Charity Research Support Fund: Coronavirus

(asked on 2nd September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the level of funding for the Charity Research Support Fund in 2021.


Answered by
Amanda Solloway Portrait
Amanda Solloway
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This question was answered on 7th September 2020

We are aware of the impact of Covid-19 on the university research sector and charity research organisations. On 27 June we announced a support package that will help protect science jobs and enable universities to continue research and innovation activities including those funded by charities.

From the Autumn, the Government will provide a package consisting of low-interest loans with long pay-back periods, supplemented by a small amount of government grants, to cover up to 80% of a university’s income losses from international students for the academic year 2020/21, up to the value of their non-publicly funded research activity, including from charities. Universities will be asked to demonstrate how these funds are being utilised to sustain research in areas typically funded by charities and business, for example to protect areas of medical research that have been developed in part with support of charities.

We continue to engage with the sector on ensuring the long-term sustainability of charity funded research in universities. As part of this BEIS and DHSC officials are also meeting regularly with the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and with individual medical research charities.

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