RCUK Strategy

RCUK Strategy 2011-14

Steven HillResearch Councils UK Strategy Unit

RCUK Framework

RCUK, working in partnership, cultivates the essential research and skills to provide the bedrock for the UK to have a productive economy, healthy society and contribute to a sustainable world.

Summary

• The context: funding and performance of the UK research base– Funding and concentration– Performance

• Strategic priorities for RCUK– Addressing societal challenges– Impact, innovation and growth– Efficient and effective research base

History of research funding

Source: SET statistics (2011)

Types of research

basic

applied - specific

development

applied - strategic

Source: Royal Society: ‘The Scientific Century’ (2010)

Spending Review 2010: headlines

• Total Research Councils + HEFCE (QR and HEIF) resource budget fixed and ring-fenced for 2011-15 (approx 10% cut in real terms)

• Real-terms protection for MRC resource budget• Implementation of Wakeham review of fEC 6-7% saving,

reinvested within ring-fence• 44% reduction in Research Council capital budget• Additional capital for Francis Crick Institute (£220M from

Health budget)• Additional capital provided since Spending Review

– Budget 2011 - £50M for campus investments (Daresbury, Babraham, Norwich)

– Autumn 2011 - £50M for graphene research centre; £145M e-Infrastructure

• 15% reduction in administration budget

Allocations by Council – CSR 2010

Concentration of research funding

Our policy is to support excellent research as identified by peer review. This results in relatively high concentration of research funding.

Institutional concentration of funding

Total spend to institution across RCUK 2008-09 (excluding subscriptions & institutes) (top 30)

£0

£20,000,000

£40,000,000

£60,000,000

£80,000,000

£100,000,000

£120,000,000

£140,000,000

£160,000,000

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RCUK funding more concentrated than QR funding

goes to number / percentage of QR

HEIs

% of QR

funding ←

% of RCUK funding

→

goes to number / percentage of RCUK

HEIs*

goes to number / percentage of

RCUK institutions

Total QR funding used for calculations:

£1.98bn

RCUK HEI funding used for calculations: £1.82bn

Total RCUK funding used for calculations:

£2.59bn

9 / 5.7% ← 40 → 6 / 3.3% 11 / 3.3%

13 / 8.2% ← 50 → 9 / 4.9% 16 / 4.8%

19 / 11.9% ← 60 → 13 / 7.1% 23 / 6.9%

27 / 17.0% ← 70 → 19 / 10.3% 33 / 9.9%

32 / 20.1% ← 75 → 22 / 12.0% 39 / 11.6%

38 / 23.9% ← 80 → 27 / 14.7% 46 / 13.7%

47 / 29.6% ← 85 → 32 / 17.4% 55 / 16.4%

58 / 36.5% ← 90 → 38 / 20.7% 68 / 20.3%

75 / 47.2% ← 95 → 49 / 26.6% 92 / 27.5%

[159 institutions] ← 100 → [184 institutions] [335 institutions]

Regional concentration of RCUK funding

Summary



UK research performance – the headlines

• Best, or near best, in the world

• Share of output falling despite absolute output increasing

• Total investment in research low by international standards

• Easily the most productive research base in the world

Overall citation performance

Source: BIS/Elsevier (2011); Thompson-Reuters (2011)

Performance by subject area


Reasons for UK success? ‘Brain circulation’

Source: BIS/Elsevier (2011)

Reasons for UK success? Well-rounded portfolio

Source: BIS/Elsevier (2011)

Summary



Addressing societal challenges

Productive economy

• Digital economy•Global uncertainties

Healthy society

• Lifelong health and wellbeing

Sustainable world

• Living with environmental change• Energy• Global food security

Total spend 2011-15: £2 billion

Summary



Maximising impact: a new priority?

Realising Our Potential 1993

Research Budget Allocations 2010

Types of research

basic

applied - specific

development

applied - strategic

Source: Royal Society: ‘The Scientific Century’ (2010)

Overall citation performance


UK innovation performance

Source: EU (2010) ‘Innovation Union Scorecard 2010’

Business-HE collaboration

Source: OECD (2011) ‘Science, Technology and Industry Scorecard’

Opening the research system

• Open data

• Open access to research publications

• People flow between sectors

• Technology and Innovation Centres

• Public engagement with research

• Fostering international collaboration

RCUK principles: data policy

• Publicly funded research data are a public good, produced in the public interest, which should be made openly available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner that does not harm intellectual property.

• Institutional and project specific data management policies and plans should be in accordance with relevant standards and community best practice. Data with acknowledged long-term value should be preserved and remain accessible and usable for future research.

• To enable research data to be discoverable and effectively re-used by others, sufficient metadata should be recorded and made openly available to enable other researchers to understand the research and re-use potential of the data. Published results should always include information on how to access the supporting data.

• RCUK recognises that there are legal, ethical and commercial constraints on release of research data. To ensure that the research process is not damaged by inappropriate release of data, research organisation policies and practices should ensure that these are considered at all stages in the research process.

• To ensure that research teams get appropriate recognition for the effort involved in collecting and analysing data, those who undertake Research Council funded work may be entitled to a limited period of privileged use of the data they have collected to enable them to publish the results of their research. The length of this period varies by research discipline and, where appropriate, is discussed further in the published policies of individual Research Councils.

• In order to recognise the intellectual contributions of researchers who generate, preserve and share key research datasets, all users of research data should acknowledge the sources of their data and abide by the terms and conditions under which they are accessed.

• It is appropriate to use public funds to support the management and sharing of publicly-funded research data. To maximise the research benefit which can be gained from limited budgets, the mechanisms for these activities should be both efficient and cost-effective in the use of public funds.

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/DataPolicy.aspx


• Open data






Concordat for Public Engagement

• UK research organisations have a strategic commitment to public engagement

• Researchers are recognised and valued for their involvement with public engagement activities

• Researchers are enabled to participate in public engagement activities through appropriate training, support and opportunities

• The signatories and supporters will undertake regular reviews of their and the wider research sector's progress in fostering public engagement across the UK

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/per/Pages/Concordat.aspx


• Open data






Summary



Demand management

Research Council data; Analysis from Times Higher Education

Demand management

• Principles:– work in partnership with universities to support them in

self-managing demand and delivering quality control of research proposals;

– discuss plans for demand management with stakeholders; – develop and share tools for demand management across

RCUK and universities, share good practice and strive for continual improvement;

– maintain awareness of the effect of demand management on the wider community and stakeholders.

ESRC: consultation outcome

Example: EPSRC repeatedly unsuccessful applicants policy

From Nature

Improving the efficiency of the research base

• Continued commitment to funding research at 80% full economic cost

• Implementation of Wakeham review– Changes to indirect costs element of fEC– Sharing of equipment and facilities

• Reinvestment of savings within the ring-fence

Summary



RCUK Strategy

Technology

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