At the first meeting of the UKRI-EPSRC Council on 15 and 16 May 2018, it was agreed that many of the major policies and plans set in motion by its predecessor (EPSRC) provided a valuable legacy and a useful starting point and benchmark for the new council as it considers how it can best contribute to the mission of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
EPSRC’s policies and approaches are set out in its strategic and delivery plans. However, EPSRC holds to a number of general, overarching values and beliefs which precede these policies and which drive its work:
- Society should always be the beneficiary of our work.
- Research excellence is the primary criterion for investment decisions.
- We are committed to the enhancement of training and skills so that the UK has the numerate, highly skilled workforce it needs.
- We are committed to multidisciplinary investments, and do this by building on the foundation of a strong disciplinary capability.
- The best approach to project prioritisation is peer review, a position consistent with, and supported by, government endorsement of the Haldane Principle.
- Research is a long-term endeavour. The routes to impact are many, varied and complex, and outcomes may not be tangible or visible for 10 years or more, all of which means that the research base requires stable, sustained funding.
- We achieve more by partnering appropriately with others, including and especially with other research councils, with and on behalf of which we have led joint programmes.
- With EPSRC as an underpinning investor, the innovative research generated may lead to further engineering and physical sciences (EPS) research, or lead directly to new products and services, or be taken up by other parts of UKRI.
- We add value by informing and influencing so that the research and innovation ecosystem is ready to receive our investment and to obtain maximum benefit from it, by managing and converting our knowledge of UK EPS into new investments that generate impact for the nation, by monitoring the effects of our investment so as to identify the returns on our investment (such as through REF impact case studies), and by promoting our successes and influencing decision-makers so that the nation will invest further in EPS.
- We engage with our constituencies actively, openly, transparently and approachable.
- We believe in the need to adapt, to work flexibly and innovatively: the council has always supported the executive in striving to introduce more imaginative ways of working within constraints such as cohort training models and algorithmic approaches.
- It is important to ensure sufficient critical mass in the leadership team, both to ensure the appropriate level of creativity and agility, and to sustain the necessary level of engagement with key partners.
Find out more about the policies and values of UKRI-EPSRC.
Last updated: 12 September 2023