HC Deb 06 July 1936 vol 314 cc860-1W
Mr. MARKHAM

asked the Lord President of the Council what sums have been allocated for non-commercial research work in universities during the past five years; and whether any encouragement has been given by the Government to universities to foster such research?

Mr. R. MacDONALD

It is not practicable to devise a method of assessing total University expenditure on research as distinct from expenditure on other purposes, even if it were possible to formulate an adequate definition of noncommercial research. As regards the second part of the question, encouragement has been given by the Government to foster certain forms of specialised research and the amount expended to this end in the past five years is approximately £1,866,000. In addition, the Vote for Universities and Colleges, Great Britain, has provided during the past five years, £9,300,000, distributed for the main part in block grants to University institutions for their maintenance as centres of higher education and research.