New report published: The Dual Funding Structure for Research in the UK: Research Council and Funding Council Allocation Methods and the Pathways to Impact of UK Academics

Commissioned by the DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION AND SKILLS (BIS) and carried out by THE CENTRE FOR BUSINESS RESEARCH (CBR) AND THE UK INNOVATION RESEARCH CENTRE (UK~IRC), this report analyses the links between research performance, research funding models and the knowledge exchange activities and research motivation of academics in the UK, and the constraints they face in engaging with organisations external to their universities. It focuses in particular on the characteristics of the UK system of Dual Funding Support in which University research funding is provided by the twin routes of institutional block grants from the Funding Councils based on periodic quality assessment exercises and funding won in peer reviewed competition from the Research Councils.  The report provides a statistical analysis of the anatomy of the Dual Funding System and its evolution since the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It also provides a detailed statistical analysis of the pattern of impact pathways of UK academics cross classified both by Research Council grant holding status and by the RAE rankings of their departments.  You may access it here.