AHRC Delivery Plan 2016-2020

1 - Vision

AHRC will advance:

-The most innovative research ideas in its core disciplines through open calls and responsive mode funding streams, alongside more targeted initiatives in Heritage, Design, Languages, and the Creative Economy;

-Cross-disciplinary and cross-council research that addresses major societal challenges − including the sustained engagement of the arts and humanities in the newly-established Global Challenges Research Fund;

-The next generation of postgraduate and early career researchers, through our PhD Training Partnerships and other forms of targeted support, to sustaining capability & providing the strongest possible foundations for future enquiry

2 - Delivering national needs: research excellence

Open call (40% of budget)

-Research will be supported through large, collaborative Research Grants

-Exploratory Research Networks will build future capability

-Leadership Fellows scheme will enable transformative pieces of research and develop new approaches to knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary working

Thematic & cross council (19% of budget)

-Thematic research requires researchers to bring their expertise into wider conversation with other scholars, it is also a springboard for participation in cross-council programs

-AHRC will bring to fruition their 4 research themes: Care for the Future; Digital Transformations; Science in Culture; and Translating Cultures

-AHRC share insights widely and beyond AHRC of the benefits of Connected Communities programme

-The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) will create more cross-council funding

-AHRC will be leading on the GCRF Conflict Theme within the Partnership on Conflict, Crime & Security, and the Urban Living Partnership between RCUK and Innovate UK

Priority areas

-Design research in policy, entrepreneurship and public service as well as design methods and problem-solving in the private, public and third sectors

-Heritage has clear potential to connect with the new GCRF, particularly the protection and sustainability of cultural heritage in the face of conflict, urbanisation and climate change as well as helping societies deal with a difficult or divided past

-Modern Languages allows research into multilingualism, interactions across languages, and their role in defining communities and shaping international relations

Partnerships

AHRC will continue to support their researchers in collaborations with a wide range of heritage agencies, museums, archives, libraries and media (local, national and international).

Postgrad Research & skills (36% of budget)

-AHRC will invest in enhance the flow of talent to higher education and to the public, private and third sectors by continuing their commitment to the Doctoral Training Partnerships and Centres for Doctoral Training. The next DTP round will begin late 2016 – approximately 10 DTP’s, as well as the CDP’s will be supported.

-AHRC will work with other stakeholders to spread best practice in researcher development to help early career researchers

Knowledge Exchange, Creative Economy and Impact (5%of budget)

-AHRC will continue to invest in the creative economy and to connect universities with businesses, involving the Local Enterprise Partnerships and their equivalents

-AHRC will launch a new and ambitious Creative Economy Fund (expressions of Interest to be collected at the end of 2016)

-The AHRC’s Follow-on Fund for Impact and Engagement will continue to deliver creative impact

Public Engagement and International Collaboration

-Media engagement, public debate and policy research continues to be important, including the BBC’s involvement in the New Generation Thinkers scheme.

-GCRF offers opportunities for AHRC researchers to address problems faced by developing countries; AHRC-research is likely to initially focus on Conflict, Humanitarian Aid and Human Rights, People on the Move, Migration and Refugee Crises, Global Public Health, Environmental Change, Cultural Heritage and Management, the Creative Digital Economy and Gender and Inequality

Driving and Efficient Research Base

-AHRC continues to work with BIS, HEFCE, Universities UK and the HEI sector to promote shared data, infrastructure and other resources to raise efficiency and productiveness. The peer review process has been adapted to improve value-for-money, for example the move to a single panel for Research Grants. Further budgetary restraints will possibly lead to adoption of demand management measures being taken.

3 - Effectiveness through partnerships

Supporting interdisciplinary Research

-AHRC will work with BIS to maximise the funds impact on UK aid and research goals

-AHRC will also continue to work with the other research councils to offer interdisciplinary approaches to such interdisciplinary challenges as anti-microbial resistance, urban living, sustainable agri-food systems and data for discovery.

Innovate UK, business and the third sector

-AHRC will continue to work productively with Innovate UK, the business sector and the third sector.

-A promising new field of future engagements involves copyright and new business models in the creative sector – stemming from the CREATe programme (in partnership with EPSRC and ESRC).

Government departments and agencies

-AHRC are keen to develop policy in the areas of ethics; religion and public life; conflict resolution, reparative justice and peace-building; human rights; international humanitarian and development aid; foreign policy and international relations; intelligence and security; cultural heritage protection; public services design; and regional regeneration and the creative economy

EU and international funding

-Already-successful schemes such as Humanities in the European Research Area and European Joint Programme Initiatives are likely to expand

-AHRC will foster co-funding arrangements and other international opportunities

-International Co-Investigator scheme and Research Networking Schemes to continue


BBSRC Delivery Plan 2016/17 – 2019/20

Priorities 2016/17 – 2019/20

Driving bioscience discovery

Bioscience discovery is increasingly data-driven and BBSRC will promote and support the application of computational and mathematical approaches to address complex and important research questions at a systems-level.

