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Funding the indirect costs of research Chapter 5 Section 1 |
| Recommendation(s): 34 (part), 52 |
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Recommendation 34 (part):
We recommend:
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5.1 The Government welcomes the analysis by the Committee of the different roles of research and the implications for future funding mechanisms and has noted the wide support for the Committee’s conclusion that the dual support system should be maintained and that projects and programmes funded by the Research Councils should meet their full indirect costs and the costs of premises and central computing. The resource implications, which the Committee estimates at around an additional £110m per annum, are being considered in the course of the current Comprehensive Spending Review and the Government will respond to this recommendation in the light of the outcome of that Review. The Government notes that the HE institutional representative bodies, in association with the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Office of Science and Technology, have initiated a study to obtain evidence of the full indirect costs of Research Council projects and programmes. The HEFCE also intends to obtain extra information from universities and colleges about the use made by them of the indirect costs they recover, as a basis for further discussions. This will draw on the methodology in the recent Funding Councils’ costing study led by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.
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Recommendation 52:
We recommend to institutions that, over the medium term, they develop and implement arrangements which allow staff and external bodies to have access to and understand the true costs of research. |
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5.2 The Government welcomes the Joint Costing and Pricing Initiative being undertaken by the HE sector and the HE Funding Councils to improve costing and pricing at higher education institutions including the pricing of externally funded research contracts. The initiative will run over three years starting in 1998-99.
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