A lack of dedicated funds for improving research culture could mean universities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will lose out on millions of pounds of quality-related (QR) funding, the head of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) has been warned.
Speaking at King’s College London’s inaugural research culture conference, Research England’s executive chair,?Dame Jessica Corner,?was asked whether she was concerned that universities in the devolved nations – who do not receive additional funding to improve research culture – would face a major disadvantage in the next REF when research environment accounts for 25 per cent of assessment.
At present Research England provides ?30 million a year for??in English institutions, with universities receiving up to ?1 million a year since 2021-22. However, universities in Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own funding councils, have not allocated similar pots of research culture money.
Neither has the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) provided similar funding, although its??states, following a 4.2 per cent uplift in QR funding in 2024-25, that “universities are encouraged to use the additional funding allocated through these grants to support their research culture ambitions”.
Asked at the event on 8 January whether this was likely to make it much harder for universities from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to demonstrate excellence in research culture – which would help inform how?some ?2 billion a year in QR research funding is allocated?– Dame Jessica explained that a working group was currently examining how the people, culture and environment (PCE) element of the 2029 REF will work, including which indicators might be used.
“It’s largely a ‘journey travelled’ approach,” said Dame Jessica, adding: “It asks what is your strategy and where are you going – we want institutions to show what has changed and the narrative behind that.”
On whether universities from devolved nations – which have not benefited from the ?120 million of research culture funds provided to English universities since 2021-22 – might be judged differently to English universities, Dame Jessica added that the PCE element of the REF would “recognise that not all institutions are starting from the same place”.
However, she added: “We need to know [the analysis, including metrics used] is robust and people believe it, and it’s not just about storytelling – we have to get the balance between those two things.”
Mark Whelan, research culture manager at Queen Mary University of London, who raised the issue with Dame Jessica, said he wanted to highlight what he believed was an “inbuilt inequality in the REF” that was likely to lead to lower performance scores for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish universities in the research environment section.
“All four nations are being judged on the same criteria on research environment but Cardiff, Swansea, Queen’s Belfast, Ulster and Scottish universities haven’t had this extra money given to English universities. They’ve had to fund all of their research culture work by themselves,” Dr Whelan told?Times 黑料吃瓜网?at the event.
“Personally, I’d like to see the Northern Irish and Welsh funding bodies step up and provide some research culture funding, but it’s still worth noting this situation is unfair on many UK universities.”
The SFC’s recent recommendation for universities to spend money on research culture was also quite different to the dedicated grants provided by Research England, he added. “That will only come through this year while English universities have had money since 2021,” he said.
In addition to Research England’s research culture funding, the Wellcome Trust has also provided?up to ?1 million per university?for improving the research environment, although the two-year pilot funding scheme was directed only at research-intensive universities.
“The broader point is that the 2029 REF – with its focus on improving research culture – shouldn’t be exacerbating inequalities in funding,” said Dr Whelan.
