Research Councils UK acts to boost economic impact of research
Research Councils UK (RCUK) has published a strategy to maximise the value of the research it funds. Entitled 'Increasing the Economic Impact of the Research Councils,' the document sets out how the UK's eight research councils will work with a range of stakeholders to ensure the country fully exploits the potential of its research base in addressing the challenges posed by globalisation. The man charged with leading the implementation of the strategy is Professor Philip Esler of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. 'As the biggest single funder of public research in the UK, the Research Councils willingly take on the task of encouraging and focusing the changes in the research base needed to position the UK to face the challenge posed by the emerging economies,' he said. 'We interpret economic impact broadly to encompass the social, cultural as well as financial benefits that can flow from the research base. These benefits can emerge from all academic disciplines, from the arts to astrophysics and sociology to zoology, and all eight Research Councils will be pulling together to realise those benefits.' One of Professor Esler's first tasks will be to set up a high-level forum on knowledge transfer, which will address the barriers to innovation. The forum will bring together leading organisations in the knowledge transfer arena, including users of research, universities and research institutions and public funders of research and training. There is a strong focus on collaboration between business and the research base in the strategy, and to this end the research councils will 'engender a culture in the research base in which collaborations and exploitation are encouraged, valued and rewarded'. In particular they plan to provide incentives to encourage researchers to participate in knowledge transfer, and promote the movement of people between research organisations, businesses and other research users. They will also encourage higher education institutes to provide more enterprise training. Meanwhile the research councils themselves will make a greater effort to reach out to other players in the research arena, including Regional Development Agencies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), user organisations and individual companies. Among other tasks, they plan to use their own institutes as the nucleus for building clusters. Another major element of the strategy involves evaluating the impact of research council-funded research. To this end, RCUK will commission a study to assess the economic impact of research council activities across the board, with a view to establishing baseline information for future assessments. They will also conduct biennial surveys of their users to assess their satisfaction with the research councils' effectiveness and report annually on their progress in delivering the strategy. The UK's research councils are funded through the UK government's Office of Science and Innovation, and together manage an annual research budget of GBP2.8 billion (€4.2 billion). This latest strategy draws on recommendations from a government task force which published its report in July 2006.
Countries
United Kingdom