To: Heads of Research England-funded higher education providers
Reference: RE-CL-2024-04
Publication date: 27 June 2024
Dear Vice-Chancellor or Principal
I am writing to notify you of decisions affecting our formula-based funding for the 2024 to 2025 year, and to provide information on the reasons for these decisions and on the related arrangements we are making.
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student record
Uses of the HESA Student record
Research England uses data from the HESA Student record in grant calculations for the following funds:
- Quality-related research (QR) research degree programme (RDP) supervision fund
- Enhancing Research Culture funding
Decision on use of HESA Student record for 2024 to 2025 funding allocations
Due to changes introduced for the collection of HESA 2022 to 2023 Student record (Data Futures), we have undertaken extensive additional work to investigate and assess the quality of submissions for fields that would apply in our funding calculations for the funds listed above.
There is a lengthy but routine process to calculate and quality assure our funding allocations, requiring careful management and timely decision-taking. In this instance, the necessary assurances regarding quality of this data were not available at the point of decision-taking for this cycle of funding.
We therefore decided that we will not use data from the HESA 2022 to 2023 Student record in calculating our funding allocations. This decision also means that any amendments to HESA 2022 to 2023 Student record data submitted to the Data Amendments Panel will not result in amendments to Research England funding.
This decision is an exception to our usual processes. We expect to return to using this type of data in our funding calculations with the HESA 2023 to 2024 Student record.
Calculation of QR RDP supervision fund allocations 2024 to 2025
QR RDP supervision fund allocations for 2024 to 2025 will be based on the 2023 to 2024 allocations, with any changes in budget for the fund reflected proportionally to the 2023 to 2024 allocations.
Calculation of Enhancing Research Culture fund allocations 2024 to 2025
Enhancing Research Culture fund for 2024 to 2025 will be underpinned by:
- 2022 to 2023 HESA Staff record data
- 2021 to 2022 HESA Student record data
Provision of 2024 to 2025 formula-based funding allocations
We expect to issue our formula-based funding allocations for 2024 to 2025 in September 2024, except for:
- Higher Education Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund, for which the allocations were communicated to recipients in April 2024 following the recent review
- International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) institutional support grant (ODA) funding for which allocations were issued on 16 May 2024
We expect to confirm our 2024 to 2025 budgets in summer. Indicative budgets were published in summer 2023.
Payments of formula-based funding in August and September 2024
We are not in a position to confirm funding allocations for 2024 to 2025 prior to the start of the new academic year. Therefore, to provide continuity of funding, and in line with previous practice, we will pay HEPs in August and September 2024 based on amounts paid in August and September 2023 for the following funds:
- QR funding
- Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)
- Research Capital Investment Fund (RCIF)
The payment amounts planned will be taken into account when the monthly payment profiles for 2024 to 2025 are prepared. Payments for all other funds will be made after the 2024 to 2025 allocations are issued.
Further information
Any questions should be addressed to:
- annualfunding@re.ukri.org for queries about this letter
- researchpolicy@re.ukri.org for queries about funding for research
- kepolicy@re.ukri.org for queries about funding for knowledge exchange
Yours sincerely,
Professor Dame Jessica Corner FMedSci, MAE, RN
Executive Chair, Research England