A ?100 million investment in UK research by the Leverhulme Trust should be seen as a “vote of confidence” in a sector under great strain, according to the charity’s director.
The funding announced on 7 July – which comes on top of the organisation’s ?120 million annual investment in UK research – coincides with the trust’s 100th?anniversary and will fund research centres, doctoral scholarships and rising academic leaders.
The UK has long “punched above its weight” in terms of research but is facing?an increasingly difficult funding environment, according to Anna Vignoles, director of the trust.
“It’s definitely a vote of confidence in the sector from our perspective, but also it’s a timely moment to put some more money into the sector, given that we know that there’s some financial challenges during this period,” she told?糖心Vlog.
“We know that the sector is under quite a lot of strain at the moment.”
But with research showing that for every ?1 invested in university research the UK receives ?10 in return, she said the funding was not “benevolent” – predicting a big return on investment from the Leverhulme Centenary Awards.
A total of ?50 million will be invested in Leverhulme Centenary Research Centres, each receiving up to ?10 million to address the “big questions” of our time. The centres will support around 40 to 50 academics each, promote collaboration with international and non-university partners and include postdoctoral fellowships.
This is the type of?“blue-sky” research?that Vignoles said Leverhulme is well placed to support, in contrast?to taxpayers’ money,?which is increasingly under pressure to deliver a more immediate impact.
“It may take many more decades before we get [return on investment] back from [the funding] in terms of impact on society or on the economy, and that patience is really hard for some other funders to have at the moment, whereas as a charity that’s where we can do our bit,” said Vignoles.
“You do get stuff back when you invest in blue-sky research, but it’s unpredictable and it takes a long time,?and that’s where we think we have some benefits.”
On top of the 13 research centres that have already been set up, the new funding will help establish five more, which will be interdisciplinary and open to all topics.
“In order to get really interesting and big questions, meaty questions for the centre to address, I think you really do need to let the experts out there…decide what’s interesting and then they can fight it out in the competition.
“We hope to be funding things that will in a decade’s time have really tackled some of the biggest issues that we’re facing.”
The trust will invest a?further ?20 million on PhD training,?supporting at least 200 students, which will not be restricted to any particular disciplines. The doctoral training centres will also have scope to attract world-class international students.
“We need to make sure that just because we’re hitting some financial challenges now that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we need these higher-level skills across quite a wide range of sectors in the economy,” added Vignoles.
The centenary awards will see ?20 million go towards enhancing the trust’s research leadership awards scheme. Each recipient will receive up to ?1 million to develop ambitious, independent programmes of work.
And ?10 million will be allocated to centenary partnerships that support equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) objectives, providing funding for academic excellence, networking, and mentoring opportunities for underrepresented groups.
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