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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the announcement on 4 May of the support package for higher education providers as a result of the impact of COVID-19, what criteria they will use to provide research funding for universities; and how they will ensure (1) accessibility of the funding to a wide range of universities, and (2) diversity of institutional provision. [T]

As part of the announcement on 4 May, the Government confirmed that Research England would bring forward £100m for Quality-related Research (QR) Funding in Academic Year 2019-20. This will be allocated to HE institutions in England eligible to receive funding from Research England as a “top-up” to their overall QR allocation.

QR is selectively allocated to maintain excellent research with impact wherever it is found (based on excellence and impact performance as assessed through the Research Excellence Framework), and to provide support for the next generation of researchers and for research activities which lever funding from external sources such as the charitable and business sectors.