TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: Plan to ‘level up’ UK research funding ‘unambitious’

Press/Media: Expert comment

Period4 Feb 2022

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitlePlan to ‘level up’ UK research funding ‘unambitious’
    Media name/outletTimes Higher Education
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    Date4/02/22
    DescriptionKieron Flanagan, professor of science and technology policy at the University of Manchester, agreed that the BEIS uplift “doesn’t appear to be very ambitious”.

    “You could interpret this as a commitment not to let funding get any more concentrated in the greater south-east,” said Professor Flanagan, who said he would welcome “putting a hard floor on concentration…provided it is a long-term commitment”.

    “The last thing we need is a funding boom outside the golden triangle [London, Oxford and Cambridge] now followed by a bust later down the line, when the golden triangle science lobbies reassert themselves. So to have any actual effect on levelling-up, these commitments would need to be the start of a new approach, one that lasts beyond the spending review period and this Parliament,” he said.

    The mention that the Department of Health and the NHS would seek to rebalance medical research away from the south-east would be a “significant development” given that their “spending is also very highly concentrated” in that area, Professor Flanagan added.
    URLhttps://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/plan-level-uk-research-funding-unambitious
    PersonsKieron Flanagan

Keywords

  • UK politics
  • levelling up
  • research policy