EPSRC may intervene to protect engineering research

Research funding in a given area is currently tied directly to the number of students choosing to study the subject at university.

“The extent to which we can meet the requirements of the economy is very much conditioned by how much capacity there is to provide research leadership and research training,” Professor John O’Reilly, chief executive of the EPSRC, told EW. He said the broad research base in some subjects is at risk of fragmenting.

“We can end up with a situation where some areas that are important to industry and the economy are either not covered or so sparsely covered that they don’t meet the need.”

As an example of the kind of measures it might undertake, O’Reilly suggested the EPSRC could establish ‘research lectureships’, and make significant grants and post doctoral positions available.

He cited a Radiocommunications Agency initiative a few years ago to promote RF research in UK universities as an interventionist strategy that had succeeded.

“Behind this is a larger issue,” he continued. “Is the funding we have for research in the engineering and the physical sciences what it needs to be for the economy? The fact I’ve asked the question tells you my view.”