Research England launches new programme aimed at encouraging universities to share resources, cut costs and build regional innovation partnerships.
Universities across Britain are being offered almost £20 million to develop new partnerships aimed at sharing resources, reducing costs and strengthening research and innovation.
Research England has announced £19.75 million of funding through its new Collaboration for a Sustainable Future programme, which is intended to identify obstacles preventing universities from working more closely together and test practical ways of overcoming them.
The programme was announced at the Universities UK conference, with the first funding opportunities due to open on October 1.
Individual projects will be able to receive between £10,000 and £5 million, depending on the type and scale of the collaboration.
The initiative comes as universities face growing financial pressures and the Government looks for ways to make the higher education and research system more financially sustainable.
Research England said it wanted to encourage institutions to share knowledge and capabilities, work more closely with businesses and other organisations, and develop partnerships capable of supporting economic growth.
The £19.75 million package will be divided between several areas.
A total of £750,000 will be available for projects bringing universities and other groups together to investigate the barriers that currently make institutional collaboration more difficult.
Individual projects under this strand will be worth between £10,000 and £100,000 and will be able to run for up to 12 months.
Participants will be expected to identify problems and potential solutions, with their findings and recommendations made publicly available to help inform future university collaboration.
Research England is also launching a wider survey to gather evidence from universities and others across the sector.
A further £4 million will be available for pilot projects led by eligible English universities.
These projects, worth between £100,000 and £1 million each and lasting for up to two years, will test new forms of collaboration intended to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Potential projects could include universities sharing institutional resources used to support research and innovation, pooling specialist capabilities or developing new ways of working with businesses and the public.
The largest part of the package is £15 million for new cross-UK innovation partnerships.
Universities will be able to apply for seed funding of between £1 million and £5 million for projects lasting up to three years.
These partnerships are intended to bring together universities and innovation organisations with complementary strengths in different parts of the country, with the aim of supporting regional economies and generating wider economic benefits.
Research England said it was particularly interested in structured, long-term collaborations involving several institutions and, where appropriate, businesses and other non-university organisations.
Professor Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said the organisation had been listening to universities as they faced what she described as “acute and accelerating pressures”.
She said the new initiative would put collaboration at the centre of efforts to strengthen the sector.
“We are keen that universities share knowledge, and at Research England we are committed to create and sustain the conditions for a healthy and dynamic research and innovation system,” she said.
Professor Corner added that previous partnerships had demonstrated what could be achieved when leading institutions combined their expertise, and said Research England wanted to see similar collaboration developed across England.
The programme builds on existing Research England-backed initiatives, including a pilot scheme encouraging universities to share technology transfer offices and the Cambridge × Manchester Innovation Partnership.
The latter brings together the universities and innovation ecosystems of Cambridge and Manchester in an attempt to develop stronger links between two of Britain’s major research and technology centres.
Research England said lessons from universities, industry, charities and public services would also be used to determine how future interventions could deliver the greatest benefit.
The programme forms part of a wider effort to maintain Britain’s position as a leading international centre for science, research and innovation while making the university sector more sustainable and cost effective.
Applications for the first funding opportunities are due to open on October 1, with further details to be published through UK Research and Innovation’s funding system.
