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Arma 2024: Increased political and public support for research means system 'must provide better answers'
More political and public interest in research brings opportunities and more questions, but also a need for the system to provide “better answers”, according to the executive chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Charlotte Deane was speaking at the Association of Research Managers and Administrators annual conference in Brighton.
“We literally couldn’t ask for the public, [the UK] government and politicians in general to be more interested in science and research”, she said.
Deane said that 10 years, or even just five years ago, “they weren’t that interested [and now] the landscape has really changed, which is both fantastic and challenging”.
Building a better system
Deane saw a “real opportunity” to make a case for science and research, and to think more about how research is performed.
“But it’s a challenge as more people interested will ask for answers to more questions,” she added. “There is need for the system to become fit-for-purpose to provide better answers.”
On building a better research system, Deane highlighted UK Research and Innovation’s focus on funding metascience projects. She said that by applying scientific methodology to analysing how research operates, metascience could make the funding system better.
She also called on research managers to say what works and what does not work in the current system.
“As a sector we need to make the messaging of why we conduct research as simple as possible,” she said.
As the EPRSC executive chair, Deane is responsible for a budget of over £1 billion a year. According to Deane, group has 3,500 active rewards and supports 12,000 PHD students.
“We are spending lots of public money to get excellent research,” Deane said. “Research is fun, although that’s not why we do it; we make a real difference getting money to the right people”.
A unique window
When questioned on university funding, Deane said she thought there was a “unique window” of opportunity for lobby organisations like Arma to engage with the next government. She said the current university funding model, relying on subsidy from overseas students’ fees, is “unsustainable”.
Deane said lobby organisations should work on making a “succinct case” for university funding to bring to the next government.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Fortnight