Research bureaucracy cuts unveiled as UK nears £20 billion target

The UK government has announced plans to roll back “decades of research red tape” as it marks the first anniversary of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

In its response to the publication of the full Tickell Review which was also published on 9 February, the department welcomes many of the recommendations from the University of Birmingham vice-chancellor, Adam Tickell, whose report encouraged major UK research funders to standardise processes, cut duplication and improve data collection.

It explains the government is working with funders to standardise application processes and encouraging collaboration to harmonise their approaches as far as possible, and is keen to support funders in developing better ways of collecting, processing and analysing data.

Building on recommendations in the Tickell Review, an interim version of which was published in January 2022, DSIT notes UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will deliver a simpler, user-friendly end-to-end funding service for use by all its research councils.

Universities UK is also helping to coordinate the sector response through a working group to identify opportunities to share learning on reducing bureaucracy, it adds.

DSIT adds it is keen to prevent another slow creep of new rules by monitoring and challenging bureaucracy build-up.

Welcoming the report, science minister Andrew Griffith said DSIT was “cutting back the red tape that too often slows down talented researchers – freeing them from long periods buried in piles of paperwork”.

“Processes that have the best of intentions – ensuring investment goes towards work that can transform our health and well-being and so taxpayers get a bang for their buck – have led to the unintended consequences of duplication or overly complex application processes,” he added.

Mr Griffith added that the “government and our partners will balance the continued, robust scrutiny of taxpayers’ money, with standardising processes and simplifying systems”.

Some of Professor Tickell’s recommendations receive a more equivocal response. On his call for grant application processes to support equality, diversity and inclusion, DSIT remarks that “UKRI should minimise reporting burdens” and should not go “beyond what is necessary to comply with their legal duties under the [2010 Equality] Act”.

“This includes the excessive use of Equality Impact Assessments. Burdensome approaches should be avoided,” it adds, stating that “public authorities must not ‘gold-plate’ their compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty at the unjustified expense of the taxpayer.”

It also noted that any diversity data on gender must not conflate sex and gender, echoing comments by science secretary Michelle Donelan in September on the issue. “The government position is that any such collection of gender data should not be conflated with the protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010 – which is sex,” it notes.

Introducing a system of self-certification for universities with a “strong track record of robust assurance” around security risks – as recommended by Professor Tickell – would also be “challenging” given the “evolution of new and contentious risks, or where there are specific security requirements”, DSIT says.

In a separate statement reflecting on DSIT’s first year of operations, science secretary Michelle Donelan states that “public spending on R&D is at the highest ever level” and the government is “fulfilling our commitment to spend £20 billion across the next financial year, with every £1 of public expenditure leveraging double the amount of private investment” – which would meet a pledge made in the 2022 Autumn Statement. DSIT says that spending levels already stand at £19.4 billion.

The government’s Science and Technology Framework, unveiled last March, had already made “substantial gains”, added Ms Donelan, who explained it had “set the approach for each of our five critical technologies, with significant investment that will build UK capability”.

“Across the wider system we continue to focus on cultivating the right environment for these technologies and our science and technology sectors more generally to flourish,” said Ms Donelan.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com