds follow from the Government's Science and Innovation Investment Framework, which expressed concern about the future supply of highly qualified people in science, engineering and technology, especially in relation to their contribution to national and regional economic growth. The UK Research Base Funders Forum asked RCUK to examine the health of research areas which are strategically important to the UK research base. The outcome is summarised in the document below.

Health of disciplines: Research Councils' assessment (extract from paper to UK Research Base Funders' Forum, October 2004)

Download the Health of disciplines: Research Councils' assessment as PDF (16 KB) | Download the Health of disciplines: Research Councils' assessment as MS Word (26 KB)

Although the overall picture was of a sound research base, all of the Research Councils identified some specific areas giving cause for concern, where the volume of research activity was found to be unsustainably low. RCUK now provide an annual report to the UK Research Base Funders Forum on the health of disciplines.

Page last updated 25 July 2011