The UK’s largest physical sciences funding agency has announced a big policy shakeup which will concentrate research money in areas of ‘national importance’. This new direction, which the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) describes as ‘shaping capability’, will squeeze certain chemistry sub-disciplines in favour of others and limit the role of peer review in funding decisions.
I am a freelance science writer specialising in physics, astronomy, science funding and research policy. I write for a variety of online and print journals. I am also editor of the Euroscientist. In my day job, I work as a Research Facilitator in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford.
Recently published articles
Research council to pick favourites to receive UK chemistry funding – Chemistry World
July 27th, 2011
REF looks to help academics who take a career break – Chemistry World
July 20th, 2011
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) has released it guidelines detailing how universities will be assessed in the upcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF), which will help to determine how much funding institutes receive. In the Assessment Framework and Guidance on Submission for the 2014 REF, the funding councils have outlined the final criteria and specific data and narratives required for submissions. The new guidance also aims to encourage universities to place more value on researchers who have taken a career break or returned to academia from industry.
Pharma grinding to a hault? – Euroscientist
July 11th, 2011
More evidence recently published by the 2011 Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook indicates that the pharma industry’s productivity is continuing to decline. Fewer new molecular entities were launched in 2010 than in any other year in the past decade. The number of drugs entering Phase I, II and III clinical trials is also declining. R&D expenditure has also dropped to a three year low of $68 billion.
EIT wants more cash for KICs – Euroscientist
July 8th, 2011
The current budget for The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is not enough to attract private sector partners to the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). The EIT is now calling for their funding to be increased dramatically to €4 billion in the 2014 – 2020 budget.
Euroscience’s response to the recent EU Green Paper for a Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation commented on the KIC’s lack of funding and therefore their inability to maintain industrial partners. The EIT are now asking for a big increase in their funding to support the three existing KICs, which need more investment to succeed.
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