APPENDIX 3
Memorandum submitted by the British Academy
1.1 The British Academy, established in
1902 by Royal Charter, is the national, UK-wide, academy for the
promotion of the humanities and social sciences. Composed of c.
750 Fellows, it is a working Academy: it both recognises and represents
the best of British research in the humanities and social sciences;
it organises wide-ranging programmes of activities and events
at a variety of levels as a learned society; and it also acts
as a grant-giving agency.
1.2 In Britain, unlike many other countries,
there is no single national Academy of Sciences. Broadly speaking,
the British Academy acts in regard to the humanities and social
sciences in the same way that the Royal Society acts in regard
to the physical and biological sciences. In its grant-giving,
moreover, the Academy offers distinctive forms of funding which
do not duplicate but complement those provided by the Economic
and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research
Board.
1.3 Stated more formally, the aims and objectives
of the British Academy, which are reviewed each year by its Council,
are:
— to represent the interests of the
humanities and social sciences nationally and internationally;
— to give recognition to excellence;
— to promote and support advanced research;
— to further international collaboration
and exchanges;
— to promote public understanding and
appreciation of the humanities and social sciences;
— to publish the results of research.
FINANCE
2.1 The British Academy receives a Government
grant-in-aid through the Department for Education and Skills which
in 2002-03 totals £13 million, of which £1.7 million
is for administration. The allocations for the various programmes
of activities are as follows:
| Research programmes |
£ |
| Grants | 2,695,665
|
| Projects | 850,000
|
| Posts | 3,300,000
|
| Policy | 35,000 |
| International programmes |
|
| Exchanges and joint activities |
725,000 |
| Overseas Institutes etc | 3,300,000
|
| Publication and activities programmes |
|
| Publications | —
|
| Meetings and conferences | 187,000
|
| Public Understanding | 195,000
|
| £11,283,665 |
| |
2.2 In addition the Academy has a small private endowment,
mainly for restricted purposes as laid down by the original donor
or benefactor; it levies an annual subscription from the Fellows;
and it receives grants from a variety of private research foundations.
The sums raised are of the order of £750,000 to £1 million
annually.
2.3 Of the £1.7 million available from the grant-in-aid
for administrative expenses, £265,000 is paid to the Crown
Estate in rent for the Academy's premises in 10 Carlton House
Terrace. Other occupants of the building, who include the Foundation
for Science and Technology and the London offices of the Arts
and Humanities Research Board and six overseas British research
institutes, contribute c £90,000 towards the rent, and an
additional sum of c £100,000 is raised from charges to external
bodies which hire rooms for meetings and conferences. The Academy
of Medical Sciences occupies three rooms in the building rent-free
(on which see further below, para 5.2).
ACTIVITIES
3.1 The Academy's principal activities take three main
forms (a) research programmes; (b) international programmes; (c)
publications, meetings and other events.
(a) Research Programmes
3.2 Grants During the past year the Academy has
made over 1100 awards under its various grant schemes (more than
twice the number made by the ESRC and AHRB combined). The awards
mostly consist of small grants (up to £5,000) to individuals
in support of their personal research (as opposed to the grants
for institutionally-based research projects which are provided
by the research councils); and conference grants, to ensure that
leading British research is adequately represented at conferences
abroad and that key speakers from overseas can take part in similar
meetings in this country. There is within these schemes an emphasis
on the work of younger scholars. About one-third of the grants
go to social scientists and two-thirds to researchers in the humanities.
The Academy operates in wholly responsive mode.
3.3 Projects Project support goes notably (£330,000)
to the New Dictionary of National Biography, due to be published
in 2004, c. 15 per cent of whose research costs have been contributed
by the Academy, the remaining 85 per cent being found by the Oxford
University Press[2]. The
remainder (£520,000) goes to some forty long-term collective
research undertakings, many of them the British contribution to
international projects. (As a result of the creation of the AHRB,
and after a transitional period, the Academy is bringing to a
close its support for the present portfolio of projects from the
end of March 2003.)
3.4 Posts In all there are some 125 individuals
in universities who are currently holders of research posts supported
by the Academy:
— each year 30 appointments are made to three-year
postdoctoral fellowships. The holders will have recently completed
a PhD, and will be enabled to obtain experience of independent
research and teaching in a suitable university environment and
helped to improve their prospects of obtaining permanent academic
posts by the end of their fellowship;
— thirteen two-year research readerships are awarded
each year. They are intended to relieve established mid-career
researchers of their normal teaching and administrative commitments,
so that they may undertake or complete an approved programme of
sustained research which will not only be an important contribution
to knowledge but also help to enhance their future careers;
— there are three holders of British Academy research
professorships, tenable for three years and designed for established
senior researchers who have already published works of distinction
in their field.
