AHRC cuts

Submitted by Al on Wed, 23/01/2008 - 09:03.

This will interest anyone in the UK system, but might be of interest to other readers as well. The AHRC is the main body for funding philosophy research (both postgraduate and staff) in the UK.

This link has the full statement, not much longer than my abridged version below, but more detailed nonetheless.

---

"The results of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) were published in October 2007. [...] the AHRC received the following settlement:
· 2008-09 - £103.5m
· 2009-10 - £104.4m
· 2010-11 - £108.8m

[...] The settlement is not sufficient to continue funding the present volume of awards.

Success rates in research grants, which have ranged from 22% - 29% over the last three years, will temporarily decline to about 15% [...]

The success rate in Research Leave grants will also decline to about 15% [...]

we will need to cut new Postgraduate awards from 1500 to 1000 in 2008 and to about 1325 for the following two years [...]

This is disappointing news for the AHRC and the research community. The AHRC remains committed to funding world-class research, and will continue to make the case to Government of the importance of the arts and humanities subject domains, and the need for a sustainable research base to benefit the UK’s economy, culture and creative industries."

[I'm not sure peddling philosophy as a culture industry is quite the right way to see things, but nevermind]

I find this really

Submitted by MDHinton (not verified) on Fri, 25/01/2008 - 14:59.

I find this really intriguing. The budget for the years 2008-11 shows a slow but steady increase at levels close to what inflation will probably be. If there are to be cuts it must be because the level for 2008 is much lower than that for 2007 but we are not given this figure.

We are also not told what the good people who 'work' at AHRC will be giving up to make up the shortfall. Will there be job losses, less use of taxis and so on? The current budget allows for an attractive website - will that be going?

The other point worth considering is whether these cuts matter at all anyway. How many of those recieving grants for 'research' in the arts and humanities are producing anything remotely 'world class'? 100 million pounds a year seems like plenty for the UK taxpayer to be contributing towards the 'research community' in the 'creative industries'. No?

I didn't comment in the post

Submitted by Al on Mon, 28/01/2008 - 12:52.

I didn't comment in the post because, to be honest, I don't quite follow why there are cuts either. The government has met its stated target (which presumably is what the AHRC uses to plan future funding), and the rise is above inflation. The linked article talks about "full economic costs of awards", which I don't quite understand, but perhaps there is something here which explains away the confusion.

Of course, in part the relevant question should not be "Is research funding in the UK going up or down?", but "Is it as high or low as it deserves to be?".

As to AHRC cutting things internally, all I can say is that from my experience, their admin could use more money rather than less.

Finally, as I said in the post, I don't think the AHRC have described what they do very well in the last paragraph. In particular, I think it's foolish to talk about creating world class research in creative industries because it implies that (a) only "world class" work is worth doing (clearly false), and (b) that humanities research is some kind of ideas factory. That's the kind of metaphor that obscures more than it illuminates.

Al