Higher Education Funding Councils (Hansard, 25 May 2004)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)
My Lords, the Government are committed to ensuring sustainability in research throughout the dual support system. By 2006, HEFCE research funding will increase by almost 24 per cent over 2003, and the research councils will receive an extra £120 million within the £2.9 billion science budget to contribute more towards the full costs of research. Additionally, £1 billion is committed, through the science research investment fund, to continue addressing the backlog of investment in the UK research base.

§ Lord Walton of Detchant
My Lords, in thanking the Minister for that reply, may I make it clear, as a former member of the Medical Research Council, that I do not in any way suggest that research council funding should he reduced? Indeed, it should he increased, as the noble Baroness has suggested. But under the dual support system, the universities are required to provide, through infrastructure funding, well equipped laboratories and facilities in which research can be carried out with direct funding from the research councils and charities. Many years ago, when the binary line was abolished and the polytechnics became universities, the then advisory board for the research councils, believing that the infrastructure money would be spread too thinly, arranged for the University Grants Committee to transfer that funding to the research councils. This has resulted in the long-term imbalance between the infrastructure funding and the actual research funding by the councils. Is it not time that that particular balance was restored?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, as a result of the 1998 and 2002 spending reviews and the joint infrastructure fund, which has now translated into the science research investment fund, that is precisely what 1188 we are trying to do. We are working to bring the dual support system together in order to address the very particular issues that the noble Lord has raised.

§ The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth
My Lords, following on from the noble Lord's Question, could the Minister tell us what provision is being made for research in emerging areas, such as nursing?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, we have made it clear in our documentation, as the right reverend Prelate will have seen, that it is important in all our research programmes to look at emerging research— nursing is a very good example— to ensure that we are able to support those universities and institutions in developing research in new areas which are particularly relevant.

§ Baroness Sharp of Guildford
My Lords, the Minister will know that various reviews have suggested from time to time that it would be a good idea if the research councils were funded to the full cost of the overheads that they have to meet. Is there any hope that the research councils will get funding that meets the full overhead costs of the projects undertaken?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, the Government are supporting institutions with regard to a transparent approach to costing to ensure that institutions cost, charge and recover the full economic costs of their research. I think that that is the way of addressing the issue.

§ Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
My Lords, can the Minister tell us whether there is any monitoring by the Government of the amount of time that researchers waste when they have inconsistent decisions from different local research ethics committees? The protocol can be passed by one but turned down by others, and the researchers have to go back to the drawing board to satisfy perhaps one out of several LREC decisions.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I am not sure that I can answer that specifically. However, we are very concerned in terms of economic recovery in particular to have a very light-touch approach towards bureaucracy, which I think was, at least in part, what the noble Baroness was referring to. Ensuring that we have little of it is a critical part of that.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that even with all that the Government are doing to try and bring universities together, there is still quite a lot of duplication in research in various universities? Could this not be looked at with a view to encouraging universities to work closer together?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, there is good evidence of institutions working very collaboratively. With respect to the White Paper, we are keen to encourage universities to be able to work together, in the best sense 1189 of the term, to pool their ability in order to get the best out of research. I think that that is happening in good measure.

§ Lord Roberts of Conwy
My Lords, what is the Government's system for evaluating this research?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, the research assessment exercise, as the noble Lord will know, carried out by Sir Gareth Roberts, has looked extensively at research for the next review in 2008. As we develop from that exercise, with the support of the institutions involved, I think it will become clear exactly how that will be carried forward. I am very happy to write to the noble Lord and give him further details about Sir Gareth Roberts's work in this context.

§ Baroness Warnock
My Lords, could the Minister tell us whether there is any move afoot to regularise and bring together the work of various ethics committees? I am going back to the question of my noble friend Lady Finlay. It seems to me that the decisions of one ethics committee should sometimes be allowed to permit another ethics committee to pass a project for research without further investigation. Is there any move in this direction?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I am not aware of any move in that direction, but I shall of course write to the noble Baroness if I discover that there is.

§ Baroness Carnegy of Lour
My Lords, when the Minister writes to the noble Baronesses who questioned her, will she say whether the system that was in place when I was chairman of a research ethics committee still operates? When research was being carried out in a number of different places in the United Kingdom, there was a mechanism whereby the research ethics committees tried to co-ordinate their responses so that such a problem could not arise. If such a system no longer exists, perhaps the Government could consider that.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, my understanding is that what the noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy, says is still the case. However, I will investigate further because these are important issues. Indeed, I will ensure that a copy of the reply is placed in the Library.