Select Committee on Science and Technology Written Evidence

Memorandum 55

Supplementary submission from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

  Table 1 shows funding data for all of NERC's highly graded (ie a4/a5) standard grant research proposals and for marine science (MS) standard grant research proposals. In 2006-07, NERC's expenditure on responsive grants was £32 million of which 74% was on standard grants.[75]

  The data exclude the Antarctic Funding Initiative (AFI) and consortium grants.

Table 1

FUNDING DATA FOR ALPHA4/ALPHA 5 RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSALS

Year	Total number of funded a4/a5 graded research proposals	Total number of funded a4/a5 graded MS research proposals	Total number of unfunded a4 graded research proposals	Percentage of unfunded a4 graded research proposals	Total number of unfunded a4 graded MS research proposals	Percentage of unfunded a4 graded MS research proposals
2001	105	18	70	40	16	47
2002	53	9	24	31	9	50
2003	122	25	44	27	9	26
2004	112	10	63	36	13	57
2005	103	19	76	42	18	49
2006	102	19	25	20	7	27
September 2007

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75   NERC expenditure also included 5% on small grants and 3% on new investigator grants-for which NERC seeks to fund, where possible, all <fy4>a<fy1>4/<fy4>a<fy1>5 graded research proposals. Back

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Prepared 18 October 2007