Supporting
research and scholarship
Introduction
4.85 Scotland
has an outstanding research reputation in many areas.
Scottish higher education research makes significant
contributions to the wealth of the nation and its general
health and wellbeing. These benefits extend across a wide
range of economic and social interests. To ensure that
they continue to accrue, the higher education sector's
capacity to maximise the potential of its graduates and
scholars and to conduct innovative leading edge research
and scholarship should be national priorities. We are
pleased to note that Scotland produces just over one per
cent of all scientific publications in refereed journals.
Using this measure on a per capita basis, Scotland is
ranked third in the world.58
4.86 It is estimated that
in 1996/97, nearly £300 million of research will be
conducted in Scottish higher education institutions and
slightly over £100 million of these funds will be
allocated by SHEFC.57 To maximise this
and future investment, we seek to ensure a research
climate that:
- is attuned to the needs of a high technology 21st
century:
- sustains and enhances Scotland's contribution and
standing in the world research community;
- contributes to a high quality of life and
prosperity for the people of Scotland and the UK.
Quality and selectivity
4.87 We are convinced that now, as in the
future, one of the most important aspects of Scottish
competitiveness will arise from our ability to innovate,
and to develop and exploit knowledge. We believe that
this can only be achieved through our capacity to conduct
outstanding research. We strongly support the principle,
reinforced by the National Committee, of selectivity in
research funding on the basis of excellence at the
individual, group and departmental level.
4.88 We believe that
selectivity in the funding of research should take into
consideration:
- excellence;
- contribution to quality of life;
- contribution to culture;
- demonstrated national or regional interests;
- relevance to economic welfare.
4.89 We acknowledge that,
in general, there has to be greater concentration of
research funding in the future. This is already happening
in Scotland where at present nearly 65 per cent of the
funding stream allocated on the basis of the Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE) conducted in 1996/97 was
concentrated in three higher education institutions. Most
of the remaining funding was distributed to the pre-1992
universities (see Table 2.3).
4.90 We believe it
important that for the future, account will also have to
be taken of how we might selectively broaden our research
base by building upon and developing new and upcoming
areas of research which are relevant to our culture,
national interests and industry irrespective of where
they arise. Novelty and innovation must be encouraged
across the higher education sector and SHEFC should seek
to ensure that this issue is addressed.
4.91 We note that SHEFC
proposes 'increasing the weight given to the external
research income factor' in the allocation of its
RAE-based research grant.59 This will
encourage improved links with those who use and apply the
research findings. We commend this proposal.
Research Assessment Exercise
(RAE)
4.92 A robust, credible and fair mechanism
based upon subject expertise needs to be in place in
order to assess the quality of research submissions.
Little evidence was presented to us that showed the RAE
to be overly burdensome to institutions in Scotland
although we accept that pressures occur for panel members
who must assess the quality of research across a
discipline in a relatively short time. Nevertheless, we
support the continuance of the RAE.
4.93 In the current RAE
funding round in Scotland (as in the rest of the UK),
only departments rated 3b or above will receive any RAE
funding. We also note that Scottish higher education
institutions are already selective in whom they submit to
the RAE. In 1996, 33 per cent of staff at Scottish higher
education institutions were not submitted for assessment
in the RAE. Of the remainder who did, almost 60 per cent
were rated 4 or better whilst almost 88 per cent were
rated 3b or above (see Table 2.4). We believe that public
funding for research of national and international
standing should continue to be available on a competitive
basis.
Postgraduate research
training
4.94 We support the development of a code of
practice that ensures a high quality period of training
for research postgraduate students. The National
Committee's proposal to verify institutional adherence to
this code is appropriate.
Funding
4.95 We support the principles adopted by the
National Committee. These are:
- excellence should be supported;
- different types of research should be supported
by different streams of funding - including
support for applied and regional research;
- adequate funding for infrastructure to support
high quality research should be provided;
- where research is selected for support, it must
be fully funded;
- funding policies to support research should
promote as far as possible, not devalue teaching;
- funding streams should be clear and transparent.
