Select Committee on Science and Technology Eighth Report


BACKGROUND

4. Most public sector research in the UK is conducted in higher education institutions (HEIs). The remainder is conducted in public sector research establishments (PSREs), either owned and run by Government directly, or owned or supported by the Research Councils. This report is primarily concerned with research staff in HEIs but will consider researchers employed directly by the Research Councils.

Public sector research funding

5. Public sector research funding comes from a ranges of sources. In HEIs, the infrastructure funding, including salaries of academic staff on open-ended contracts, is provided by the Higher Education Funding Councils in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (known together as the Funding Councils) by means of a block grant.[1] This is one half of what is known as the Dual Support System. The other half comes in the form of project grants, primarily from the six grant-awarding Research Councils and the Arts and Humanities Research Board. These grants typically provide the funding for equipment and the salaries of staff employed for specific and defined research projects which are not funded by the HEIs' block grant. Project funding is also provided by government departments, the European Union, charities (notably the Wellcome Trust) and industry. These external funders pay varying proportions of the project's indirect (overhead) costs. In a research-intensive university, there is likely to be a 50:50 mix of Funding Council and project funding (for example, from Research Councils).[2]

6. Over the past 20 years the proportion of Funding Council funding relative to project funding has dropped.[3] As a result a higher proportion of a university's research income comes from short project grants and more researchers have been employed on short contracts for the duration of the project only.

Research careers

7. A typical university research group consists of one or more 'principal investigators' (PIs) (usually a member of academic staff who leads the research and co­ordinates the activities of the group), one or more postdoctoral researchers (postdocs), and a number of PhD students. Postdocs conduct research on a specific topic under the supervision and direction of the PI. Often they are also involved in informal mentoring and instruction of PhD students and undergraduate teaching.[4]

8. Scientists and engineers working in universities can be divided into two main groups: academic staff or academic-related staff.[5] The first group are involved in teaching or research, or a combination of the two. Academic-related staff are employed on a short-term contractual basis and are principally involved in research. These are known as contract research staff (CRS), or sometimes as postdocs where the researcher has a doctorate.

9. In the traditional scientific career, a doctorate would be followed by one or two postdoctoral positions, funded by project grants. Often one of these positions would be overseas, the USA in particular. After this, with the researcher in his or her early 30s, an established permanent lectureship would be sought. The researcher would then embrace teaching as part of his/her duties and continue up the university career ladder, culminating in some cases in a professorship.

10. For the lucky or talented few this is still the case, but from the swelling numbers of CRS it is clear that postdocs find it increasingly hard to find a permanent university position. In 2000-01 there were around 140,000 teachers and researchers working in UK HEIs. Of these, 43,000 were exclusively engaged in research, of whom 41,000 were engaged on a fixed term contract.[6] This compares with 30,000 on fixed-term contracts in 1994-95. The number of women CRS has risen faster than the number of men (an increase of 58% against 20%). Across all disciplines in 1999-2000, 28% of full-time research staff were CRS but in science and engineering it was 42%, and in the biosciences in particular the figure is well over 50%.[7] Between 1994-95 and 2000-01 the number of permanent academic positions increased but less quickly (from 67,000 to 76,000).[8] Only the catering industry employs a higher proportion of fixed term contract workers than higher education.[9]

11. In the title of this report we use the phrase "short-term research contracts". Fixed-term contracts can vary from one month to five years, with most between two and three years. Our phrase embraces all such contract lengths.

12. Two thirds of a university's Funding Council block grant is based on the amount and type of teaching it undertakes. Hence it is teaching that largely determines the number of academic staff appointed on open-ended contracts in most HEIs. Since the block grant has failed to keep pace with the growth of research project funding there are insufficient permanent positions for CRS to apply for. At the same time as the growth in public sector research, there has been a reduction in the number and size of UK corporate research laboratories, reducing the options for a researcher unable to secure a permanent academic position.[10] In an Institute of Physics survey conducted in 1999, only 20% of researchers who commenced their first postdoc position between 1988 and 1993 had achieved a permanent faculty position, while a further 20% had remained in higher education in fixed-term positions.


1   Since education is devolved, there are four separate funding councils: the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales; Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and Department for Education and Learning Northern Ireland. Back

2   HM Treasury, SET for success: The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills. (Report of Sir Gareth Roberts' Review), April 2002, paragraph 5.2 Back

3   Second Report from the Science and Technology Committee, Session 2001-02, The Research Assessment Exercise, HC 507, Ev 9 Back

4   HM Treasury, SET for success: The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills. (Report of Sir Gareth Roberts' Review), April 2002, para 5.4 Back

5   HM Treasury, SET for success: The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills. (Report of Sir Gareth Roberts' Review), April 2002, para 5.1 Back

6   Ev 49 Back

7   HM Treasury, SET for success: The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills. (Report of Sir Gareth Roberts' Review), April 2002, para 5.6 Back

8   Ev 43, 49 Back

9   Ev 96 Back

10   HM Treasury, SET for success: The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematical skills. (Report of Sir Gareth Roberts' Review), April 2002, para 5.5 Back


 
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Prepared 20 November 2002