In these last two schemes the Academy meets the cost of a
substitute post, rather than the stipend of the award-holder,
so that, in addition to providing an opportunity for advanced
research, there is an opening for a younger researcher to gain
experience and become established in the academic profession.
3.5 Policy Research sponsored by the Academy may
well turn out to have implications for public policy or provide
understanding of the context and constraints within which policy
decisions will be made. But the Academy has in addition developed
mechanisms to mount independent, research policy related studies
and to provide advice to the Government and other public bodies
on issues relating to the humanities and social sciences. Examples
include The inclusion of the humanities and social sciences
in the EU's 6th Framework Programme; Devolution and the arts,
the humanities and the social sciences (jointly with the Royal
Society of Edinburgh); and A Review of graduate studies in
the humanities and social sciences (all 2001). The major study
currently under way is concerned with The contribution of the
humanities and social sciences to the knowledge-driven economy.
The Academy also responds to consultation documents issued by
a wide variety of bodies, concerning such topics as the British
Library's acquisitions policy, the Government's Green Paper on
the reform of the school curriculum: 14—19, and the AHRB's
review of its postgraduate support arrangements.
(b) International Programmes
3.6 The Academy's own international activities include:
— maintaining relations with overseas academies
and research organisations with a view to promoting academic visits
and exchanges and such other forms of international collaboration
as may advance the interests of the humanities and social sciences
in general and of researchers from the UK in particular;
— administering a series of grant schemes for British
researchers, concentrating on the support of collaborative work—projects
and networks; and
— overseeing the Academy's membership of appropriate
international organisations such as the Union Académique
Internationale, ALLEA (All European Academies) and the European
Science Foundation.
3.7 In addition the Academy provides core funding for
twelve UK-based organisations, seven which maintain research institutes
overseas[3], four which
sponsor research abroad[4],
and the Council for British Archaeology. The underlying objective
in providing core funding is to maintain, and where possible extend,
the traditional strengths and standing of British research, by
providing (a) the means to enable British researchers across a
wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences
to undertake original work, including fieldwork in areas of major
interest overseas; and (b) a base, where appropriate and/or necessary,
which provides a range of academic and logistical support services
in those areas, including buildings and residential accommodation,
computing services, and library, or archival facilities. In relation
to the Council for British Archaeology, the Academy seeks to enable
the CBA to promote the study and protection of Britain's historic
environment; to provide a forum for archaeological opinion; and
to inspire public interest in, and knowledge of, Britain's past.
(c) Publication and activities programmes
3.8 Publications The publications programme forms
a significant and expanding part of the Academy's activities.
During the course of the present year the Academy expects to publish
25 to 30 new volumes: the texts of the Academy lectures and conference
papers; Centenary Monographs, celebrating the best of British
research in the humanities and social sciences in the past 100
years and looking forward to the challenges of the next; monographs
by postdoctoral fellows; and volumes arising from research projects—in
particular, editions of historical documents and illustrated catalogues
of artefacts. Although the publishing programme is financed from
the Academy's Public Account, in recent years the Publications
Fund has recouped its expenditure from income and has therefore
made no call on the grant-in-aid.
3.9 Meetings The Academy organises some six to
eight conferences each year under its own auspices, and others
in collaboration with other bodies, the Royal Society and the
Academy of Medical Sciences among them. These meetings are in
addition to lectures, some in privately endowed series, held in
London and in universities around the country. Attendance at all
the events in London has increased significantly since the Academy
moved into its present premises.
3.10 Public Understanding Different kinds of meetings
are also organised, for less specialised audiences, intended to
increase public appreciation of research in the humanities and
social sciences. Some take place in London, others elsewhere.
Examples include: a session at the British Association for the
Advancement of Science in 2001 on From Scribe to Scanner: Computers,
Images and Ancient Documents; lectures for sixth-form pupils
given by leading economists; and a discussion meeting in collaboration
with the Institute of Contemporary Arts on Do we need to reclaim
literature from the academic critics? A book prize was initiated
in 2001 and is being organised again this year, to celebrate works
that are not only of the highest academic standard but also accessible
to non-specialist readers. And an internet-based media service,
an extension to the AlphaGalileo service covering science, has
been launched to increase press coverage of research stories in
the humanities.
3.11 As part of its strategy for increasing public understanding
and appreciation of the humanities and social sciences, the Academy
is actively developing its website with the aim that it becomes
a "first port of call" for researchers, academics, and
interested members of the general public. In particular the objective
is to promote the Academy's public understanding activities, and
to provide more information both about the research which the
Academy has funded and about the Academy itself. In July 2002
the Academy is launching PORTAL, its directory of electronic resources
for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The site
has been developed with the assistance of Fellows of the Academy,
its postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, and offers easy
access to online information about research resources. PORTAL
covers the whole range of subjects which fall within the Academy's
remit. Links to numerous types of resource are included such as
texts of major works, images of artworks and artefacts, datasets,
maps, and dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The various sites to
be found via PORTAL have been selected because they have high
quality, substantial content and potential utility, because their
ownership is responsible, and because the material is accessible
without subscription and kept up to date.
