§ Mrs. Renee Shortasked the Secretary of State for Defence what criteria will be used for determining successful or unsuccessful applications for grants submitted by universities to his Department for research in areas of potential strategic interest within the framework of the £10 million joint research scheme to be administered 499W in co-operation with the Science and Engineering Research Council; and why universities have been given until 1 December to submit such applications.
§ Mr. ButlerApplications for grants under this scheme will be assessed by the relevant research council against their usual criteria and by the Ministry of Defence for relevance to defence, following initial submission to the former. No date has yet been announced for the first tranche of applications but a reasonable time span is clearly needed for documentation inviting applications to be prepared, and for academic institutions to consider what response to make. Up to £5 million will be made available for the scheme.