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) charity support 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.
To be eligible for the QR charity support fund, HEPs must also meet the following criteria:
- have submitted to the most recent REF exercise
- received any income above zero from charities for research in the last four years (see Data used section for detail)
Data used
The four most recent years of data from the following sources are used to calculate QR charity support fund allocations.
OfS Annual Financial Return (AFR)
Table 5:
- Total research grants and contracts – UK-based charities (open competitive process)
- Co-investment from external sources – UK-based charities (open competitive process)
- Total research grants and contracts – EU-based charities (open competitive process)
- Co-investment from external sources – EU-based charities (open competitive process)
- Total research grants and contracts – non-EU-based charities (open competitive process)
- Co-investment from external sources – non-EU-based charities (open competitive process)
Table 6:
- Total income – general research studentships from charities (open competitive process)
Calculation method
Step 1
For each of the four years of data going into the model, the eligible income is calculated as follows.
Firstly, the eligible research grant income is calculated (from table 5 data) as the eligible total research grants and contracts minus the corresponding co-investment from external sources on Research England funded projects.
Secondly, the total eligible income is the sum of the eligible research grant income (calculated from table 4 data) and the total income for general research studentships from charities (from table 6 data).
Step 2
A London weighting is applied to the eligible income:
- a multiplier of 1.12 for HEPs in inner London
- a multiplier of 1.08 for HEPs in outer London
- a multiplier of 1.00 for all other HEPs
Step 3
The average of each HEPs’ weighted 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 4
The QR charity support fund allocations are distributed in proportion to average of the weighted income calculated in step 3.
Summary of constraints
No thresholds, minima, or maxima apply to the QR charity support fund allocations.