Theorising far from the madding crowd

The Leverhulme chairs scheme is such a success that it is to be extended. Olga Wojtas reports.

Frankly, an almost physical weight has lifted off my shoulders, in the sense that the almost intolerable strain which I was feeling is no longer there," says John Davies, one of the first six Leverhulme Trust personal research professors.

"You're not being torn in four or five directions at once, which is the most crippling thing - you can't create the lecture course properly because a paper has to be written; you can't write the paper properly, because there's a committee that has to be worked for."

The Pounds 1.7 million scheme set up last year is allowing top academics in the humanities and social sciences to take five years out from teaching and administration to concentrate on original research. There was fierce competition for the posts, with 350 applicants, and the Leverhulme trustees will later this month advertise an extension of the scheme, with up to six new chairs being filled in 1997/98.

Barry Supple, director of the Leverhulme Trust, says: "We felt there was a hole to be plugged in terms of available time for research. The really scarce resource is the time of senior people." But he stresses that there was no feeling that the arts and social sciences needed help because they were slipping internationally.

As professor of ancient history and classical archaeology at Liverpool University, Davies is head of a new university school whose student numbers have trebled since 1990. He is also one of the first academic auditors. He admits his research could not go forward except jerkily, "when I had the odd hour or two".

Kenneth Binmore, professor of economics at University College London, had a five-year backlog of experimental research to write up, which he feared might never be done. He has also finished a book which examines game theory (the rationality of decision-making) as applied to concepts of justice, and is beginning a variety of new projects.

"My output was enormously high this year. The Americans, French and Germans all complain about the problems of getting research money, but the British experience is devastating because the Government is not really interested in supporting fundamental research."

The Leverhulme scheme unashamedly backs basic research, in marked contrast to the research councils' emphasis on wealth creation. The six projects form an eclectic list, ranging from ancient history to the theory of knowledge.

"Nobody can really predict what is going to come out of any line of research," says Professor Supple. "Our ultimate overriding criterion is to support high scholarship, and the people who got these chairs were outstanding."

Professor Binmore praises the scheme for allowing the researchers to bring projects to the funders, rather than the other way around.

"Leverhulme is important in letting the researchers define the research. You may ask how we know we're getting value for money - you have to go on the track record of the people involved."

At least one project has obviously dramatic potential: David Hendry, professor of economics at Oxford University, is working on a theory of economic forecasting.

"People have treated economic forecasting in the same way as forecasting an eclipse," he says. "But economics is a long, long way from behaving like a nice gravitational system. Unanticipated events, like wars and leaving the exchange rate mechanism, make it rather like predicting an eclipse when you're being bombarded by other planets which have appeared out of nowhere."

Nevertheless, if such a theory could be produced it could have fascinating ramifications. If it could improve the gross national product within one percentage point, that would be equivalent to half a million jobs. "I'm not saying I can do it, but it's worth the effort," he says.

Professor Hendry says that 20 years ago, he would have thought that the idea that an Oxford professor had to find a way of buying research time would have been "ludicrous". But without the Leverhulme chair, he could never have tackled the enormous task of constructing a theory which could cope with major shifts in policy, technology and ownership.

"I had a glimmer of how it might be done, and this has been like opening a door and seeing gold nuggets spread all over the ground."

David Luscombe, professor of mediaeval history at Sheffield University, who is working on critical editions of major works by the mediaeval philosopher Peter Abelard, says: "Now that the Royal Academy of Engineering has provided research professorships in the engineering disciplines, thereby joining the Royal Society with its long established research chairs in the natural sciences, it is greatly to be hoped that the Leverhulme Trust can extend its scheme for research chairs in the humanities and the social sciences.

"At a time when universities are being made to sweat it out, it seems to me to be of the highest importance to offer colleagues the assurance that there exist further opportunities and rewards to strive for."

Leverhulme's money, Professor Luscombe adds, offers broader benefits to the disciplines involved than just the professors' research. While the universities involved have agreed to retain the academics on more conventional professorships at the end of their five-year tenure, Sheffield, for example, instead of replacing Luscombe for five years, has created two posts: a permanent lectureship in mediaeval history and a three-year research fellowship.

The professors might have been expected to take time to catch their breath before embarking on their research. But the pressure has not disappeared completely. Davies says: "I feel highly privileged, but it's also a responsibility. I remember saying 'Now I've got to deliver'."