Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated from the Connecting Capability Fund to each NUTS 1 region for each year since the fund was created.
The Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) was launched by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in April 2017 with £100m funding over 2017-2021 to support universities across England to collaborate together on the commercialisation of research and in working with business. HEFCE has allocated £15m for 2017-18 to higher education institutes in England on the basis of their effectiveness in research commercialisation and working with business and other users of university knowledge and expertise, without regard to regional or NUTS 1 basis.
Table 1: CCF Allocations for Financial year 2017-18
NUTS Level 1 region | Allocation (£) | Allocation as % of Total |
East Midlands | 1,213,330 | 8.1% |
East of England | 1,640,847 | 10.9% |
London | 3,623,252 | 24.2% |
North East | 713,469 | 4.8% |
North West | 1,792,102 | 11.9% |
South East | 2,035,439 | 13.6% |
South West | 1,094,751 | 7.3% |
West Midlands | 1,454,184 | 9.7% |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 1,432,634 | 9.6% |
England total | 15,000,008 | 100.0% |
HEFCE has allocated so far a further £19.52M over the period 2018-2021 to 4 projects involving collaborations of HEIs selected through open competition. These projects involve 18 HEIs from across a number of English Regions which will share the funding.
Table 2: Projects from Round One.
Round One Projects £M | NUTS Level 1 Region: Lead HEI | NUTS Level 1 Region: Collaborating HEIs |
5.0 | South West (England) | South West (England) and South East (England) |
4.7 | East of England | East of England and South East (England) |
5.0 | North West (England) | Yorkshire and The Humber |
4.8 | South East (England) | West Midlands (England)* |
* Consortium also includes an HEI in Scotland.
HEFCE is currently assessing bids for the remaining £65m of CCF.