Background
Purpose of the Transparency Programme
Research England is undertaking a programme of work to improve the understanding and visibility of how our strategic institutional research funding (SIRF) is used by higher education providers (HEPs). This Transparency Programme will improve the evidence base for SIRF and help to strengthen the case to Government for the importance of the funding we deliver. It will also enable us to better account for public funds and to celebrate the uses of SIRF.
The programme contributes to UKRI’s response to the 2021 Nurse Review of Research Landscape. It also fulfils a commitment from our 2022-2025 Strategic Delivery Plan to “work with our universities to improve the transparency around the uses and effectiveness of our strategic institutional research funding”.
See our overview of the programme work
How we define transparency
We define transparency, in this context, as the mechanisms by which Research England ensures that both internal and external audiences understand how HEPs spend their SIRF allocations and why they take the approaches they do.
What is SIRF
The term ‘strategic institutional research funding’ (SIRF) covers all of Research England’s formula-driven research funding allocations made to English HEPs that can be used flexibly by the provider to serve their wider strategic priorities. The following quality-related research (QR) funds and ring-fenced funds are defined as SIRF:
- mainstream QR
- QR research degree programme supervision fund
- QR charity support element
- QR business research element
- QR funding for national facilities and initiatives
- Research Capital Infrastructure Funding (RCIF)
- Specialist Provider Element
- Policy Support Fund
- Participatory Research Fund
- Enhancing Research Culture Fund
Note: while RCIF falls under SIRF, this pilot exercise does not collect details on uses of RCIF.
Why we are undertaking a pilot
The Transparency Programme is currently at a stage of piloting a new process and tools to gather evidence of SIRF uses on an annual basis. Our ambition is that the pilot will enable us to deliver a new process within RE’s strategic aims around improving our methodologies related to data and evidence.
Once the process is piloted and improved, we plan to roll it out to all English HEPs annually to obtain better data and insights about SIRF and gather compelling stories about how it is used on the ground. The pilot activity (and the planned implementation) does not seek to alter or influence HEPs’ strategic decision-making in how they spend their SIRF allocations.
The pilot has been designed as part of a package of evidence that also includes the wider review of SIRF and the impact evaluation of SIRF.
The pilot constitutes Action 1 under the objective to ‘advance Research England’s funding, partnership, and engagement practices to create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive research and knowledge exchange system’ in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan, as follows:
“Research England will develop, in conversation with the sector, a pilot exercise to explore gathering insight into the use and approaches of Strategic Institutional Research Funding (SIRF) by English higher education providers as part of the Transparency Programme.”
Why a HEP should participate in the pilot
The pilot has been informed by community testing with HEPs, undertaken in April to May 2025 with a small group of English providers. The pilot is now intended to involve a much greater part of the sector, enabling a wide range of HEPs to input into the design of the new, transparency-enhancing monitoring process.
We aim to embed a wide-ranging set of voices and representation of experiences, provider types, sizes and regions across England in the final process. This will ensure that it’s accessible and usable across the diverse set of HEPs.
Therefore, the pilot presents another opportunity for your institution and for all English HEPs to inform and co-shape the new process, as well as to trial the new tools.
We strongly encourage all English HEPs to participate in this pilot exercise to help us consider diverse experiences of a wide range of HEP types and ensure that implementation of the programme is based on the fullest possible evidence.
However, we acknowledge that not all HEPs may be able to participate in the pilot due to staffing and timing constraints. If your institution is unable to participate in the pilot, email us by Friday 31 October 2025 at: researchpolicy@re.ukri.org
Completing and submitting the template
When and how to return the reporting template
The deadline for submitting the pilot information to Research England is midday on Monday 1 June 2026.
Submissions to the pilot exercise should be made through a reporting template accessible via the Research England Data Portal, in the ‘SIRF Transparency Programme Phase 1 evidence gathering’ Data Collection.
Every English HEP will receive a circular letter with an invitation to securely access the reporting template.
We advise that HEPs start preparing at the beginning of the academic year 2025 to 2026, to ensure they will be in a position to complete the template in a timely manner.
