Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the contribution of the charity research support fund to (a) sustaining research investment from charities in universities and (b) supporting the financial sustainability of universities who receive a large number of charity grants.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UKRI Research England is undertaking a review of their approach to their formula-based research funding, delivered in England through Quality-related Research (QR). This activity is called the Strategic Institutional Research Funding (SIRF) review. The review will consider the fundamental principles and the effectiveness of their current funding allocation mechanisms, in consultation with the higher education sector and wider stakeholders. This review is anticipated to continue until 2030 and will be made up of a number of discrete stages. As part of QR, Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF) is within the scope of this review.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he is planning to introduce any new guidelines or regulations for dating app providers to address the risks of online stalking.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This government has set an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act forces in scope services to reduce the risk of illegal content being encountered on their services. Platforms must focus on ‘priority offences’, including content which amounts to stalking and must reduce the risk of priority offences being committed on their services.
Ofcom is the regulator for this new regime, and it will have extensive enforcement powers to take action where companies do not comply with their new duties.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much has been spent on the Charity Research Support Fund since 2010; and what the average income reported from charities by universities is in the same period.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This data is publicly available. Charity income for universities can be found in the HESA website (HE Finance Data | HESA). CRSF allocations can be found on the Research England website (e.g. Research England grant allocations basis 2024 to 2025 – UKRI) and for data pre-dating the creation of Research England in the HEFCE archives (Archive Timeline - UK Government Web Archive).
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to improve the financial sustainability of charity funded research in universities.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is determined to work with the sector to transition to sustainable research funding models, including by increasing research grant cost recovery. Charity funded research forms a vital part of the UK's R&D landscape, creating valuable research in the life sciences and beyond.