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 quality-related research (QR) business research element 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.
To be eligible for the QR business research element, HEPs must also meet the following criteria:
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- submitted to the most recent REF exercise
- received any income above zero from relevant sources (see Data used section for detail)
Data used
The four most recent years of data from the following data used to calculate the QR business and research element allocations.
OfS Annual Financial Return (AFR)
Table 5:
- Total research grants and contracts – UK industry, commerce and public corporations
- Co-investment from external sources – UK industry, commerce and public corporations
- Total research grants and contracts – EU industry, commerce and public corporations
- Co-investment from external sources – EU industry, commerce and public corporations
- Total research grants and contracts – non-EU industry, commerce and public corporations
- Co-investment from external sources – non-EU industry, commerce and public corporations
Calculation method
Step 1
For each of the four years of data going into the model, the eligible income is calculated by summing the total research grants and contracts, minus the co-investment from external sources on Research England funded projects, for each of the eligible income streams listed in the previous section.
Step 2
The mean average of each HEP’s eligible income across four years of data is calculated. If a HEP is missing the most recent year’s AFR data, the average is taken over the remaining years.
Step 3
The QR business research element allocations are distributed in proportion to the average income calculated in step 2.
Summary of constraints
No thresholds, minima, or maxima apply to the QR business research element allocations.