Research Councils

HC Deb 05 June 2000 vol 351 cc110-1W

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) for which areas of research covered by each Research Council the budget has contracted in each year since 1994; [122134]

(2) what the breakdown was of the funding of each Research Council by main programme of activity in each year since 1994. [122132]

Ms Hewitt

The evolving nature of the Research Councils' programmes makes it impossible to provide consistent expenditure figures for all programme areas over the period requested. In particular, the Economic and Social Research Council established a new set of themes in 1995–96 and the Medical Research Council made major changes to the structure of its portfolio in 1995–96 and again in 1999–2000. The available information for each of the six Councils is set out, in cash terms, in the table.

Research Councils: spend on programmes from 1994–95 to 1999–2000
£ million
	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
BBSRC
Agri-Food	35.0	33.6	37.0	34.2	33.0	33.1
Biomolecular Sciences	19.6	20.2	21.3	24.7	28.7	30.2
Genes and Developmental Biology	22.6	24.8	26.8	24.7	27.3	28.5
Plant and Microbial Sciences	26.8	25.0	24.4	26.3	26.7	28.0
Animal Sciences	17.5	16.3	16.9	25.0	21.3	21.5
Biochemistry and Cell Biology	20.2	20.3	19.2	18.3	19.4	20.4
Engineering and Biological Systems	14.8	16.4	18.8	16.1	14.8	15.0
	156.4	156.6	164.3	169.3	171.2	176.7
EPSRC
Engineering	80.2	79.8	85.8	89.8	93.0	96.2
Chemistry	32.8	36.0	37.8	37.6	33.3	43.4
Maths	11.4	12.0	13.3	12.2	12.2	14.1
Physics	25.6	22.8	25.0	24.2	25.1	32.9
Materials	56.0	53.6	54.4	49.3	46.6	46.4
IT and Computing	56.9	57.0	60.0	59.3	58.7	59.0
Other	85.3	80.7	75.5	87.5	82.8	86.7
	348.2	341.9	351.8	359.9	351.7	378.7
ESRC
Pre 1995–96	34.8	—	—	—	—	—
Research Grants	13.1	13.7	14.3	13.4	15.0	13.4
Innovation	6.3	4.9	5.8	6.2	5.0	6.3
Economic Performance and Development	—	5.6	5.5	5.6	5.7	6.0
Environment and Sustainability	—	2.6	2.7	3.1	3.7	3.4
Globalisation, Regions and Emerging Markets	—	3.1	3.2	3.1	3.3	3.4
Governance, Regulation and Accountability	—	2.9	3.0	3.7	4.0	4.0
Technology and People	—	3.0	3.1	3.3	2.5	3.5
Knowledge, Communication and Learning	—	2.9	3.0	3.3	5.3	3.4
Lifespan, Lifestyles and Health	—	3.9	4.0	4.6	4.8	5.3
Social Inclusion and Exclusion	—	3.9	4.1	4.6	7.2	4.4
Non-theme training, resources and policy	0.5	9	8.9	8.3	7.2	10.3
Taught Courses	4.3	6.1	6.1	6.1	4.6	6.8
	59.0	61.6	63.7	65.3	68.3	70.2
MRC
Inheritance and development	32.0	—	—	—	—	—
Systems	36.0	—	—	—	—	—
Organs and cancer	15.0	40.0	42.0	40.0	45.0	—

Research Councils: spend on programmes from 1994–95 to 1999–2000
£ million
	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
Molecules and cells	57.0	60.0	63.0	61.0	65.0	—
Infections	54.0	56.0	56.0	59.0	64.0	—
Nutrition and environment	19.0	18.0	12.0	10.0	12.0	—
Genetics	—	37.0	40.0	45.0	47.0	—
Health	—	11.0	13.0	16.0	18.0	—
Neuroscience and mental health	57.0	54.0	51.0	54.0	58.0	63.0
Cell Biology	—	—	—	—	—	57.0
Genetics, molecular structure and dynamics	—	—	—	—	—	57.0
Immunology	—	—	—	—	—	65.0
Medical physiology	—	—	—	—	—	55.0
People	—	—	—	—	—	40.0
	270.0	276.0	277.0	285.0	309.0	337.0
NERC
Atmospheric Science	6.6	9.3	8.1	7.9	7.2	7.9
Earth Observation	7.4	9.7	7.8	11.5	10.0	10.7
Earth Science	31.4	29.8	35.6	34.4	34.7	36.0
Marine Science	36.4	42.0	34.6	35.2	39.4	40.9
Terrestrial and Freshwater Sciences	32.8	36.7	32.6	34.7	39.9	39.3
Polar Sciences	24.9	28.1	28.7	28.6	28.7	32.0
Technology Transfer and taught courses	6.7	9.3	7.8	7.6	7.9	8.7
Other	1.1	4.6	3.2	2.7	4.0	3.7
	147.2	169.5	158.5	162.6	171.9	179.2
PPARC
Astronomy	82.1	90.0	91.6	91.5	90.8	90.5
Particle Physics	80.3	88.4	89.9	81.9	95.8	76.2
Education and Training	6.3	7.1	7.6	8.1	7.9	10.0
Exchange rate variation and restructuring	10.4	17.2	24.4	16.4	14.6	10.0
	179.0	202.7	213.5	197.9	209.1	186.7

Strictly speaking, there are no programme areas where the expenditure has diminished in each year over the period, although the Councils have increased the budgets for high priority programmes at the expense of certain others. For example, the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council has significantly enhanced its support for biomolecular science over the period, while keeping some other programmes broadly level in cash terms.

The uneven spend on PPARC particle physics is largely due to the timing of payments of the UK subscription to the CERN laboratory in Geneva.

Further details of individual programmes can be found in the Councils' Annual Reports, copies of which are in the Library.