Science Research Funding in Universities (Science and Technology Committee Report)

Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate Excerpts

Wednesday 9th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome this debate on the important report from the committee. It is a wide-ranging report covering a large area, so I will confine my remarks to two elements.

First, I refer to the useful co-operation that has existed for many years between our academic institutions and those in the EU, and programmes such as Erasmus, Erasmus+, Horizon 2020—from which we had considerable billions of euros in support—and next, the Horizon Europe programme, which has been referred to already and will be very highly funded in Europe. The exchange of expertise, ideas and student experiences between nations across the continent has been a great help, especially in the field of scientific research and development. The Government have indicated their strong intention to seek an ongoing relationship to the EU programmes. Perhaps the Minister can update us on exactly how that aim is progressing.

Not only have we benefited greatly from the various EU programmes, which we get back substantially more from than we pay in, but we have done well from our joint research work with other EU institutions and exchanges of students and research fellows from neighbouring states. How we maintain this momentum is of great concern to vice-chancellors across the UK.

There are also genuine concerns about the Immigration Rules and the funding position post-Brexit. We must continue to attract the best researchers and research students from Europe to remain in the forefront of international work in many scientific fields. Currently, non-UK EU citizens still provide a high proportion of our academic workforce. As has been referred to already, it is likely that we are going to lose a lot of these people after December, especially if our new Immigration Rules make us less attractive.

As the committee’s report suggested, in order to meet the Government’s desire to see investment in R&D rise to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and ultimately to 3% to retain a world-leading position, we will need to increase the number of those involved in research by at least 50%. This can be achieved only by greater international exchanges and a focus on the appropriate subject teaching and encouragement in our schools, as well as academic institutions.

The second area of interest to me is that of ongoing funding in more general terms. The committee heard that the division in funding sources was roughly two-thirds from public funds to one-third from other sources—interestingly, only 4% was from UK corporate entities. In view of the vital benefit to our businesses and the overall effect for UK plc of much of our sharp-end higher research projects, surely we could and should look for a much bigger contribution from businesses. The University of Cambridge fills its research costs gap partly from philanthropy, but not all universities are as well-endowed as Cambridge. Also, as the report states, because of complex cross-funding, many institutions do not separately ring-fence funds for research.

There are some notable relationships between businesses and higher academia, often established to mutual advantage, but much research cannot be so polarised. Often, more speculative work ultimately produces results—sometimes world-beating—which become available for wider benefit. It should be possible for government intervention to produce a fiscal climate that would encourage greater investment in research by our business community and help to fill the current shortfall experienced by the institutions, especially in these pressured times. Many people respect and even envy the UK’s scientific research. We must do our best to try to keep that leading position.