4.96 These principles are
important if a dynamic research environment in Scotland
is to be achieved. We commend SHEFC for already
establishing clear and transparent research funding
procedures in Scotland.
4.97 We welcome the
National Committee's call for multiple streams of funding
which support the different purposes of research as
identified by the National Committee. Our views on these
are discussed below.
4.98 The four funding
streams are:
- selective support for research capability comes
from the funding bodies. In Scotland, SHEFC does
this on the basis of proven performance as
measured by the RAE, through its research
development grant and by other mechanisms;
- Research Council funding allocated on the basis
of specific research grant proposals submitted
and considered in competition across the whole of
the UK;
- the proposed Industrial Partnership Development
Fund (IPDF) is aimed at attracting matching funds
from business and industry in support of research
in the higher education sector at the regional
and local level;
- the proposed Infrastructure Fund for Excellence
is designed to operate as a revolving loan fund
to support infrastructure in excellent research
departments that can demonstrate real need.
Research support from the
funding bodies
4.99 SHEFC must continue to support
non-Research Council funded research in Scotland and we
are firmly of the view that there be no transfer of funds
out of the SHEFC provision to the centralised Research
Council system. We believe that the current SHEFC
provision should be maintained, or preferably enhanced,
and that it be used to sustain, enhance and further
develop its strategic thrust in support of the Scottish
higher education system on a competitive basis. As part
of its function it should seek to encourage novelty and
innovation via pump priming mechanisms across the
Scottish higher education sector.
4.100 Whilst adhering
strongly to this view, we also believe that 'research
and teaching are mutually enhancing ... students whose
course gives them something of the research ethos will
benefit educationally.'60
4.101 We are, therefore,
convinced that higher education teaching in Scotland
should be complemented by scholarship and research.
Through such engagement, we believe that teachers will be
able to remain abreast of their subject and transmit this
knowledge in a dynamic way. We also believe that the
opportunity to pursue scholarship and research should
contribute to raising the status and standing of the
teaching profession. In this light, we warmly endorse the
establishment of the Institute for Learning and Teaching
in Higher Education. We have noted the National
Committee's view about the separate purposes of
'corporate' and 'private' research activities. It is
important that each academic staff member has the
prospect of engaging in scholarship and research and in
this respect we endorse the National Committee's view.
4.102 SHEFC's research
funding arrangements should recognise and support many
types of research activity although we do not think this
latter type of research, linked to scholarship and
teaching, should be funded competitively through the RAE
or have available similar levels of funding. Instead, we
support the National Committee's recommendation to create
a research funding stream that makes it attractive for
departments or institutions who feel their main strength
is in teaching to opt out of the RAE. We think it is
important to note that this approach will not discourage
or penalise departments that just miss RAE funding. To
ensure that this happens we propose a modest per capita
allocation of funding related to the number of permanent
teaching staff who do not submit to the RAE.
Research Council funding
4.103 Research Council grants have to be
supported in full. There has been ambiguity in the past
and this should be removed. In 1995-96, Scottish higher
education attracted almost £66 million in research
council grants (see Table 2.6). We estimate that Scottish
higher education would require approximately £16 million
in additional funding in order to meet the full cost of
these projects.61 We, therefore,
share the National Committee's concern about indirect
cost recovery with respect to these grants and fully
endorse the National Committee recommendations that call
for greater understanding and transparency in relation to
these costs. We are unequivocal in our belief that
Research Council grants must in future fund all supported
projects properly and adequately. We support the call by
the National Committee, that the government should
allocate new funding to support the current volume of
Research Council projects at full cost (apart from
academic salaries).
