§ Mr. PendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the number of university and interdisciplinary research centres that have already been founded and those in the planning stages, together with the subjects investigated and the geographical locations and the funding for each.
Mr. JacksonAs regards the initiative by the advisory board for the research councils for the establishment of interdisciplinary research centres, commitments have already been made for the following centres:
£ million Superconductivity—Cambridge 7.2 over 6 years Molecular sciences—Oxford 8.9 over 6 years Engineering design—Glasgow 6.3 over 6 years Surface science—Liverpool 10.4 over 6 years Semiconductor materials—London 9.7 over 6 years Toxicology—Under consideration 8.0 over 5 years Molecular medicine—Oxford 3.5 over 5 years Human communication—Edinburgh 2.5 over 5 years A substantial number of proposals for the establishment of further IRCs are currently under consideration by the research councils.
Additionally, there already exist a large number of research centres and units in universities, some of which pursue interdisciplinary research.