§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the number of applications which have been submitted to his Department during the last seven years for scientific research; and what proportion of such applications has been rejected.
§ Mr. WaldenEducational research apart, the Department does not directly fund scientific research in the way implied. Thus no such applications, other than for funding of educational research, have been submitted to the Department over the past seven years.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what resources he intends to make available to universities and polytechnics to enable them to raise their levels of provision for modern equipment in scientific laboratories.
§ Mr. WaldenFor the universities funded through the University Grants Committee, my right hon. Friend announced on 12 November, at columns 107–108, that in addition to the £4 million made available in the current year, he would be providing £30 million over the three years 1986–87 to 1988–89 to increase the amount available for the improvement of equipment in selected branches of research. This is on top of the general equipment grant for the universities, which for the academic year 1986–87 will be £95.1 million, the separate provision for equipment for the engineering and technology programme—about £9 million over the financial years 1985–86 to 1987–88—and provision by the Computer Board of £15.2 million in the 1986–87 financial year.
For the polytechnics, it is for the relevant local education authority to determine within the total prescribed expenditure allocation for all capital spending heads in the authority how much should be spent on FE 432W equipment. However, an additional £2.3 million is being made available over 1986–87 and 1987–88 to provide for the associated equipment costs of the eight polytechnics participating in the engineering and technology programme.