Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE)
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£52 million awarded to leading-edge research projects in engineering and the social sciences
Imperial College London and the London School of Economics are the first universities to receive funding for their research projects in the fifth round of the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund. The two outstanding projects will receive £52 million of investment in 2018-19 and 2019-20, to drive innovation and support the UK’s economic growth.
Biomedical engineering at Imperial College London
The projects will promote the development of world-leading research in biomedical engineering and the study of inequalities. Between them they attract over £106 million of additional private investment.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said:
“Capitalising on the incredible research and innovation taking place in universities up and down the country is key to the UK’s long-term success.
“The successful bids from Imperial College London and the LSE demonstrate the breadth of the UK’s scientific expertise, and are exactly the types of projects our upcoming Industrial Strategy will look to support. This announcement – along with our investment of £2 billion per year by the end of this parliament for scientific research and development – highlights our commitment to ensuring we remain at the forefront of global science.”
Through the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), HEFCE has allocated over £450 million to 32 projects with funding from 2014-17, attracting £1.2 billion of investment from business and charities. An additional £400 million of funding was announced for UKRPIF in the 2015 Budget to 2021. Round 5 will allocate £200 million in 2018-19 and 2019-20, while a further round will allocate the remaining £200 million in 2019-20 and 2020-21. The remaining £150 million available through this round of UKRPIF will be allocated early this year.
The two projects are the Biomedical Engineering Hub at Imperial College London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science’ International Inequalities Institute.
HEFCE Chief Executive, Madeleine Atkins, said:
“These two projects demonstrate the role that our universities play in providing outstanding research for the benefit of the economy and society. They both bring together researchers from a range of backgrounds to pool their knowledge and expertise to create maximum benefit in biomedical engineering, and inequalities respectively.
“The UKRPIF programme gives excellent value for public funding by double matching finance from external sources”.
Biomedical Engineering Hub – Imperial College London
UKRPIF funding: £20 million
The Imperial College Biomedical Engineering Hub is a visionary new facility that will bring engineers, scientists and clinicians together, collaborating to develop solutions to some of the most pressing biomedical and healthcare problems of our time.
Based in the Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Research Hub on Imperial’s new White City Campus, the facility will house a clinical facility side-by-side with multidisciplinary laboratories and offices for translational research initiatives. It is designed to facilitate the seamless translation of cutting-edge research into real-world clinical solutions.
The International Inequalities Institute - London School of Economics and Political Science
UKRPIF funding: £32 million
Understanding the complex causes, nature and consequences of rising inequalities is a pressing global challenge. The risks to social cohesion, democratic systems and economic prosperity demand evidence-based interventions.
The International Inequalities Institute will become the world’s premier centre for interdisciplinary research on inequalities. It will pool and facilitate the best research, and create a generation of scholars with the complex social science tools necessary to understand current and future inequalities. Purpose-built research facilities will spark new ideas and innovative solutions, involve research users in conception, design and delivery, and bring research ideas to practical implementation.
Notes
- The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) supports higher education research in areas of research excellence to attract investment, and to strengthen the contribution of research to the economy.
- UKRPIF is managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), in collaboration with the other UK higher education funding bodies, with proposals assessed by an independent assessment panel.
- UKRPIF was launched with £100 million of public finance in May 2012. In response to the large number of high-quality bids, the Government tripled the public support to £300 million in autumn 2012 and ran a second round of the special funding initiative. In June 2013, the Government announced two further rounds of UKRPIF – extending it to 2016-17, making available an additional £200 million to be allocated over two years, and taking the total government investment in the fund to £500 million.
- The 2015 Budget announced an additional £400 million of funding for UKRPIF for the period to 2021.The additional funding will be used to support larger-scale projects (up to £50 million of public funding per project), attracting at least double that investment from private partners.
