Research funding

Government’s decision to set out one-year budget ‘not surprising’ but creates questions over key reforms

Supporting pure open access publishers can save money and help cement the transition to full open access, says Helen Dobson

Downing Street may be forced to break manifesto pledge as Covid ruins public finances, warns Westminster insider

Report from Universities UK International explores how country can enhance its international academic reputation

Biomedical research charity to focus efforts on infectious diseases, mental health and global heating

New ARC funding arrangements will also redirect more money to applied research

The country’s deep belief in cooperation coexists with a quiet opportunism about recruitment and funding, say Tim Seidenschnur and Georg Krücken 

Australian budget package will tide over universities as they ‘wait and see’ if international fees rebound  

Jo Johnson tells MPs that new research funding agency could damage rest of system if allowed to be an ‘island’ in Cabinet Office

Participation in Athena SWAN-style initiative mooted as probable requirement for Horizon Europe grants

Success rate by award value also consistently lower for women, EPSRC report finds

Natural Environment Research Council defends decision to award fellowships entirely to men in 2019, but will review diversity processes

Internal Market Bill brings warnings that Horizon Europe deal will be near impossible if UK and EU are ‘embittered’ by trade talks failure

Nancy Rothwell tells THE its universities are ‘worried about building the research base’ amid ‘complete uncertainty’ on overseas recruitment during pandemic

Universities told that emphasis on tackling pandemic, climate change and digital transformation may require ‘reshuffling of money’

Leading academics respond to government plan to end link between charter mark and research funding, amid fears that equality issues will be sidelined

Australian sector must use ‘radical reset’ opportunity to refocus from grand challenges to the expertise needed to achieve them, says report

Education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven says too much research funding is now competitive, leading to intense work stress

UK science minister hits out at ‘spurious’ research metrics and ‘publish or perish’ lab culture

French package to nearly double budget of National Research Agency and add extra 30,000 university places

The focus on conducting research in independent institutes is holding the country back, say four academics

Move is part of package on red tape that also includes call for universities not to ‘feel pressured’ to join voluntary awards such as the Athena SWAN gender equality charter

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon calls for Horizon Europe’s funding to be ‘rebalanced’ to avoid reducing budget for ‘Champions League of research’

Latest Education at a Glance report says that impact of pandemic on international recruitment is about more than fee income 

Fourteen laureates join thousands of academics in pleading for funding for Europe’s flagship research scheme to be protected

Experts see move to allow applicants from beyond Europe to apply for UKRI funding as a key plank of the UK’s post-Brexit research base

The move will help the UK “attract talent from around the globe”, research funder says

Board offering religious, rather than medical, expertise discounts value of NIH projects

National Science Foundation’s new emphasis in postgraduate funding seen as backsliding on diversity

Despite disappointment over Horizon Europe budget, research could still benefit from a vast pandemic resilience fund – if national governments make it a priority

UKRI lead on place sees challenge to ‘idea that our research strength should all be concentrated in a relatively small number of institutions’

Minister risks Senate’s wrath by defying an order to disclose research council recommendations

This week’s deal will tip the balance back towards fundamental research – and it might not have been done at all, says Jan Palmowski 

Horizon Europe will receive only a tiny fraction of an unprecedented €750 billion pandemic recovery package

Manchester v-c also calls for rethink on REF and predicts UK will not join next EU research programme

The cash injection announced by the government last week is the most ambitious plan of its kind Ed Byrne has seen in 40 years

New Downing Street unit for attracting global talent and review of immigration rules among measures to support research

Grant funders to assess whether randomly picking ‘middle-level’ research projects for funding is fairer, more efficient and better for science

Sector leaders drafted to help solve loss of cross-subsidies from both international and domestic teaching

But data from UKRI show that fellowship success rates for women and BAME researchers are now higher than men and white academics 

Aiming of grants and loans at research-intensive providers raises fears for teaching-focused institutions

Universities warn research allocation is insufficient to brace against potential future pandemic shocks

As annual lobbying spending drops to $75 million, bigger campuses take more control

After more than a decade of federal spending increases, the country also looks set to overtake Japan on the proportion of GDP spent on innovation

Protecting the European research budget offers better long-term hopes of saving the European project

Impact usually originates in discoveries by smart people who could not possibly have dreamed of the application, says Douglas Kell

The lockdown is affecting not only final-year students. Without a blanket funding extension, many others will suffer and drop out, says Ross Goldstone

Newly funded work to include investigations into how the city brought infections down to nearly zero

After rejection of virtual peer review, federal agency halts new awards, prompting concerns for younger researchers

Virtual THE forum hears academics and funders explore how research landscape may change in wake of virus crisis

To stop economic destruction, we need to refocus vast resources from other productive activity – a truly grand prize might do the trick, says Chris Callaghan

‘Levelling up’ research spending may imperil regional universities’ sustainability, warn Grace Gottlieb and Graeme Reid 

Poor long-term support for too few laboratories hampers efforts to develop vaccines and therapies, say researchers

But budget bonanza will require ‘substantial expansion’ of R&D capacity in many regions

Focusing on how to deliver the UK government’s big ambitions for science could arrest the troubled funder’s drift, says John Womersley 

Influential Portuguese MEP calls for rapid UK-EU agreement on Horizon Europe association

Chancellor goes beyond Tory manifesto pledges and signals immediate £400 million boost for 2020-21

Figures in recent EUA report suggest auditing of EU-funded projects can cost universities five times more than reviews of national grants 

New university-provider alliance advocates for the bush to attract more funding and a bigger say

Restraining English per-student funding in wake of Augar review could reduce scope for cross-subsidy, says Hepi report