Sustainability of research and government support for charity funded research in universities

It is vital that research in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the UK is financially sustainable. An understanding of the full cost of undertaking research by all of those involved is crucial in achieving this. In recognition of this the Government introduced Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) and Full Economic Costs (fEC) as part of the Science and Innovation Framework 2004-2014.

To support the move to a more transparent and sustainable research base the Government announced additional funding to top-up publicly funded research, such as that from the Medical Research Council (MRC) or National Academies.

In acknowledgement of the importance of charity funded research to the UK, and that charities are unable to increase the proportion of funding per award the Government also committed to providing top-up funding for charity awards. For example in England the Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF) is allocated by HEFCE.The Government has committed to providing £270million for the CRSF by 2010/11.

These top-up funding streams are provide funds to the HEIs for the costs associated with research that are not covered by the research awards, ensuring that the HEIs can continue to accept funding from these funding sources whilst becoming financially sustainable. However the top-up funding provided to charities is proportionately less than that provided for public research funding streams. The additional funding from the Government enables the Research Councils to provide 80% of the fEC, but even with the CRSF in England Cancer Research UK awards can only provide 63-65% of the fEC. As a consequence, when considering their future financial sustainability, universities are less keen to take on charity grants. We know that some of our researchers have been encouraged by their universities to apply for Research Council funding over charity funding.

This is very concerning to us and could impact on our ability to continue to fund the best researchers and the best research in universities.

We want a commitment from the Government to providing adequate support to ensure that charity funding is able to compete on an equal playing field with the Research Councils and other funders such as industry.