The funding shuffles begin

Pressure on university funds is almost universal. Britain launched a controversial scheme to assess the quality of research carried out by staff as a means of distributing funds for research several years ago and has been under the scrutiny of many other countries seeking to devise ways of sharing out the funding pot. For the best departments the exercise was good news — more money. But for many others, it has resulted in a football-style transfer market where universities have been seen to 'buy in' key researchers and their teams to bolster their funding prospects. Others complained that the selection of researchers for assessment and the scrutiny department by department led to something approaching a funding lottery. Stung by such criticisms, the lead higher education funding council for England, along with the three bodies representing the other countries in the UK, has announced a different research assessment exercise (RAE) for the next round scheduled for 2008. Many eyes will be on whether this will be seen as an improvement on the distribution of scarce cash for research. The way in which the research pot is shared between universities will be changed, with the aim of allowing the best work to be identified wherever it is found, and avoiding individual departments dominating the results. The next research assessment exercise, which will inform the distribution of around £8 billion over several years and will replace the existing grades with so-called 'quality profiles' designed to halt the game-playing by which universities try to maximize financial gain. The changes mean that pockets of excellence will be immediately obvious and will be financially rewarded, reducing the risk of poaching of staff to bigger and better-funded departments. The results of the next exercise will be published in December 2008, the funding council has announced. Sir Howard Newby, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), said the approach would provide " a fairer and more accurate way of assessing and funding research quality. " He said: " The use of quality profiles will reduce the tactical element in preparing submissions. Britain is now planning its next assessment of university research quality which will determine the distribution of funds. A new approach is planned but staff are still concerned. Nigel Williams reports. Scrutiny: New rules will change how Britain's universities are assessed and funded. Researchers have been critical about the mechanisms previously used to …