Wellcome to help fund life sciences

The Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Wellcome Trust are planning to join forces to help fund laboratory equipment for health and life science researchers.

The collaboration is part of HEFCE's joint research equipment initiative for 1997-98. The scheme pays 50 per cent of the cost of successful peer-reviewed bids for research equipment. The bidders must have obtained matching funds from other sources, typically from industry.

During 1996-97 HEFCE made Pounds 16 million available under the initiative, with research councils vetting bids from universities. Equipment costing less than Pounds 200,000 is funded directly by research councils while more expensive kit is paid for by the funding councils.

For the 1997-98 round, HEFCE plans to make Pounds 20 million available. Alice Frost, head of HEFCE research policy, says at least Pounds 1 million will be earmarked for the collaboration with Wellcome.

Around Pounds 13 million will be allocated for the existing arrangement with research councils. The remainder is being regarded at present as "flexible".

Wellcome's role in the scheme will be different from that of the research councils. The charity will peer review proposals and provide matching funds for successful bids from researchers in health and life sciences. Ms Frost said that, while in the 1996-97 equipment round engineering and physical sciences were well represented, "we did not get the number of bids from health and life-science researchers that reflected the scale of work carried out in the area". The collaboration with Wellcome ought to provide researchers in the field with more encouragement and focus.

Ms Frost says Wellcome may also play a major role in a new Pounds 30-million HEFCE initiative for laboratory refurbishment. University departments bidding for the money will be required to declare their existing portfolio of research work and a research strategy. She said: "We hope Wellcome will be able to peer review refurbishment bids in the health and life sciences and comment on research strategies." As with the equipment initiative, HEFCE and Wellcome may develop a co-funding partnership, she says.

David Gordon, a Wellcome programme director, said it was "too early to predict how our policy on laboratory refurbishment will develop". The trust is waiting for the Dearing inquiry into higher education to report before finalising its policy on infrastructure support, he explained.