The charity research support funds are crucial to ensure that charitable funding in HEIs is sustainable.

In England
The 2010-11 allocation to the Charity Research Support Fund in England is £198 million equivalent to the 2009-10 allocation of £194 million in real terms.

All funding is under review during the Comprehensive Spending Review process, due to report on 22 October 2010. The importance of the charity research support fund in underpinning public support for medical health research was emphasised in submissions to the CSR process.

In the pre-budget report on 9 December 2009, the government announced a £600 million reduction in higher education and science and research budgets by 2010-13.

This reduction was not taken into account in HEFCE's provisional grant allocations of 1 February 2010 and so the potential implications of where these cuts will fall are yet to become clear. Athough in Lord Mandelson's December letter to HEFCE he emphasised that while asking HEFCE to make savings he wished to protect research funding.

AMRC member rules on allocating full Economic Costs

AMRC members have different rules regarding which elements of fEC they are willing to pay which can be confusing for higher education institutions (HEIs).

In attempt to address this, the RCUK/UUK Review of the Impact of Full Economic Costing on the UK Higher Education Sector recommended that

The Association of Medical Research Charities should maintain a web-site which summarises overall approaches to payment of fEC in the charity sector and provides links to the detailed financial rules of their members.

AMRC are taking forward this recommendation. Our aim at this stage is help foster a stronger and more open relationship with universities by developing a number of pages on our website which restate the general principles and overall approach of our members to fEC and provide links to individual member charity rules where these are available.

We need our members help in beginning to build this portal – further information for AMRC members here:
http://www.amrc.org.uk/2/consultations--surveys__home-office-statistics-on-use-of-animals-in-scientific-procedures

Joint statement from universities and charities in support of the fund

Universities and charities share concerns over the sustainability of charity-funded research in universities and have produced a joint statement calling for government commitment to supporting sustainable charity funded research in universities in England.

Simon Denegri said:
'This is the first time that both sectors have produced such a joint statement. It highlights how important this fund is to their partnership on research and what will be lost if the government does not commit to it in the future.’

What medical research charities want

AMRC is calling on the government and opposition parties to commit to a healthy future for the Charity Research Support Funds which remains in step with charity ambitions for research on behalf of patients.

Our submission to the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review emphasises the importance of the charity research support fund in underpinning public support for medical health research - support which in the last year amounted to over £1 billion invested into medical research in the UK by AMRC members (AMRC research expenditre database, 2009-10).

Updated July 2010