Who should complete the reporting template and sign it off
It is up to individual providers to determine who within their institution is best placed to coordinate their evidence-gathering return. Research England anticipates that roles such as Director of Research and Finance Director may wish to lead the activity, with Research Managers and Administrators coordinating and supporting as appropriate. We encourage you to involve colleagues across the board in other roles relevant to research activity and research funding.
Make sure your submission reflects:
- the whole institution, and not an individual staff member, one discipline, or one organisational unit (such as a school, institute, faculty, department)
- the diversity of your teams
This should be expressed both in terms of the core information about SIRF and your feedback on the proposed annual process of gathering such information for Research England.
The submission of the template must be signed off by the Vice-Chancellor of your institution (or equivalent).
Time period the reporting template should cover
The pilot exercise is collecting information on the use of SIRF over the current academic year 2025 to 2026. The deadline for submission is midday on Monday 1 June 2026. This falls before the end of the academic year to allow us time to analyse returns and refine the process for a full roll out of the programme from academic year 2026 to 2027. Therefore include forecasted spend for June and July 2026 in your reporting template.
While the pilot assumes an annual reporting cycle, institutions may provide examples of activities which span multiple academic years where this is appropriate. Research England expects providers to report activities that have begun, were ongoing or concluded within the current academic year, regardless of their total duration. We are aware that QR and other streams of SIRF are frequently used for long-term activity.
Funding that HEPs should report on
Include all the SIRF streams you receive in your response apart from Research Capital Investment Fund (RCIF).
Using the Research England Data Portal for the pilot exercise
You can access supporting documents for the pilot exercise on the Research England Data Portal.
To enable access, your institutional admin user will need to add you the ‘SIRF Transparency Programme Phase 1 evidence gathering’ Data Collection.
If you don’t have access as an individual and you require it to contribute to your institutional pilot submission, contact the relevant ‘Research England Data Portal admin user’ at your HEP.
Once you have been given access to the pilot-related data collection, you can log in and download the relevant documents. These documents include:
- link to online reporting template
- PDF version of the online reporting template (for information only)
- PDF version of the pilot exercise guidance
- PDF version of the expression of interest to participant in the pilot real-time review
How HEPs can provide feedback on the pilot
Research England will undertake a real-time review of the pilot between late 2025 and mid-2026. This will include:
- an online survey open to all HEPs participating in the pilot
- a series of one-to-one conversations (semi-structured interviews) with a small number of HEPs
HEPs interested in taking part in the interviews element of the review should complete an expression of interest (EoI) form by 31 October 2025 on the Research England Data Portal.
From the EoIs we receive, we will select a small number of HEPs to take part based on a balanced pool that is as representative of the sector as possible.
The real-time review survey will be available on the Research England Data Portal towards the end of the pilot year. We encourage all HEPs participating in the pilot to provide us with feedback on the process using the survey. Providing feedback during the real-time review is optional, but immensely helpful to us.
We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation of all HEPs who volunteer to take part in both elements of the real-time review.
How Research England will use the data collected during the pilot
The reporting template we are sharing with you is designed to be used in the pilot exercise to enhance the transparency of SIRF. We will use both our analysis of the returns themselves and insights from engagement with the sector to refine the template and inform our overall approach to transparency. Any changes to both the template and our overall approach will seek to balance robustness of evidence with proportionate administrative burden.
We may use the information you return during the pilot exercise to produce baseline evidence on the uses of SIRF (aggregated at sector level), as well as to prepare content highlighting the value of SIRF. We expect to publish an aggregated summary of the findings and examples of how SIRF is used.
This is a pilot year and the information that you submit will be used to inform RE’s management of SIRF. Therefore, this pilot template captures evidence against the four principles of SIRF:
- Enable research excellence (pilot form questions number 1 to 14): support infrastructure, environment and culture to enable high-quality research outputs and impact.
- Contribute towards research sustainability (pilot form question number 15): enable HEPs long-term financial and strategic planning.