THE FELLOWSHIP
OF THE
ACADEMY
4.1 The Academy is composed of approximately 750 Fellows,
elected for their distinction in their various subjects. Each
year, under the Academy's statutes, a maximum of 35 elections
can be made, and customarily half the Fellows elected come from
humanities and half from social science disciplines.
4.2 Election to the Academy is for life (the average
age at election is 54). The running of the Academy is restricted
to Fellows under the age of 70, and most of the work falls on
those still in academic posts.
4.3 The electoral process is rigorous and careful. It
combines the preparation of written citations, thorough discussion,
a secret ballot, consolidation and discussion of lists in the
humanities and social sciences respectively, a recommendation
by the Council of the Academy, and the formal approval of the
Annual General Meeting. Recently, in a wide-ranging consultation,
all university Vice-Chancellors and heads of related research
institutions such as national libraries, museums and galleries
were invited to suggest possible names from within their institutions
of researchers suitable for election to the Fellowship. These
are now under consideration by committees of the appropriate disciplinary
Sections.
4.4 The Academy is careful to monitor the distribution
and representation of academic subjects in elections, the spread
of institutions, and the gender of candidates. The Council sets
out "guideline" figures for each subject, based on an
agreed benchmark. Selection panels are enjoined to scrutinise
the claims of all eligible candidates across the university spectrum,
concentrating especially on those institutions and departments
highly rated in the Research Assessment Exercise. As regards gender,
21 per cent of those elected to the Fellowship over the last three
years have been women (a rising trend over the past 15 years)—the
percentage of women university professors in the humanities and
social sciences is 14 per cent.
4.5 Among the duties of Fellows, which they perform without
remuneration, is the assessment of all applications made to the
Academy for research support. This constitutes a resource of substantial
value to the research community in the humanities and social sciences
which makes no call on the grant-in-aid.
ADMINISTRATION AND
PREMISES
5.1 The Academy employs a staff of 30. Since 1998 it
has occupied 10 Carlton House Terrace on the Crown Estate, a move
which thus brings the Academy into close and useful physical proximity
to the Royal Society. The premises give the Academy for the first
time in its history,[5]
a suitable number of public rooms, which have enabled it to organise
properly its own academic meetings, workshops, lectures and symposia,
and to offer its facilities as a service to the research community
and the public at large.
5.2 When the Academy was first offered the lease of 10
Carlton House Terrace, the building was in poor condition internally,
and an expensive refurbishment programme had to be mounted. The
necessary money was raised by the Academy privately (including
contributions from the Fellows themselves), and from charitable
and research Foundations. The largest single contributor was the
Wellcome Trust, to which the Academy and the Royal Society submitted
a joint application for assistance with the development of facilities
in the two adjoining buildings (No 6 and No 10), in order to promote
all aspects of the natural and the social sciences and the humanities.
Both bodies were keen to build on their existing collaboration,
and since they have a joint concern in representing the interests
of learned societies in their respective fields they wished to
be able to provide services and facilities to both their respective
communities. The Wellcome Trust made a generous grant of £1.8
million in response, of which £1 million went to the Academy
for the refurbishment of its building. The one condition attached
was that the fledgling Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) be granted
rent-free accommodation for a period five years in order to help
it to become established. The AMS occupies three rooms in 10 Carlton
House Terrace, and although it pays no rent at present it does
pay for the services provided to it. The rent-free period comes
to an end in early 2003 and negotiations are in progress between
the two Academies to agree the precise basis for payment of an
equitable share of the rent thereafter.
June 2002
2
A special grant for this purpose was provided by the then Department
for Education and Employment in 1992, which has since been consolidated
within the overall grant-in-aid. Back
3
The British School at Rome; the British School at Athens; the
British School of Archaeology at Ankara; The British Institute
in Eastern Africa; the British School of Archaeology in Iraq [in
abeyance]; the British Institute of Persian Studies; The Council
for British Research in the Levant. Back
4
The Egypt Exploration Society; the Society for Libyan Studies;
the Society for South Asian Studies; The Committee for South-East
Asian Studies. Back
5
From 1928 to 1982 the Academy occupied accommodation assigned
to it rent-free by the Government, in 6 Burlington Gardens and
later in Burlington House. Thereafter the Academy, having outgrown
the space assigned, moved to 20-21 Cornwall Terrace in Regent's
Park on the Crown Estate. Back
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