BBSRC will identify infrastructure requirements, e.g. bioimaging, data and support the acquisition, development, maintenance and application of the equipment, technologies, software and resources that are essential for cutting edge bioscience research through dedicated ‘Tools and Resources’ funding and strategic capital investments.

Building a more resilient and secure future

In addition to responsive mode, BBSRC will focus on strategic economic opportunities and societal challenges such as:

•sustainably enhancing agricultural productivity, food security and resilience in the face of population growth, changing diets, climate change and other pressures.

•enabling sustainable ‘low carbon’ industries to help meet international emissions targets and reduce dependency on fossil fuels

•improving health across the lifecourse, reducing the need for medical and social intervention

The three strategic research priorities identified in the Strategic Plan (and shown below) reflect these challenges, and they will continue to promote and support research in these areas through responsive mode, highlights and themed calls, institute strategic programmes, fellowships and collaborative research programmes.

  1. Strategic Research Priority: Agriculture and Food Security

•increased focus on research to enable the sustainable and resilient intensification of farming systems to enhance productivity with improved resource-use efficiency and better environmental outcomes in the face of unpredictable impacts of climate change

•build on past investments in crop science, nutrition, and the gut microbiome, linking them together to enhance the nutritional quality of food and feed for long-term benefits to overall health

•develop a better understanding of the links between genomic data and complex crop and livestock phenotypes, in particular identifying traits which confer resilience to pests & disease and the effects of climatic variability

  1. Strategic Research Priority: Industrial biotechnology and bioenergy

•work with partners (EPSRC, Innovate UK, CPI3, European funding agencies and business), to enable the exploitation of biological systems to generate a range of products including high-value and fine chemicals, biopharmaceuticals and fuels, from different feedstocks including wastes and residues through the application of genomic, systems and synthetic biology approaches

•further build upon the success of the Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy to explore broader applications in materials, chemicals and energy for sustainable manufacturing

•progress the concept of the biorefinery by advancing research and bringing together the component parts through joint working with EPSRC, Innovate UK, CPI, European and other international funding agencies (e.g. FAPESP)

  1. Strategic Research Priority: Bioscience for health

•work with partners (MRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, the food industry) to understand the roles of, and interplay between, nutrition, microbiota and the body’s systems (e.g. metabolic, immune, nervous) in health and wellness across the lifecourse, in particular understanding the influences of diet, physical activity and other moderators of healthy development and ageing

•focus on vaccinology and AMR, including One Health approaches, across relevant farmed animals through to underpinning human research, including contributions to delivering the governments AMR strategy

•work with NC3Rs, the recently established Animal Welfare Network and other partners to foster high quality research to benefit the welfare of farmed and laboratory animals, and promote 3Rs aims.

Transforming and creating bio-based businesses

•Supporting the emergence and exploitation of disruptive platform technologies (such as synthetic biology), providing solutions to strategic challenges faced by established industrial sectors. Facilitating knowledge exchange and supporting partnership approaches bringing together companies and other research users with the academic research base, including developing Research and Innovation Campuses across the UK. This facilitation of academic research and commercial application will continue the LINK, IPA and Follow-on Fund schemes and build on the success of Research Industry Clubs and partnering with Innovate UK.

•BBSRC will also continue to support and add value to investments under the Synthetic Biology for Growth programme and respond to the UK Strategic Plan for Synthetic Biology 2016.

Strengthening the UK’s position as a global partner

BBSRC’s plans for the deployment of the allocation from the GCRF are centred around an overarching theme of ‘agriculture and biotechnology for sustainable development’, with an initial emphasis on building core capabilities, pump-priming research projects and supporting the development of partnerships that will underpin future strategic programmes addressing international development challenges.

  • Continue involvement with the International Wheat Yield Partnership
  • Providing UK researchers with access to funding opportunities, technologies and infrastructures through strategic engagement in international programmes including co-funding UK subscriptions to international platforms such as the Human Frontiers Science Programme and European Molecular Biology Organisation

Supporting interdisciplinary research

Leading the multi-funder Global Food Security programme, including a major joint investment in enhancing the resilience of the UK food system in a global context.

Working in partnership with Innovate UK and Private sector

  • Enable industry and other users to access, understand and collaborate with research to influence its direction and to accelerate economic and societal impact.
  • Evolve and develop our partnership approaches that bring together companies and other research users with the research base, building on the success of BBSRC’s Research Industry Clubs, and collaborative networks.
  • Working closely with Innovate UK in supporting academia-business collaboration and impact with a particular focus on areas of high strategic benefit.

Working in partnership with government departments, agencies and devolved governments

  • Working with government departments and relevant Leadership Councils to support the development of a joint government-industry Bioeconomy strategy for the UK addressing potential opportunities for economic growth and increased productivity while addressing societal and environmental challenges.
  • Delivering the vision for UK Animal and Plant Health research, published in January 2016, and working with Defra to support the research aspects of Defra’s 25-year food and farming plan.
  • Working through the UK Vaccines Research and Development network supporting vaccine R&D.

