Annex 4
SUMMARY OF SPENDING REVIEW INITIATIVES
GENOMICS
Commissioning of the ESRC Genomics Network as
a part of the broader cross-Council Genomics Programme has now
been completed. The Network comprises:
— Three Research Centres launched on
October 2002:
— Centre for Economic and Social
Aspects of Genomics (CESAGEN) at Lancaster and Cardiff Universities
(£4,300,000 October 2002-September 2007).
— ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society
(Eugenic) at Exeter University (£2,500,000 October 2002-September
2007).
— ESRC Centre for social and economic
research on Innovation in Genomics (Innogen) at Edinburgh University
(£2,082,000 October 2002-September 2007).
— The ESRC Genomics Forum for Policy
and Research, based at Edinburgh University, directed by Professor
Michael Banner, and launched on 1 August 2004 with co-funding
from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. It will exploit
synergies across these Centres and beyond and aims to ensure that
the social sciences can contribute more effectively to a better
understanding of the broader issues surrounding the current scientific
and technological advances in biotechnology and genomics to develop
new research links and activities involving social scientists,
medical and biological scientists, policy makers, and members
of the general public.
— A major survey of attitudes to genomics
(£703,000 November 2002-January 2005). Using qualitative,
large scale quantitative and experimental methods, this project
aims to examine UK public attitudes towards a range of applications
of genomics including GM foods, cloning and genetic testing.
— Five additional research projects
on genomics in society under ESRC's Science in Society Programme
(£500,000 October 2003-July 2007), examining issues such
as ethics in research laboratories and clinics working with human
embryos, farmers' understandings of GM crops and the uptake and
incorporation into clinical practice of new technologies based
on pharmacogenomics.
STEM CELLS
Working closely with RCUK partners (EPSRC, MRC,
BBSRC, CCLRC, NERC) through the Cross Council Stem Cells Co-ordinating
Committee, commissioning of the first phase of ESRC-funded research
has been completed. Six projects costing over £1.1 million
are starting from autumn 2004 and are examining issues such as
the global regulation of embryonic stem cells, innovation processes,
the role of standards and public engagement in stem cell research.
Professor Andrew Webster (University of York) has been appointed
co-ordinator of ESRC's Stem Cells Research and is currently taking
the lead in developing proposals for further work on awareness
raising and capacity building.
AIM (MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
INITIATIVE)
Founded in October 2002 with co-funding from
EPSRC and a budget of £20,950,000, AIM now has activities
at over 20 institutions co-ordinated from its offices at London
Business School. Directed (from 1 August 2004) Professor Robin
Wensley, AIM is supporting:
— 16 three-year National Competitiveness
Fellows to create a national team of researchers to address key
problems facing British business such as productivity and innovation.
Fellowships include provision for a New Researcher Development
Fund of up to £150,000 to foster the careers of promising
new researchers.
— 12 Public Service Fellows to explore
the public service delivery agenda.
— A rolling programme of AIM scholars
targeted at leading new researchers and visiting international
fellowships.
— A series of highly successful Management
Research Fora such as the AIM / CIHE Forum on Solving the Skills
Gap held in October 2003.
RELU
The ESRC leads the management of the Cross-Council
Rural Economy and Land Use Programme in collaboration with the
BBSRC and NERC. The overall budget is £20 million. The Programme
has secured co-funding from DEFRA (£1 million) and SEERAD
(Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department)
(£0.5 million). The Programme Director is Professor Philip
Lowe, OBE, from the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University.
Commissioning of the first phase of research has been completed
and will support:
— Eight major research projects
funded at a cost of £5 million under the Programme's theme
on successful and sustainable food products and food chains (examining
issues such as use of biological alternatives to chemical pesticides,
potential for producing, nutritionally improved foods acceptable
to consumers and participatory tools for assessing and managing
food chain risks).
— 14 scoping studies, 5 capacity
building awards, 8 development activities and 7 networking awards
(£1 million in total) aimed at supporting the development
of innovative inter-disciplinary research collaborations and approaches
across all the Programme's themes.
The second phase (c £10 million) for research
projects has now been issued focused on the Programme's other
major themes—integration of land and water use, the environmental
basis of rural development and economic and social interactions
with the rural environment.
TOWARDS A
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
ECONOMY PROGRAMME
ESRC has worked in close collaboration with
the NERC (lead Council) and EPSRC on the SR 2002 Cross-Council
Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy Programme. The overall budget
is £28 million. The Programme aims to support research which
will help the UK to access a secure, safe, diverse and reliable
energy supply at competitive prices, while meeting the challenge
of global warming.
A key element of the Programme has been the
establishment of a UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) (£13
million over five years) co-funded by the ESRC (c £3 million).
The Research Director is Professor Jim Skea OBE.
The Programme is based on three vertical themes:
Demand Reduction; Future Sources of Energy; and Infrastructure
and Supply. There will also be three cross-cutting themes: Energy
Systems and Modelling; Environmental Sustainability; and Materials
for Advanced Energy Systems.
The first call for proposals under the TSEC
Programme was issued in late 2003, with a focus on two of the
Programmes themes: Keeping the Nuclear Option Open (led by EPSRC)
and Managing the New Uncertainties. ESRC is leading on the latter,
which will address a number of the key issues highlighted in the
report of the Chief Scientific Adviser's Energy Research Review
Group such as energy markets and regulatory, social and economic
drivers. ESRC is also collaborating closely with the other Councils
on the second call (led by the NERC), issued in the summer of
2004, focused on the themes of Carbon Management and Renewables.
NATIONAL CENTRE
FOR RESEARCH
METHODS
The National Centre for Research Methods aims
to provide a strategic focal point for the identification, development
and delivery of an integrated national research and training programme
aimed at promoting a step change in the quality and range of methodological
skills and techniques used by the UK social science community.
The Centre consists of a co-ordinating "hub", based
at the University of Southampton (£2.02 million, April 2004-March
2009) together with a series of sub-centres or "nodes"
(£4.5 million), distributed across a number of sites, drawing
upon the knowledge and expertise of researchers around the UK.
The nodes are currently being commissioned and are expected to
start in April 2005.
E.SCIENCE
The ESRC E-Social Science Initiative is building
on the major advances made under the cross Council e-science programme
and will involve new cross disciplinary collaborations with, for
example, computational scientists. In its initial stage, the ESRC's
broad e-social science strategy is made up of three components:
— a training and awareness programme;
— Pilot Demonstrator Projects; and
— the National Centre for e-Social
Science (NCeSS) The NCeSS will have a distributed structure, comprising
a co-ordinating Hub, which has now been commissioned and is based
at Manchester University (£1,58 million May 2004-March 2007)
and a set of research-based Nodes distributed across the UK, which
will begin work in April 2005 (£4.5 million). The "Hub"
will, in addition to the existing demonstrator projects, co-ordinate
a further series of small grants (£400,000).
Early projects are looking at such key areas
as financial forecasting and macro-economics, Human Systems Modelling
and life-course analysis. ESRC in co-ordination with the NCeSS
"Hub" is also commissioning the purchase and regional
distribution of a number of Access Grid Nodes.
|