- Support a healthy research sector (pilot form questions number 16 to 17): support the wide range of institutions, research disciplines and missions.
- Address strategic priorities (pilot form question number 18): facilitate research responses to current and emerging local, national and global challenges.
See our infographic about SIRF principles and the associated objectives of the funding
We anticipate that following the conclusion of the pilot exercise, we will implement an approach where all English HEPs will be invited to submit an annual transparency return outlining their uses of SIRF. We expect this process to commence for academic year 2026 to 2027.
We intend to continue sector engagement over the implementation period and will provide further guidance to HEPs as the process develops.
Question-specific guidance for the reporting template
Note that all text boxes to answer open questions in the online reporting template have a character limit of 2,000 characters.
Pilot sub-groups
Question 2 to question 11 asks for a breakdown of the areas of research activity that your institution’s allocation of SIRF has been used for over academic year 2025 to 2026. Provide the percentage of your institution’s annual SIRF allocation spent on each research activity category.
For the purpose of this pilot exercise, HEPs have been allocated to either Pilot Sub-group A or B. This has been randomised to ensure representation across the SIRF allocation levels as well as representation of provider size and type. The circular letter inviting institutions to participate in the pilot informs HEPs of the sub-group to which they have been assigned.
You can also identify whether your institution has been allocated to Pilot Sub-group A or Pilot Sub-group B by opening your interactive pilot submission form and reading question 11. Which sub-group your HEP has been assigned to will affect your answers to questions 2 to 11.
For HEP Pilot Sub-group A, the total proportion of SIRF reported must not exceed 100% and double counting is not permitted where allocation of SIRF overlaps activity categories. You are therefore encouraged to consider the closest match when deciding which category to report your spend of SIRF against.
For HEP Pilot Sub-group B, the total proportion of SIRF reported can (but is not required to) exceed 100% and double counting is permitted where allocation of SIRF overlaps activity categories.
HEPs in both Pilot Sub-groups are expected to reflect their spend of SIRF in the current year as accurately as possible, but are not required to provide a response against categories where no activity has been supported by SIRF in academic year 2025 to 2026.
Calculating spending figures
We recognise that it may not always be possible to provide a precise percentage of spend for all activities. You may round spend to the nearest 5% or write ‘less than 5%’ where spend against a category is lower than 5% of your total allocation.
Any analysis of returns will acknowledge the caveat that provision of precise spending figures and percentages is not always possible.
We have provided some examples in the following section for questions 2 to 10 to illustrate what spend falls under each category, to aid you in completing your pilot return. This isn’t an exhaustive list. These examples give you a flavour of a wide range of activities you may consider calculating to arrive at your answers.
Question 1
“Please provide an overarching summary of how SIRF has been used at your institution over the academic year 2025/26. Include key trends, approaches, as well as your main outcomes, successes and challenges related to SIRF.”
Include your overall approach to using SIRF, trends within it, as well as your main successes and challenges related to SIRF. For example, indicate if you have concentrated SIRF to address a specific need, department, research area or discipline, or have used your allocation across all spend categories. Outline which successful SIRF-funded activities concluded in the academic year.
