UK Research Councils

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The UK Research Councils, of which there are currently seven, are publicly-funded agencies responsible for co-ordinating and funding particular areas of research, including the arts, humanities, all areas of science and engineering. They have five main functions, which are to:

• Fund basic, strategic and applied research.
• Support postgraduate training (PhDs and masters students and fellows).
• Advance knowledge and technology and provide services and trained scientists and engineers to contribute to the economic competitiveness, the effectiveness of public services and policy, and quality of life.
• Support science in society activities.
• Provide access for UK researchers to large research facilities, which it achieves either by owning them and operating them or through international subscriptions to major facilities such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

The funding of the UK's overall academic research via seven autonomous bodies has led to some problems of coordination. The UK government has addressed this since the late 1990s through funding incentives which require cross-Council collaboration on major new research programmes, and through encouragement to set up a formal (but non-statutory) cross-Council secretariat, known as Research Councils UK (RCUK) to undertake activities that cross the remits of all the Councils, such as creation of a joint electronic grant application process, development of improved impact assessment procedures, and a common international strategy. For the precise distinction, see the official RCUK website [1] .

[edit] Organisation

Research councils are non-departmental government bodies incorporated by Royal Charter. Each is governed by its own governing council comprising a mix of academic and non-academic members, appointed by the Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills following a public nomination process. The councils receive public funds from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, and each reports annually to the British Parliament. In 2008 the combined annual budget was around £3.5 billion. Of this over £1 billion is spent on research grants and training in UK higher education institutions, forming one element of the UK's dual support system of research funding. (The other element is provided through block grants provided by the UK Funding Councils for higher education.)

Research Council grants support around 50,000 researchers through 18,000 grants at any one time. About 8000 PhDs are awarded annually as a result of their funding. The Councils fund only a small proportion of doctoral training places, but their quality assurance processes ensure that all departments eligible to host a Council-funded student provide an excellent training for all doctoral students.

The Councils employ around 13,000 staff directly, of whom 9,000 are researchers and technicians working in institutes and facilities such as the British Antarctic Survey, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, the Roslin Institute and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. However, in the UK funding system only a few permanent institutes are directly controlled or core-funded by the Councils. These are all in areas where a permanent infrastructure of some kind is required. Most Council funding is allocated on a competitive basis, with few awards lasting more than 10 years. In this way the Councils are able to shape the UK's capacity to meet changing research challenges.

Research council funding decisions are guided by the Haldane Principle, the idea that decisions are best made by researchers, independently from Government. Research council funding competitions use open peer review.

[edit] Councils

There are seven Research Councils:

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC website)
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC website)
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC website)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC website)
• Medical Research Council (MRC website)
• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC website)
• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC website)

The MRC has its head office in central London, the AHRC is based in Bristol and the other five research councils and RCUK operate from a single complex in Swindon. The Research Councils have run a joint Office in Brussels since 1984 - the United Kingdom Research Office (UKRO) and in 2007 - 2008 set up three further offices: in Beijing, China ([2]), Washington DC, ([3]) and New Delhi, India ([4]).

In 2007 the Government raised the status of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to become, in effect, a research council for industry. This was motivated by a concern that the seven research councils, with their emphasis on academic excellence, were giving insufficient attention to innovation through the application of research findings. The TSB has set up its headquarters next door to the Swindon offices of the research councils.

[edit] History

The MRC has the longest pedigree, dating back to 1913. The Science & Technology Act of 1965 created the Science Research Council (SRC) and NERC. Also founded in 1965 was the Social Sciences Research Council, later to become ESRC. The SRC became the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in the early 1980s, and in 1994 split into EPSRC and PPARC. In April 2007 PPARC (the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council) and another independent council, CCLRC (the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils) which primarily funded research in areas of the physical sciences, were combined to form the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). In 1998 the AHRC was created from the former Arts & Humanities Research Board which had been managed by the British Academy.