MEMORANDUM 29
Submission from the Royal Society of Edinburgh
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Current Research Council initiatives
to facilitate international research collaborations and future
international facilities strategies should be supported. More
could be done to simplify travel grant applications and to facilitate
universities being able to recruit the best research students
world-wide into studentships sponsored by the Research Councils.
INTRODUCTION
2. The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)
is pleased to respond to the House of Commons Science and Technology
Inquiry into the international policies and activities of the
Research Councils. These comments have been compiled with the
assistance of a number of expert Fellows of the RSE, under the
direction of the Vice-President, Professor John Mavor.
3. The different issues of consideration
by the Committee are addresses below:
THE STRENGTHS
AND WEAKNESSES
OF EXISTING
RESEARCH COUNCIL
AND OSI MECHANISMS
AND ACTIVITIES
TO MAINTAIN
AND PROMOTE
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
International facilities
4. In the past, the UK has been hindered
by a lack of strategic direction by the Office of Science and
Innovation on a future strategy for domestic and overseas facilities.
The new Science and Technology Facilities Council will now be
able to address this issue and should be given a clear mandate
to progress the UK position.
Multinational research collaborations
5. More could be done to support international
collaborations with multinational agency funding. We support the
EPSRC' current efforts to establish arrangements with funding
bodies in other countries to facilitate substantial research collaborations,
by requiring approval only once, rather than multiple times, for
such projects. The EPSRC has also been flexible when research
programme initiatives have required industrial collaboration involving
non-UK owned companies.
Travel grants
6. There would be merit in simpler and quicker
methods for providing UK Research Council funds for travel grants,
workshops and visiting researchers. At present they need to be
applied for in a form similar to larger responsive mode grants,
which is disproportionate to the value of the grant.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE
RESEARCH COUNCILS'
AND OSI'S
INTERNATIONAL POLICIES
IN RESPECT
OF INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATION THROUGH
THE EU FRAMEWORK
PROGRAMME
7. There is a role for the various minor
funding schemes that support the costs of trying to set up Framework
Programme (FP) collaborations. However, the geo-political and
budgetary aspects of EU research funding decisions (to date) would
be cause for concern, were the Research Councils to jointly fund
FP-type projects. Nevertheless, we welcome the creation of the
European Research Council (ERC) and are pleased that it will fund
the highest quality work in basic or "frontier" research.
The ERC has the potential to be major influence in strengthening
fundamental research capacity in the universities, provided that
it is sufficiently well funded. It should be exclusively concerned
with funding "bottom up" proposals, with excellence
as the only criterion, and with the allocation of long term fellowships
designed to attract the best research talents and as a means to
develop a stream of researchers who will generate the foundation
of European research in the 21st century.
8. There are also concerns about how EU
Framework funding models can be reconciled with the full economic
costing models with which UK universities must work, and how such
models will be able to cover the full costs of research carried
out under their auspices. The level of overheads provided on European
projects, (even after the present costing transparency exercise,)
will not cover these full costs. Consideration could be given
to the Research Councils providing funds to support the home share
of costs of successful FP grant applicants. This would be a strong
incentive to institutions to back bids for FP funds and would
increase the probability of the UK obtaining its "juste retour",
or more, from available EU funds.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF COLLABORATION
BETWEEN THE
RESEARCH COUNCILS
AND THE
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
INVOLVED IN
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC
ACTIVITIES
9. There are tensions between Government
Departments and Research Councils in international scientific
activities. The research required by the Department for International
Development in addressing Third World problems is often more strategic
or applied, whereas the agendas and metrics driving the Research
Councils are more focused on basic high-quality research.
10. When considering such collaboration,
it will also be important to involve the Scottish Executive, and
the Scottish Executive's new Chief Scientific Advisor, in informing
Research Council international scientific activities.
The impact of the Research Councils' policies
on the international mobility of scientists and engineers
11. A major mobility mechanism is the provision
of research studentships for graduates from overseas (eg for PhD
study). At present, however, it is not possible to offer full
RC support (fees plus stipend) to research students coming from
outside of the UK. The UK would benefit significantly from universities
being able to recruit the best research students world-wide into
studentships sponsored by the Research Councils.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
12. The Royal Society of Edinburgh offers
a range of international travel grants and has established a Committee
on International links. The objectives of the Society's international
policy include the provision of international exchange programmes
that enable increased international contact and collaboration
between Scottish and overseas researchers and scholars. Bilateral
Programmes have been established with:
— the Chinese Academy of Sciences
— the Academy of Sciences of the Czech
Republic
— the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
— the Polish Academy of Sciences
— the Slovak Academy of Sciences
— the Slovenian Academy of Sciences
and Arts
— the National Science Council of Taiwan
There is also an Open Programme of exchanges
that allow researchers to further collaborations with research
groups in countries (non-UK) or institutes not covered by the
bilateral programme.
April 2007
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