Question 2
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on early development of research ideas?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- developing an early or high-risk idea from inception (individually or through teamwork) to the point where it has crystallised enough to apply for grant funding
- funding a series of interdisciplinary workshops, brainstorming sessions or networking events at your institution
- one-off payments for short-term research activities not linked to research project grants
- development of partnerships with public, private and third sector partners, if they are focused solely on planning and undertaking research endeavour
- collaboration with other HEPs, if they are focused solely on planning and undertaking research endeavour
Question 3
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on overheads and supporting the wider costs of research projects and related activity funded by research councils and other funders where the funder does not provide 100% of the full economic cost (FEC)?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- directly incurred research costs arising from the conduct of a research project or a research fellowship, charged as the cash value actually spent, and supported by an audit record, such as materials and cost of fieldwork (see the UKRI terms and conditions for research grants, page 15)
- coordination or administrative support, technical and research roles created and recruited specifically to deliver research projects and fellowships
Question 4
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on salaries of research-active staff and professional services staff?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- salaries of your institution’s general pool of research staff (those not funded through specific project grants)
- salaries of staff working in your institution’s Research Office
Question 5
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on professional development of research and professional support/research management staff?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- an externally delivered coaching programme for staff at the HEP
- a training course, organising a tailor-made cohort course at your HEP, as well as covering individual staff members’ attendance in externally offered courses
- time and administrative effort to support your institution’s submission to the Research Excellence Framework
- conference attendance
Question 6
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on postgraduate research students including recruitment, training, supervision, support?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- contributions towards the costs of research degree supervision
- fully or partially funded doctoral scholarships (stipend and fees)
- activities to recruit candidates such as summer schools, events, marketing, including those tailored towards candidates from currently underrepresented backgrounds or with protected characteristics
- contributions to cohort activities for postgraduate students at your institution
Question 7
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on maintaining and enhancing research infrastructure?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- enhancing, modernising and maintaining existing facilities such as a library or a laboratory (building or equipment within it)
- overheads related to research facilities maintenance
- utilities costs (such as energy, gas, broadband) for new and existing research infrastructure
- building a new facility
- purchasing equipment for a new facility
Question 8
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on impact generation activity, such as knowledge transfer, partnerships focused on impact, and public engagement partnerships to catalyse and collaborate on research activity?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- knowledge exchange and commercialisation, including pump-priming, spin outs, start-ups, scaling up an existing university venture. This is related only to SIRF funding streams so please don’t include activities funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
- public engagement with research including community co-design and promotional activities
- development of partnerships with public, private and third sector partners, if they are focused on generating impact from research
Question 9
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on maintaining and enhancing positive research culture?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- activities to attract and retain diverse talent to research, technical and professional services career pathways
- supporting collaborative ways of leading research projects in an inclusive way
- providing open access to research outputs
- activities promoting integrity of research
Question 10
“What percentage of your SIRF allocation has been spent on initiatives aligned with other strategic research priorities of your institution?”
Examples may include, but aren’t limited to:
- strategic investment in an academic discipline or a cluster of disciplines
- interdisciplinary strategic activity
Question 11
“Variant of Q11 for sub-group A: Is the total percentage (%) from your answers to questions no 2 to 10 lower than or equal to 100%?
Variant of Q11 for sub-group B: What is the total percentage (%) from your answers to questions no 2 to 10?”
Answer the question depending on which pilot exercise sub-group your HEP has been placed in. You can find that out from the circular letter Research England sent to your institution, as well as by looking at question 11 in your online pilot submission form.
For pilot sub-group A, the total percentage should not be higher than 100%. For sub-group B, it is allowed but not mandatory to double-count activities against two or more categories where appropriate, therefore arriving at a total higher than 100%.
Question 12
“List any other SIRF uses not covered above that you wish to highlight.”
We appreciate the proposed categories may not cover the entire spectrum of research activity types at HEPs. If applicable, please indicate to us substantive areas of research activity your HEP spent SIRF on (for instance where 5% or more of your overall SIRF annual allocation has been used) which aren’t already encompassed in any of the categories in the previous questions.
Question 13
“If you have included a percentage against the final category, describe the initiatives and strategic priorities supported.”
Name types of activity and list specific examples of possible. This question is designed to help Research England capture activity not included in the categories above. Include information regarding which part of your strategy was supported by the activity.
Question 14
“Provide one narrative example illustrating the use of one of the three funds listed below at your institution over the academic year. Select which fund this example applies to.”
The funds include:
- Policy Support Fund
- Enhancing Research Culture (ERC) Fund
- Participatory Research Fund
Include any known impacts, especially those contributing to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Decide on one example. You may provide an example of activity using any of the three ring-fenced funds.
You can find more information about the funds at Using Research England’s formula-based funding
Outline the scope of the activity and its duration. If impact has already started to materialize, irrespective of the stage of the activity, include a summary of it within your answer. If any funding from these ring-fenced funds supported EDI in academic year 2025 to 2026, include details.
