§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the original budget for the LINK scheme; how much has so far been spent; how much higher education institutions were expected to generate from industrial contracts; and what their performance has been against such targets.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggThe orginal target for the LINK scheme was £420 million, with half the funding to be provided by industry and half by Government. To date 24 programme areas of research have been approved, committing a total expenditure from Government of £160 million, provided that industry comes forward with a matching £160 million for individual projects. Most of the 65 research projects currently under way have become active only within the last 12 months. Industrial grants are paid in arrears, after costs have been incurred, and claims might not be submitted for up to 12 months after the work has been done. Consequently, the actual expenditure to the end of March this year is only around £7 million, but this is expected to increase significantly during the current financial year.
Higher education institutions are involved in about 60 of the 65 active projects. The total value of these projects is over £37 million, and it is estimated that higher education institutions will get about half the total Government funding for these projects.
The LINK scheme was set up to encourage collaborative research between industry and the whole of the science base. While no specific targets were formulated for how much higher education institutions were expected to generate from industrial contracts, HEIs have secured the major share of support for science base partners in projects under LINK.