Memorandum 84
Supplementary evidence from the Department
for Innovation, Universities and Skills following the oral evidence
session on 16 March 2009
Following the oral evidence given by Adrian
Smith on 16 March, the Committee asked for more detailed information
on the geographical distribution of research funding. The first
part of this note covers the information that Prof. Smith referred
to in his evidence, namely research funding to Universities, with
and without population normalisation. These data are taken from
the HESA publication Resources of Higher Education Institutions
for 2005-06 (for funding levels), the UCAS website (for HEI locations)
and the 2001 Census (for population figures).
The most important point is that the allocation of
research funding is made in relation to excellence, and geographical
location is not taken into account Therefore, whatever variation
there may be between the regions is fundamentally due to the quality
of research in each region, as assessed by the community via peer
review.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that
substantial amounts of funding are won by HEIs in each region,
and that the variation between regions is somewhat reduced if
the data are normalised by population. London does receive noticeably
higher funding levels, but this is perhaps unsurprising, since
it has more than twice as many HEIs as any other region.
|
| North East
| North West | Yorkshire & The Humber
| East Midlands |
West Midlands | East of England
| London | South East
| South West | Wales
| Scotland | NI
|
|
| Research funding to HEIs (£1,000s, 2005-06)
|
| Funding Council Recurrent grants (Research) |
54,978 | 128,283
| 122,273 | 72,919
| 81,276 | 126,082
| 361,934 | 220,419
| 75,059 | 63,877
| 187,050 | 42,476
|
| OSI Research Councils | 34,131
| 97,721 | 84,593
| 59,711 | 54,795
| 124,866 | 215,863
| 161,909 | 54,410
| 34,604 | 134,298
| 11,147 |
| Total | 89,109
| 226,004 | 206,866
| 132,630 | 136,071
| 250,948 | 577,797
| 382,328 | 129,469
| 98,481 | 321,348
| 53,623 |
| Population (2001 census) | 2,515,479
| 6,729,800 | 4,964,838
| 4,172,179 | 5,267,337
| 5,388,154 | 7,172,036
| 8,000,550 | 4,928,458
| 2,903,085 | 5,062,011
| 1,685,267 |
| Number of HEIs in region | 5
| 14 | 11
| 9 | 12
| 11 | 46
| 20 | 13
| 12 | 20
| 2 |
| Funding per head of population
|
| Funding Council | £21.86
| £19.06 | £24.63
| £17.48 | £15.43
| £23.40 | £50.46
| £27.55 | £15.23
| £22.00 | £36.95
| £25.20 |
| RCs | £13.57
| £14.52 | £17.04
| £14.31 | £10.40
| £23.17 | £30.10
| £20.24 | £11.04
| £11.92 | £26.53
| £6.61 |
| Total | £35.42
| £33.58 | £41.67
| £31.79 | £25.83
| £46.57 | £80.56
| £47.79 | £26.27
| £33.92 | £63.48
| £31.82 |
|
The data in respect of Research Council (RC) Institute funding
in 2005-06 have been specifically assembled by DIUS for the Committee's
request. It has therefore not been formally audited, and should
only be treated as indicative of the distribution of spend, rather
than a definitive record. For the avoidance of doubt in what definition
of a RC Institute has been used, a full list of Institutes included
in these data is provided at Annex A. The location of Research
Councils Institutes mainly reflects decisions taken several decades
ago.
May 2009
|
| North East
| North West | Yorkshire & The Humber
| East Midlands |
West Midlands | East of England
| London | South East
| South West | Wales
| Scotland | NI
|
|
| RC funding to Institutes (£1000s, 2005-06)
|
| BBSRC | 0 |
0 | 0
| 0 | 0
| 99,499 | 0
| 39,458 | 0
| 18,906 | 13,539
| 0 |
| MRC | 0 |
0 | 0
| 10,316 | 0
| 60,535 | 106,511
| 22,158 | 2,120
| 0 | 25,647
| 0 |
| NERC | 142 |
12,262 | 649
| 29,883 | 170
| 46,989 | 180
| 23,155 | 3,628
| 2,882 | 15,426
| 2,446 |
| STFC | 0 |
48,520 | 0
| 0 | 0
| 0 | 0
| 163,860 | 0
| 0 | 12,580
| 0 |
| Total | 142 |
60,782 | 649
| 40,199 | 170
| 207,024 | 106,691
| 248,631 | 5,748
| 21,788 | 67,192
| 2,446 |
| Population (2001 census) | 2,515,479
| 6,729,800 | 4,964,838
| 4,172,179 | 5,267,337
| 5,388,154 | 7,172,036
| 8,000,550 | 4,928,458
| 2,903,085 | 5,062,011
| 1,685,267 |
| RC Institute funding per head | £0.06
| £9.03 | £0.13
| £9.63 | £0.03
| £38.42 | £14.88
| £31.08 | £1.17
| £7.51 | £13.27
| £1.45 |
|
|
