Introduction
This technical guide is aimed at those in planning and finance offices who need to have a good understanding of how Research England’s Enhancing Research Culture (ERC) fund grants are calculated.
For information about the strategic purpose of our funding refer to How we fund higher education providers (HEPs).
Common principles and definitions are provided in general notes for Research England technical guides.
Eligibility
Refer to the Research England terms and conditions for general eligibility conditions for our funding.
Data used
The most recent data from the following sources is used to determine each HEP’s ERC allocation:
Calculation method
Step 1
Eligible PGR FTE is calculated for each student in a similar manner as for the QR RDP supervision fund but is not limited to providers or units of assessment which returned to REF 2021. Furthermore, the way concurrent supervision is accounted for is different:
- Where there is concurrent supervision at more than one eligible provider for a student, the PGR FTE is attributed between each provider
- If a collaborating provider is eligible for ERC funding then their FTE is attributed to that collaborating provider
- If a collaborating provider is not eligible for ERC funding, then their FTE is distributed between the other collaborating providers
- If there is no collaboration, FTE is attributed to the submitting provider
Step 2
Eligible staff FTE is calculated as the sum of:
- FTE number of staff with an academic contract that is both teaching and research, and who have a significant responsibility for research
- FTE number of staff with an academic contract that is research only
Step 3
A volume measure is calculated by summing the eligible PGR FTE from step 1 and the eligible staff FTE from step 2 for each HEP. This is rounded up to the nearest 50. HEPs with a volume measure of zero are excluded.
Step 4
The ERC budget is distributed to each HEP in proportion to the volume measure calculated in step 3.
Step 5
The conditions specified in Summary of constraints are applied. Any surplus or deficit is redistributed in proportion to each HEP’s volume measure.
Step 6
The nature of the constraints typically means that the ERC budget cannot be distributed exactly. Therefore, the algorithm calculates two possible distribution totals; one as close as possible below the budget, and the other as close as possible above the budget. The final allocation is between these two choices at the discretion of Research England.
Summary of constraints
The following constraints apply to ERC allocations:
- allocations rounded up to the nearest £50,000
- a maximum allocation of £1,000,000