Research funding

Tardy response to UKRI request meant greenlit research projects on pandemic could not begin, investigation concludes

Backlash grows to include proposed legislation to remove ministers’ power to cancel funding applications

Ex-prime minister says cancellation of funding ‘betrays government’s hostility to higher education’

Trudeau government set to fulfil campaign promise for version of legendary US innovation agency, amid mixed expert assessment of its wisdom

Leading scholars from Australian universities have joined scientific bodies to demand reversal of pre-election veto of humanities grants

Success rate for prestigious starter grants drops below 10 per cent

But experts warn there is little hope of progress while relations remain in ‘freezer’

Six humanities projects reportedly vetoed and China collaboration nosedives as Discovery outcomes finally see light of day

Thousands of researchers face Christmas crisis as grant announcements languish

Castaway from EU programme must paddle harder to keep up and remain an enticing partner for the future, says university leader 

Benefits of innovative grant selection method must be balanced with risks to funders’ reputations, explain research leaders

Outgoing director of top US research funder holds firm on China crackdown, regrets state of racial equity and keeps pondering more holistic approach

Canberra demands revamped governance and more applied focus

European research institutions want question of association to be separated from broader talks on political relationship

Canberra accepts advice of more than 10 reviews

NIH vows shifts after years-long assessment finds top-cited scientists rarely share data and measure up poorly when they do

Commission haste in Horizon lump sum rollout could pour cold water on innovative consortia, groups warn

New lease of life for lucky six as committee overturns scrapping of their funding applications

Government promises stopgap funding for first wave of successful UK-based applicants, as European Commission keeps schtum on full association

Massive cuts to GCRF-funded research hubs will not continue next year after they won praise from a Whitehall review, UK Research and Innovation confirms

Economic and Social Research Council will look again at criteria that exclude PhD graduates from most modern UK universities from applying for postdoctoral funding

Green paper ‘asks the right questions’, including whether crown research institutes should collocate with universities

Maria Leptin says that if improving success rates means expanding the funder’s budget, voters could play an important role

UK scientists may increasingly want to take the £7 billion for research offered by Treasury rather than wait for EU wrangling to finish, say research experts

Ninety per cent federal funding cut will leave research projects unfinished and cause massive brain drain, experts warn

Funding changes will help generate ‘intellectual infrastructure’, but universities harbour reservations

Philanthropist outlines details of five-year investment but says government spending cuts will demand ‘ruthless’ funding decisions

Sector expresses relief that investment will increase to £20 billion by end of parliament, but fears investment not enough to maintain ‘superpower’ aspiration

Chancellor confirms delay to funding increase but says government will maintain commitment to overall target

Emphasis on student earning outcomes risks overlooking the bigger picture, say academics

Continuing delays on Horizon Europe association could strengthen hand of Westminster figures who were ‘never that enamoured’ about joining

Commons committee chair also raises concerns about UKRI chair’s lobbying of ministers ahead of spending review

Research funding increase must come with ‘place-based ecosystem’ or it will not boost productivity, says Hepi report co-authored by Lincoln leader

Sector heads call for Westminster government to stick to science spending pledge and set out how ministers will achieve it

The spending review must confirm the substance beneath the government’s froth about becoming a science superpower, says James Wilsdon

Economic and Social Research Council warned that current three-and-a-half-year funding period is ‘insufficient’ and is causing student hardship

Lotteries for viable funding applications may be one way forward, say Lisette Jong, Thomas Franssen, Stephen Pinfield and James Wilsdon

Political conciliator finds moment of medical success against Covid a good time to let Biden find successor

Chancellor says investment in new technology could revolutionise economy in same way as steam engine or internet

Ahead of spending review, research universities group argues new fund would help level up UK regions by creating spin-offs

George Freeman must urgently strike alliances across Whitehall to preserve UK government’s ‘once in a generation’ research pledge, say experts

Research England makes one-off awards for government priorities but no uplift for recurrent research funding

Australian researchers’ funding hopes hinge not on whether rule was wrong, but on whether wrong rule was applied correctly

Ministerial response offers ‘no comfort that there is not a plan afoot to abandon that very specific promise’ on science spending, says ex-minister Greg Clark

But thousands of Australian researchers remain in limbo, with reviled rule still in force for grants under consideration

The EU’s massive cash injection with double Italy’s languishing higher education budget, says Ferruccio Resta

Fears for physics pipeline as 32 researchers relinquish up to A$22m for citing preprints

Long-standing challenge on research disclosures grows more urgent with rising China tensions and anti-Asian discrimination

Government told to disclose impacts on academics as outrage escalates over preprints rule

ARC says it communicated rule change clearly, but applicants say it forces them to plagiarise to qualify for funding

Education minister concedes impact of plummeting international enrolments, but says things would be worse without intervention

Publishers criticise continued embrace of ‘green’ model alongside ‘gold’, but funder insists it has struck the right balance

Policy revamp aims to tackle gender inequality

Overall funding decisions more than double to almost 40,000 thanks to Covid-related grants

Formalised defence R&D ties could recoup one-quarter of the research funds lost from Australia’s ailing international education industry

For the first time prestigious funder has explicitly told academics they must not include metric when applying for grants

Tens of millions of euros in grants were still agreed by 2020, but UK collaborations may have been affected

Outgoing UKRI chair says this autumn’s spending review will be a ‘make-or-break moment’

Trudeau creates mandatory review ahead of grant awards, aligning nation closer to US in suspicion of China

Funder’s policy lead on open access talks of ‘ring-fenced path’ to cover costs