Industrial Partnership
Development Fund (IPDF)
4.104 We endorse the newly proposed IPDF. We
anticipate that SHEFC and SOEID will have a major role in
the implementation of this funding stream in Scotland. It
will provide a useful mechanism for attracting industry
support for applied research, which we support. In
considering this proposal we have noted that, with great
success, SHEFC has now transformed the Research
Development Grant into a competitive source of funding to
assist institutions in responding to Technology
Foresight. We believe that the aims of these two funds
are not dissimilar and once the details of the IPDF are
finalised, and building upon existing achievements, they
might usefully be pooled together to create a single
well-sourced funding stream for this strand of Scottish
research.
Infrastructure fund for
excellence in research
4.105 We fully support the National
Committee's recommendation to establish a loan fund for
infrastructure for a limited number of top quality
research departments. Its rapid establishment would be
timely in assisting higher education institutions in
addressing the needs of an ageing research infrastructure
that can no longer be supported through funding body
allocations alone. We believe that this funding stream
will be well-received and used by Scottish higher
education institutions when funds become available.
Arts and Humanities Research
Council
4.106 The Scottish Studentship Scheme
operated by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)
offers up to 75 new studentships a year for advanced
postgraduate higher degrees in the arts and the
humanities. In 1996/97, the SAAS received nearly 400
applications for these places. We agree with the National
Committee that more needs to be done to secure research
in these discipline areas.62
We, therefore, support the establishment of a separate
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and welcome
the inclusion of design as part of its remit. Funding to
support the AHRC should not be at the expense of the
science and technology research base.
Collaboration
Incentives
4.107 We believe that greater collaboration
in research is needed across the sector generally, as
multidisciplinary research becomes increasingly
important, and as the demands for, and the costs of,
leading edge technologies and facilities escalate. We
share the view of the National Committee that mechanisms
must be found to ensure that outstanding researchers,
irrespective of location be eligible for involvement in
collaborative programmes and have access to necessary
facilities. Incentives to encourage this approach should
be found.
Centres of research
excellence
4.108 We believe that the promotion and
development of virtual interdisciplinary research centres
of excellence in Scotland should be a priority given the
likely increase in the concentration of research funding.
These centres should encourage and support further
collaborative links covering the sharing of staff,
equipment such as C&IT, and facilities across
Scottish and other UK-wide institutions.
Recommendation 11
We recommend to the Scottish Higher Education Funding
Council that it should identify how it might encourage
and facilitate research collaboration within its funding
streams.
Recommendation 12
We recommend to the Scottish Higher Education Funding
Council that it should give further consideration to how,
and on what basis, collaborative research centres might
be best facilitated and organised in Scotland.
Recommendation 13
We recommend to the Scottish Higher Education Funding
Council and the Research Councils that they should, as
appropriate, make available additional funding to ensure
that outstanding researchers, irrespective of location,
have access to research facilities.
Employer partnerships
4.109 We believe that research undertaken in
collaboration with business, industry and commerce will
become increasingly important and that this will help
Scotland and the UK to retain a competitive edge and
contribute to national prosperity. Greater efficiencies
in the conduct of research can also be achieved by the
sharing of facilities, skills and expertise. We have
already noted our support for the establishment of the
Industrial Partnership Development Fund which will
support applied research and regional development. We
welcome this recommendation as it creates an incentive
for Scottish industry and academia to combine their
talents for the benefit of the Scottish economy.
4.110 There are good
examples across the Scottish higher education sector
where links with industry have been established and where
new companies have been developed from the academic
research base by the higher education institutions
themselves or with support from the Enterprise network
and the private sector, including venture capitalists.
New innovative high technology companies are springing up
particularly, but not exclusively, in the life sciences,
biotechnology and engineering areas which will be
important globally in the next century. The involvement
of Scottish Enterprise in the commercialisation of
science and technology through its Technology Ventures
programme has been valuable.
4.111 Although indigenous
industry is not yet a major financial supporter of
research in higher education institutions in Scotland,
funding from employers in support of research is likely
to grow in future. We commend the work undertaken by the
Royal Society of Edinburgh and Scottish Enterprise to
improve the commercialisation of institutional research.
