Important information about the impact of CSR on the AHRC 

 15 Jan 2008 

 

The results of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) were published in October 2007. While the Government maintained its commitment to increase the Science Budget by 2.5% per annum in real terms, in what proved to be a very tight settlement much of the increase went to maintaining Full Economic Costs at 80% (which will greatly assist HEIs) and into health research. Accordingly, in what proved to be a difficult spending round for most of the Research Councils, the AHRC received the following settlement:

  • 2008-09 - £103.5m
  • 2009-10 - £104.4m
  • 2010-11 - £108.8m

This represents a rise of 12.4% across a three year period. Since we will need to maintain the Full Economic Costs of awards, this allocation means that the AHRC will need to make some difficult decisions about prioritisation. The settlement is not sufficient to continue funding the present volume of awards.

Success rates in research grants, which have ranged from 22% - 29% over the last three years, will temporarily decline to about 15% (or possibly lower in some cases). The success rate in Research Leave grants will also decline to about 15% effective from the current round (September 2007 deadline).

In addition we will need to cut new Postgraduate awards from 1500 to 1000 in 2008 and to about 1325 for the following two years. We will be capping numbers of applications from Higher Education Institutions in 2008 and HEIs should have received a letter explaining this.

This is disappointing news for the AHRC and the research community. The AHRC remains committed to funding world-class research, and will continue to make the case to Government of the importance of the arts and humanities subject domains, and the need for a sustainable research base to benefit the UK’s economy, culture and creative industries.

The AHRC’s other priorities for the next three years are outlined in our Delivery Plan, which can be found at xxx We are working with other Research Councils on a number of cross-Council initiatives, such as Ageing, Digital Economy, Global Threats to Security and Living with Environmental Change. We are also launching two new strategic programmes in the spring, Science and Heritage and Beyond Text.