EPSRC summary of Delivery Plan 2016/17 – 2019/20

  1. Vision

Investing in research, discovery and innovation; delivering prosperity for the UK; Successful nations are science nations.

Delivering Prosperity for the UK

EPSRC expect that their investment will deliver the four inter-linked outcomes – productivity, connectedness, resilience and health – that collectively underpin UK prosperity.

What does it mean for researchers?

The thematic structure with familiar entry points for making research applications and for discussing programmes or work with us will remain in place. However, the prosperity outcomes should be taken into account when those ideas are formulated.

The core elements of scientific excellence, national importance and pathways to impact remain in place, with excellence being the primary criterion for assessing proposals.

What does it mean for business and other users of research?

The prosperity outcomes provide a framework for businesses to engage with the delivery plan. This framework will facilitate dialogue and broker relationships between universities and business and other end users of research. Even though the operating mechanisms and routes remain substantially the same, more efficient and streamlined routes will be investigated as a response to the Dowling Review and budgetary constraints.

Strong economies are science economies

EPSRC investments have enabled the advancement of other disciplines such as health and life sciences, leading to environmental and societal benefits and new public policy.

  1. Science Strategy

Investment priorities: An outcome focused approach where investment will deliver on the four Prosperity Outcomes: productivity, connectedness, resilience and health. The top-down strategic research programme that address the above outcomes will be allocated 40% of the portfolio.

Protecting the UK’s long term capability

We will maintain a programme of long-term, excellent research where the emphasis is on ‘bottom-up’ investigator-led ideas, including community-generated challenges. Comprising around 60 per cent of our total research portfolio, this investment is essential for the UK to compete in a globally competitive environment now and in the future. The longer term results from this will support all our Delivery Plan aspirations, including the Prosperity Outcomes.

  • Interdisciplinary research: at any one time 50% of grant portfolios are interdisciplinary. The experience and convening power gained through this type of research will be used to help design and implement the new multi-agency Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), working with BIS to develop a consistent approach to the GCRF and to maximise the fund’s impact in meeting combined UK aid and research goals.

Investing in highly skilled, numerate individuals: to build leadership potential across all career stages, enabling them to maximise their contribution within universities, Business, Government and other research organisations.

Investing to ensure that national funding has real impact: we will ensure that resources researchers need to achieve max impact are both embedded within standard investments via Pathways to impact, including Public Engagement, but also as non-embedded bespoke investment.

Investing in state of the art infrastructure: Investment to ensure that both researchers and industry have access to equipment to enable them to be at the forefront of scientific discoveries and pioneering innovation. Invest in Mid-range facilities; State-of-the-art equipment; Large-scale, strategic equipment; e-infrastructure.

Investing in international collaboration: Proactive international engagement will continue to focus on Europe, USA, Japan, China and India to: either simplify or enhance connections with those nations which have a strong history of collaboration, or to facilitate partnership with those nations which are rapidly growing their research activity.

  • Maximising contribution to international development through the GCRF to address the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and contribute to the UK’s commitment to official development assistance (ODA).
  • Newton fund used to prioritise partnerships with China and India. This delivery plan will continue to focus on joint activities in sustainable energy as well as exploring opportunities in other ODA compliant areas such as water engineering.

Realising the benefits of government investments in Grand Challenges: EPSRC is helping deliver a number of Grand Challenges infrastructure announcements and will ensure that investments are integrated with their portfolio to bring together research, training and the development of leaders. It will also seek opportunities for securing additional investment of this nature.

Enhancing equality and diversity: we will continue to take action in partnership with others to drive the diversity agenda and deliver the RCUK action plan. Working towards a target of recruiting under-represented groups into strategic advisory positions.

Driving an efficient research base: we will work with the sector to pioneer policies, incentives and performance measures for efficient sharing and utilisation of research assets.

  1. Effectiveness through partnerships

Continue forging collaborations with businesses and to seek to work seamlessly with Innovate UK and the Catapults.

Partnership with universities: we will seek even more coherence and efficiency across the UK academic research system so that public investment is used wisely and for the larger benefit of the UK.

Partnership with business and other innovation funders:

  • Business partners: we will partner with business in a number of ways, through one-off involvement in research or training investments, through to co-invested research programmes developed between EPSRC academia and business.
  • Innovate UK & Catapults: through these partnerships, EPSRC will a) align relevant processes at the strategic and operational levels; b) develop joint approaches in key areas, as in Quantum Technologies; c) align or co-fund activities in line with organisational and joint priorities; and d) enable more and deeper connections between EPSRC investments and the Catapult Centre network.

Partnership with Government: we will facilitate, bringing together those who can identify and articulate the challenges for the nation with those who can develop technological solutions.