Industry-linked postgraduate
qualifications
4.112 We found that many researchers in
Europe seeking a postgraduate qualification carried out
their research within a company rather than in a higher
education institution. In all cases the project was
company-specific and the outcome was important to the
business. The academic supervisors involved in these
projects became familiar with the company's research
needs and in some cases prompted ongoing research in
their own institution in a similar subject area. It
improved the links between the two organisations in a
meaningful way. We commend this approach.
Recommendation 14
We recommend to higher education institutions that they
should identify and establish links with industry to
foster and facilitate work-based research training. These
links should enable industry staff to gain high quality
postgraduate qualifications through in-house research
projects.
Exploitation
4.113 We have noted the economic links
between research, national wealth and local/regional
regeneration. We, therefore, support the National
Committee's recommendations to promote greater
exploitation of outputs from higher education. In
particular, we believe that higher education instititions
have to pay greater attention to this through staff
training and by providing incentives to those academics
whose work generates income for their institution from
business, industry and commerce. We see particular
benefit in the further development of offices which can
link the academic and industrial bases. The staff must be
sensitive to academic needs, foster academic/industrial
links, develop powerful links with industry and the
private sector, and be fully competent in ensuring that
intellectual property is generated, protected and
exploited. We believe that revenues generated by the
exploitation of intellectual property could provide a
substantial additional source of income to institutions.
We also welcome the National Committee's call for the
establishment of 'technology incubators' to assist
institutions and researchers in developing commercial
aspects of their research. There are already substantial
successes of this type in a small number of institutions
in Scotland and more would clearly be welcome. We
anticipate an increasing stream of commercially important
research emanating from the higher education research
base.
Technology Foresight
4.114 The Technology Foresight programme
'represents the most comprehensive inventory of national
science and technology assets in three decades involving
both academic and industrial constituencies'.63
It is designed to identify market opportunities and new
technologies which would enhance wealth creation and
quality of life. We strongly support this initiative
(recently renamed Foresight by the Department for Trade
and Industry (DTI) and its aims, and note with approval
that The Scottish Office Education and Industry
Department (SOEID), the Scottish Higher Education Funding
Council (SHEFC) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh
promote it through various continuing activities. We
welcome SHEFC's proposals to encourage higher education
institutions to give greater attention to Foresight
through core activities and by examining ways in which
higher education institutions are using Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE) based grants in responding to
Foresight. It must continue to be a key priority area for
Scottish higher education research and development in the
long term.
4.115 In this section of
the report we have noted the continuing importance of
research conducted within higher education. But we see
this as only one aspect of the on-going research efforts
now taking place in Scotland. Business, industry and
commerce are also making valuable contributions to our
research base. We have already called for the
establishment of stronger collaborative links and
partnerships with these private interests in order to
build upon and create new forms and contexts of
knowledge. We have also noted the National Committee's
call for the establishment of an independent body to
advise Government on the direction of national policies
for the public funding of research in higher education.
However, to make these links effective, we are convinced
that there is also a need to consider the coherence of
Scottish research efforts at the broadest possible level.
4.116 Overall, we believe
that Scotland has a strong and innovative research base
upon which it can build with confidence for the future.
As part of the UK, Scotland must play its full part in
shaping UK policy on research and development against a
global backdrop. Additionally, and importantly, however,
its small size and composite structure offers particular
opportunities for unique regional approaches targeted at
national prosperity and quality of life. Its research
strengths in industry and academia and in areas such as
information technology, biotechnology, agriculture, the
environment, health, energy and transport, provide an
opportunity, through better integration, for a strategic
approach to the needs of the country. This should be
based upon well-targeted multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary approaches built around outstandingly
able people and centres of excellence.
Recommendation 15
We recommend that the Secretary of State for Scotland
should consider filling the post of Chief Scientific
Adviser for Scotland. One of his or her primary
responsibilities would be to identify and develop, where
possible, from the diverse research base in Scotland, an
integrated strategy for Scottish research.
Rest of
Chapter
|