§ Mrs. Anne CampbellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many applications were received for responsive mode (non-ROPAS) grants by the(a) the Medical Research Council, (b) the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, (c) the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, (d) the Particle
1994 responsive mode1 (non-ROPA) grants Analysis of applications and awards by Research Council Research Council Number of applications Number x- rated Number of awards Number of ineligible Number rejected BBSRC 1,107 775 313 — 794 EPSRC1 — — — — — ESRC 925 562 178 47 747 MRC — — — — — NERC 486 275 115 — 371 PPARC1 412 353 294 0 118
1995 responsive mode1 (non-ROPA) grants Analysis of applications and awards by Research Council Research Council Number of applications Number x-rated Number of awards Number of ineligible Number rejected BBSRC 1,121 879 253 — 868 EPSRC1 1,036 — 417 — 619 ESRC 834 522 225 18 609 MRC 987 790 217 — 770 NERC 524 346 101 — 423 PPARC1 259 221 181 0 78 1For EPSRC and PPARC readily available grants data does not distinguish responsive and non-responsive proposals. The figures shown are therefore for all non-ROPA grants.
BBSRC: the council does not record the number of ineligible applications received.
ESRC: 'ineligible' applications include those rejected by the office as unsuitable for processing on technical grounds (outside Council's remit or insufficiently specified). Also includes applications withdrawn by candidates, the ESRC have supplied two sets of figures for the 'rejected' category;
the figures shown are for all applications not funded which includes unfunded alphas;
the alternative figures are 363 (1994) and 312 (1995) for all non-alpha applications not funded which is the category which ESRC regards as 'reject'.
EPSRC: the new EPSRC grants system began on 1 January 1995. The period 1 April 1994 to September 1994 was spent dealing with applications made to SERC and Phase 1 ROPAs. This was followed by what was essentially an inter-regnum during which responsive applications received and grants awarded were insignificant and mainly related to maintaining support for existing groups;
the EPSRC does not have closing dates for its grant scheme;
readily available grants data does not distinguish responsive and non-responsive proposals;
the data relates to responsive mode proposals (excluding ROPAs) received and fully considered between 1 January and 31 July 1995.
MRC: the figures relate to the 1 August 1994–31 July 1995 grant round;
826WPhysics and Astronomy Research Council and (e) the Economic and Social Research Council in 1994–95; how many were turned down because of ineligibility; how many were x-rated; and how many were (i) accepted and (ii) rejected. [2991]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe information requested is set out in the following tables. Because of the differing ways the research councils organise their grant schemes it is not possible to provide all the information precisely as requested.
Particular attention should be paid to the explanatory notes.
MRC do not keep statistics on ineligible applications.
NERC: figures are for academic years 1993–94 and 1994–95; ineligible applications are sifted out at an early stage and are therefore not sent for peer review or considered by the Research Grants Training and Awards Committee. As a consequence no applications fall into the ineligible category.
PPARC: PPARC have been unable to identify responsive and non-responsive grants separately; figures therefore reflect the whole of the grants portfolio;
it is not yet possible to provide a full picture for '1995' because PPARC is part way through a grants round.