British Research Funding: One Good Cut Deserves Another

Sometimes even your best isn't enough, as some British life science laboratories are finding out, the hard way. Many are scrambling to change priorities and seek other funding to compensate for cuts by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The council distributes money according to each university's quality rating on the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which is based on a seven-point scale (1, 2, 3b, 3a, 4, 5, 5*) with 5* being the highest rating. But even institutions aw

Written byHal Cohen

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To cushion the blow, HEFCE will taper funding gradually. The University of Greenwich medical department, with an RAE rating of 3a, will receive £1.18 million in cuts. Parliament elevated the former Polytechnic Institute to university status under the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 as part of a national campaign to increase competitiveness. "This decision makes it difficult to nurture new, up-and-coming universities. ...If you strangle research funding at an early stage, what's the chance of developing into a higher grade?" asks Carl Smith, Polytechnic University's press officer. Smith says administrators plan to distribute the cuts so that no one center receives the brunt. "Fortunately we also have other avenues of income to draw from."

The HEFCE funding reductions follow an unprecedented improvement in overall RAE quality ratings and a 10% boost in overall funding that will lift the total life science research budget from £231 million in 2001 ...

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