9 CONCLUSION
75. We conclude that ESRC is a well-run Council that
is, for the most part, managing its limited budget sensibly. We
commend ESRC's pro-active approach to seeking ways to improve
its own performance. We are pleased that ESRC has recognised the
need to increase the proportion of funding devoted to responsive
mode research and recommends that it does so without delay. We
also believe that ESRC's significant investments in ten-year Research
Centres cannot be justified in the light of the low availability
of responsive mode research funding. ESRC's decision to move to
the quota system for the allocation of studentships, while having
some obvious merits, has caused great disquiet in some quarters
of the research community and we recommend that ESRC keeps this
situation under review. ESRC certainly needs to continue to make
provision for some studentships to be awarded through open competition.
With these exceptions, the research community that ESRC serves
has been very supportive of the Council and we urge the Council
to work to maintain and further develop this constructive engagement
with its research and user communities.
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