Research costing plans raise fears

Britain's drive to put universities on a different funding base, which is also a key issue in many other countries scrutinising their higher education sector, continues to force major changes to traditional practice. One of the latest moves is to introduce measures to allow universities to estimate the full economic cost of its research projects, so that they are fully aware of these and can therefore charge appropriately. The process raises fears about future research funding within the scientific community. University finance and research offices have spent months poring over a three-volume manual detailing the new 'full economic costing model' that they will be expected to adopt for all research funding applications from the start of next year. The manual, which includes a request for a lead investigator to keep a diary during a research project, has sparked fears that the government may be tying up researchers in yet more red tape. Universities UK (UUK), the body representing university heads, confirmed this month that institutions were taking the changes extremely seriously, with many employing new members of staff specifically to deal with the complicated new requirements. The new proposals build on the government's research assessment exercise (RAE), a massive study every four years of the quality of university research department by department, that determines how much core research funding universities will receive from the government, regardless of individual projects. Such funds provide a linchpin for universities' abilities to attract research projects that will not pay the full cost of the work. which has a pro vice-chancellor working full-time on the issue said: " Full economic costing is incredibly important. It will alter the research environment significantly more than the research assessment exercise. " There is no argument about the need for universities to identify and pay for all their research overheads from research equipment to staff time. Academics and funders agree that the current system, with universities unsure of what their real costs are and research grants generally falling well short of covering them, is unsustainable. Cambridge University, considered in a recent survey to be the third in a world ranking of research, is suffering particular problems. It is in deficit by £2.3 million, partly as a result of the volume of research contracts it attracts but which are not fully funded. The British government is proposing a new accounting scheme so that universities can estimate the full economic cost …