UKRI: overseas aid-funded research still ‘high priority’

Overseas research projects funded by foreign aid remain a “high priority” for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) despite the halting of all new aid-funded activities and the scaling back of hundreds of initiatives, the agency has insisted.

In an update to researchers on how it intends to deal with drastic cuts to research supported by official development assistance (ODA) provided by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UKRI said it had no intention to withdraw from this area of work.

“ODA funding remains a high priority for UKRI,” says the communique, which details expected timelines on where institution-level cuts will be announced.

“We will continue working collaboratively to tackle many of the pressing challenges facing the UK and the rest of the world in the months and years ahead,” it adds.

The update, published on 20 May, comes amid fears that the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund could be scrapped altogether in 2022-23 after their overall funding was slashed by 70 per cent to £125 million this financial year, down from £422 million.

It is believed the FCDO is keen to spend more money on aid with a political dimension that could, for instance, improve Britain’s trade links with global allies, while the GCRF – an interdisciplinary fund cutting across several research councils – is said to enjoy lukewarm support within UKRI itself.

In a Q&A, however, UKRI says it remained firmly behind ODA-funded initiatives, including programmes delivered directly by Innovate UK, and would “make the case for substantial investments in ODA research and innovation as part of the next spending review, expected in autumn 2021”.

“However, at this time, we simply do not know how much ODA funding will be allocated to UKRI for the financial year 2022-23,” UKRI explains, adding that “we are working hard to make a clear case to BEIS [the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] around the need to have stability of funding.”

In the update, UKRI explains that more than 800 live projects were under review following the cuts announced in March, with the results for GCRF projects likely to be finalised by the end of May, and for Newton Fund projects by mid-June.

It insists that “at this stage, no GCRF grants have been terminated”, saying that “the majority of grants have been able to continue because they have taken the option to reduce their spending”.

“Grants which were close to starting had to be stopped before funds were fully committed,” it adds.

Of 53 requests for special consideration, 45 had been approved, adds UKRI. These projects qualifying for exceptional funding are mostly clinical-led projects, such as drug trials in Africa, where scrapping the work midstream would lead to a complete loss of results, Times Higher Education understands.

In a separate letter, UKRI’s international champion Christopher Smith says he is “immensely grateful to PIs, CoIs [co-investigators] and grant-holding institutions and businesses for their hard work at responding to this very difficult challenge”.

“We know that many grants which were close to starting had to be stopped before funds were fully committed,” says Professor Smith, executive chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, who adds that UKRI is “aware difficult decisions had to be made” regarding cancellations.

“However, thanks to the enormous effort from our partners, the vast majority of grants awarded by UKRI are continuing, albeit at a reduced rate,” he says.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com