HC Deb 09 January 1990 vol 164 cc572-3W
Mr. Hanley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he proposes any changes in the arrangements for funding scientific research projects.

Mr. MacGregor

The Department has today issued a consultative paper proposing changes in the method of supporting research council-funded projects in universities and other higher education institutions. Copies are being placed in the Library.

Under the current system of dual support, research sponsored by research councils in universities and other higher education institutions is funded partly from grants from the councils and partly by the institutions from their block funding. In recent years, the boundary within this system determining who pays for what has become blurred. As the ABRC has pointed out, the resulting confusion can have harmful effects—giving rise to unproductive arguments about funding responsibility, to some projects being inadequately resourced and so inefficient, and to an inadequate appreciation of the real costs of projects and ill-informed decisions on the deployment of resources.

The consultative paper proposes a new, clearer definition of the boundary. We propose that from the academic year 1991–92, universities and other institutions would continue to pay the salaries of academic staff contributing to research council projects and to provide premises free of charge. All other costs of these projects would be met by the research councils through their grants. The change in responsibility would be reflected in the amount of grant which the research councils and the institutions receive from central Government.

There would be a small decrease in the block funding provided to the institutions through the Universities Funding Council and, to a much smaller extent, the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council, and a small matching increase in funding of the research councils from the science budget. The Department will discuss with other Education Departments the potential implications for those higher education institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not funded by the Universities Funding Council or the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council.