How quality-related research funding works
The four UK higher education funding bodies (Department for the Economy Northern Ireland, Medr (Commission for Tertiary Education and Research), Research England and Scottish Funding Council) provide strategic institutional funding to UK higher education providers (described as, but not limited to, ‘universities’ herein) to support their research and knowledge exchange activities. This is part of the dual funding support system for research and innovation.
The majority of this strategic institutional funding is delivered as block grants.
The main block grant funding for research delivered by Research England is called quality-related research (QR) funding. Research England funding of this type for knowledge exchange is called the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
Research England currently allocates approximately £2 billion to universities in England each academic year.
How quality-related research funding is divided between universities
Research England’s block grant calculation is made up of distinct elements, each based on different data sets.
Volume and quality are a key determinant in Research England’s mainstream quality-related research funding allocation, accounting for approximately £1.3 billion each academic year. These are measured in the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
As such, the REF and Research England’s quality-related funding (and its equivalents across the UK) are closely linked. Allocations vary between universities and there is significant stability in annual allocations as a result of using the periodic outcomes of the REF.
The other quality-related research funding streams within the strategic institutional block grant are allocated to universities using different data.
Although they make up a smaller proportion of an institution’s total research block grant, they are more susceptible to annual changes. Key data informing these elements cover:
- support for the supervision of postgraduate research students
- charity-funded research
- business-funded research
Research England also allocates quality-related funding to five research libraries which have designated national importance.
Alongside QR funding, as part of its wider strategic institutional funding, during the current spending review period (between 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024) Research England is also providing flexible funding for:
- enhancing research culture
- participatory research
- research that supports policy
Further information can be found in Research England: how we fund higher education providers.
The Department for the Economy Northern Ireland, Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (Medr) and Scottish Funding Council issue an equivalent strategic institutional fund to universities in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
All UK funding bodies use outcomes of the REF to inform elements of their research funding allocation to universities. Each higher education funding body allocates their share of the budget according to their own national research policies and priorities.
How the Research Excellence Framework informs quality-related research allocations
The Research Excellence Framework is a large-scale national exercise to assess the excellence of research in universities across the UK. It is jointly run by the 4 higher education funding bodies every three to seven years.
The REF exercise requires universities to provide examples of their research outputs, their impact beyond academia and the environment that supports research.
These are then subject to expert review, carried out by over 1,000 assessors and 34 subject-based panels made up of senior academics, international members, and non-academic research users. They are overseen by four main panels and advised by specialist panels for interdisciplinary research and equality, diversity and inclusion.
The four UK funding bodies use the REF results to inform the formulaic allocation of a large element of their strategic institutional funding to universities (for example, QR funding in England).
Outcomes from the REF play a much wider role than just an input to funding mechanisms. They offer valuable insights into the health of the UK’s research and innovation sector, revealing pockets of excellence and enabling strategic decision-making. The results showcase the research performance of the UK’s higher education providers, recognised internationally, and provide accountability and evidence of the benefits of public investment in research.
See the results and submissions from the most recent exercise, REF2021.
Further information about REF 2021 can be found on the REF website. Information about the development of the next exercise can be found on the Future Research Assessment Programme (Jisc website).