Funding for research, innovation and knowledge exchange

Commenting on HEFCE’s funding announcement Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group, said:

“We welcome this £50 million cash injection for research and innovation which will help growth in our economy at a vital time.

“Our leading universities have considerable experience partnering with UK and global businesses, generating major new projects and world-beating spin-out companies.

“Russell Group universities are major contributors to the economy in their own right, supporting more than 270,000 jobs and generating an economic output in excess of £30 billion a year. Just 24 universities account for more than 60% of the spin-out companies which survive for three years or more.

“Increasing Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) to the most effective institutions will allow them to expand their innovation and knowledge transfer activity and help generate greater economic impacts.

“It is right that it is being concentrated on those universities best able to translate world-class research and knowledge into economic benefit to the UK.

“We know that Government investment through the HEIF results in a six-fold return on investment and the return is greater where research intensity is greater.”

Notes to editors

1. A report on HEIF was published in April 2012 on the Public and Corporate Economic Consultants (PACEC) web-site http://www.pacec.co.uk/. This showed that there was a six-fold return on investment and that the return was greater where research intensity was greater.
2. The Russell Group universities that have been successful in bidding for Catalyst funds are: Imperial College, the University of Nottingham, the University of Sheffield, University College London and the University of Warwick.
3. All English Russell Group universities have been allocated funding from HEIF in today’s announcement.