Question 15
“If you receive the QR research degree programme supervision fund, outline how your institution has used it over the academic year. Include any known impacts, especially those contributing to equality, diversity and inclusion. If you did not receive this funding, please write/select ‘not applicable’.”
Investment in skills and talent is essential to enable research excellence. Your answer could include information on activity such as supervision, doctoral training and development, extra studentship numbers, etc. funded using the RDP. If you did not receive the funding, please write ‘not applicable’. Also share information about how much of your mainstream QR allocation is used for postgraduate research activity if that information is available.
You can find more information about the fund at Using Research England’s formula-based funding. If any funding from the RDP fund supported EDI in academic year 2025 to 2026, include details.
Question 16
“Provide one narrative example, illustrating a long-term, defined use of SIRF at your institution which included activity taking place in academic year 2025 to 2026. Indicate which SIRF stream(s) were used for this activity. SIRF may not have contributed to this activity alone, therefore indicate where it has been combined with other sources of funding.”
The activity being described should have started, been ongoing or concluded in the academic year 2025 to 2026. It can be an activity that fits within one spend category (for instance a training course on writing grant applications for your research managers), or which crosses over categories (for example creating a new doctoral centre and recruiting postgraduate research students for it to explore an interdisciplinary research area which features in your institutional strategy).
Consider selecting and describing an activity with impact beyond academia if such an example is available. The activity can have included funding from other sources, and if it does, you must indicate the split between SIRF and other funding in your answer.
Question 17
“If you receive either the QR charity support fund or QR business research element, provide one narrative example illustrating the use (and impact, if already known) of either of these funds over the academic year. Indicate which SIRF stream(s) were used for this activity. If you did not receive one of these funds, write ‘not applicable’.”
We are interested in examples of research activity that have been funded through charity support or business QR. Also indicate whether mainstream QR or other Research England funds were used in conjunction with your charity support or business QR for this activity. If you did not undertake such activity in academic year 2025 to 2026, write ‘not applicable’.
Question 18
“If your institution receives the specialist provider element (SPE), outline how it has been used over the academic year. Describe the impact, if already known. If you did not receive the Specialist Provider Element, write ‘not applicable’.”
Specialist provider element (SPE) is an element of SIRF that small and specialist providers are eligible for. Indicate what the funding has enabled your institution to do in academic year 2025 to 2026. If there have been any impacts, especially in the EDI area or beyond academia, describe them too.
You can find more information about SPE funding at Using Research England’s formula-based funding.
If you did not receive the Specialist provider element, write ‘not applicable’.
Question 19
“Research England are interested in examples of where SIRF has enabled your institution to contribute to addressing regional, national and/or global challenges. If SIRF has enabled your institution to contribute to one or more of them, provide one narrative example.”
Evidence and examples of where activity enabled by SIRF addresses the shared challenges humanity is currently facing on a regional, national or global level enable Research England to continue making a strong case for the funding. There are a broad range of such challenges, from geopolitical issues and climate change to making our society healthier, safer and more equitable, and making our economy more resilient.
HEPs have autonomy to target SIRF towards their own priorities, and this is an optional question inviting you to provide applicable examples from academic year 2025 to 2026 where available. Indicate the SIRF streams used. The activity described can have been funded through sources in addition to SIRF, indicate if this was the case.
Pilot data statement
By submitting a pilot return, you give Research England permission to include your institution’s data in a summary of aggregated results of the pilot exercise, which will be published in the second half of 2026. By submitting a return, you also acknowledge that you are providing this data to Research England in confidence.
As a public body, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and all its councils including Research England are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).
There are exemptions under the FOI and exceptions under the EIR where we are not required to provide the information requested. However, if we are unable to apply a FOI exemption or EIR exception, the information that you submit may be released in response to a FOI or EIR request.
All personal data collected via this pilot process will be handled in line with UK data protection legislation. If you would like to know more about how UKRI processes personal data, including how to exercise your rights, see: