Which London universities receive the most public funding for scientific research?

L K Lee

Annual grants for research and teaching were provisionally announced this month by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the organisation responsible for distributing public money to institutes of higher education in England.

The overall research allocation from HEFCE for the higher education sector is £1415m, a 5.3% increase on last year (3.1% after an increase in students is taken into consideration). UCL and Imperial College are awarded the third and fourth highest research funding from HEFCE, topped only by Cambridge (£107m) and Oxford (£104m). The HEFCE will announce the final sums in July.

The graphic below shows only the institutions that teach or conduct research in scientific fields.

Source: HEFCE

Student numbers, subject type and institutional factors are considered when calculating teaching grants. Research awards recognise the performance of each institution in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise and the number of research-active staff. These allocations are weighted with laboratory and clinical subjects receiving more than the social sciences and humanities. This guide gives more information on how HEFCE apportions its funds.