The principal of the University of Glasgow has called on the Scottish Government to do more on research funding amid "worrying signs".
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli pointed to a disparity between the level of grant income allocated to universities in England compared to their counterparts north of the border.
The economist said Scottish universities could struggle to compete with those in the south-east of England if the issue isn't addressed.
Writing in The Herald, Mr Muscatelli said: "There are worrying signs of declining competitiveness.
Read More: Sir Anton Muscatelli: We need a level playing field when it comes to research funding
"While Scotland continues to do well in securing funding from the UK’s major research funder, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), data suggests Scotland's share of total UKRI C grant income to universities has gradually declined over the past decade. While the UK Government has increased its spend on R&D and grown UKRI’s overall budget, this has not been echoed to the same extent in Scotland.
"From 2016/17 to 2022/23, the combined total of research and university innovation funding in Scotland provided by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) increased by only 7%, well below the equivalent Research England core funding streams which increased by around 30%.
"This puts us at a real disadvantage when it comes to our ability to compete with heavyweight research institutions from across other parts of the UK. We need a level playing field in terms of core research and innovation funding in order to leverage more research funding from UKRI and other major UK research funders.
Read More: Visiting Scottish lochs and rivers improves mental health, study finds
"When additional funding is announced for English universities via Research England, in general the Scottish Government receives corresponding funding through the Barnett formula – these uplifts need to be passed on in full to the SFC.
"Given the right tools, resources and support, our universities are able to unlock investment, and in turn use this to create jobs and stimulate inclusive growth for Scotland. At present we’re working with a much smaller toolkit than our colleagues in England and this is having an impact on our overall ability to keep pace with our peers in the so-called 'golden triangle’ in the southeast of England."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel