This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Funding for university research
29/11/2004
Investment worth £37 million to help Scottish universities maintain their place as world leaders in research was announced today.
The money will be distributed over four years and will help top scientists work together on cutting edge projects as part of Research Pooling Initiatives.
These initiatives will see university departments across Scotland forming close links in the fields of physics and chemistry.
Deputy First Minister and Minister for Lifelong Learning Jim Wallace said:
"The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's decision to invest £15.9 million in these first Scottish research pooling initiatives is very good news, and follows our increase in funding for the sector by 23 per cent in real terms. I am also delighted that other organisations and the institutions themselves will provide money to take the total investment in this research pooling initiative up to £37 million over four years.
"Collaborative and creative initiatives such as this will be crucial to ensuring the Scottish research base is able to maintain its competitive edge both internationally and within the UK.
"There is already a great deal of excellent research done in our universities. By helping these institutions to work together we will be encouraging the sharing of best practice and exciting ideas. A strong research base is crucial to achieving our key priority of growing the economy. That is just one of the reasons why we invested so heavily in higher education during the recent Scottish budget. Annual funding for higher education will be more than £1 billion by 2007/8. To see that money being used in such an innovative and productive way is hugely encouraging.
"I believe the research pooling agenda is one of the most exciting developments in how research is conducted in our universities for years.
And I have above all been very encouraged by the enthusiasm for the research pooling concept from the "bottom up". It demonstrates that a real pioneering spirit is out there.
"I do not exaggerate by saying that the competitiveness of our research is fundamental to our efforts to build a flourishing knowledge economy, fit for the 21st century. Today will, I am sure, be an important milestone in this endeavour. From it I hope will flow a new drive and determination to see what can be achieved by collaboration across institutions and across disciplines."
The investment was announced at a seminar in Glasgow today, and will mean over 180 chemistry researchers, and their teams, and over 200 physicists, and their research groups, in Scottish HEIs will pool resources across Scotland in two world class research alliances.
In physics, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) involves six universities - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, Paisley, St Andrews and Strathclyde. SUPA will have a Chief Executive heading an executive committee that is advised by an external advisory committee and will operate a single pan-Scottish Graduate School.SUPA will receive £6.9 million from SHEFC over the four years, with further support coming from the universities themselves and the Office of Science and Technology. The universities' physics departments will collaborate to ensure cohesive research programmes in astronomy and space physics, condensed matter and materials physics, nuclear and plasma physics, particle physics and photonics.
ScotCHEM - the chemistry pooling plan - brings together under one umbrella two new groupings. WestCHEM comprises Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities and EastCHEM brings together Edinburgh and St Andrews. A separate proposal from Heriot-Watt University will also go ahead under the ScotCHEM heading and eventually Dundee and Aberdeen Universities could be involved. EastCHEM will undertake research on biophysical chemistry, chemical biology, organic synthesis, structural chemistry, materials chemistry and physical chemistry/chemical physics. WestCHEM's direction will be inorganic materials synthesis, functional materials synthesis, analytical biological chemistry, chemical proteomics and theoretical chemistry and modeling. At Heriot-Watt, researchers are likely to look at biomimetic and medical organic chemistry, inorganic synthesis and computation, synthesis and properties of new materials, photochemistry and applied spectroscopy and biomanufacturing.SHEFC will be contributing around £9 million to the ScotCHEM research pool, again with support from the institutions and the OST.