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Universities 12 Oct 2026
Research England leader trails ‘next era’ for university investment
By Rachael Pells and Robin Bisson
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Image: UK Research and Innovation
Jessica Corner also says REF guidelines to be published in November include “tweaks” on localism
Research England is looking towards a new “era” of university funding that recognises institutions’ wider contributions to local economies, its executive chair has said.
Speaking at a Foundation for Science and Technology discussion on the devolution of science and innovation spending last week, Jessica Corner (pictured) said universities’ role in generating value for their local economies would become a greater focus.
“We’ve been investing in universities to change their way of working for 25 years with Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF), giving them another role beyond research and teaching,” she said.
“It has created the infrastructure [and] the learning; they’re measured against it and rewarded accordingly.” Corner said she was now beginning to talk about the “next era”, which she described as “universities and anchoring value”.
This would focus not just on what universities do but “the value that they drive into the local economy and bring back”, she said, adding that indicators could be developed to measure this contribution.
Review outcomes expected
The comments come as Research England is expected to publish outcomes from reviews of how it allocates both strategic institutional research funding and HEIF. The SIRF review is examining the approach to formula-based research funding, including quality-related research funding, while the HEIF review concerns the allocation of funding for knowledge exchange.
Both reviews could help inform how the regional and local contributions of universities are recognised and supported, and they come against a backdrop of political will to put universities at the heart of driving local growth. On Friday, prime minister Andy Burnham outlined plans to devolve more innovation funding to local leaders and said UK Research and Innovation, under which Research England sits, would take “a more place-based approach”.
Reflecting on her time overseeing Research England’s funding allocations, Corner said the body had improved greatly on the ways in which it measures distribution of spend, working harder to make decisions “place-sensitive”.
“That work has paid off,” she said. “Broadly, our spend across the UK is balanced now—50/50 between the greater south-east…and other regions; for example, the north and also the south-west.”
REF guidance and localism
Corner also discussed the forthcoming guidance for the next Research Excellence Framework, which will be released in November.
“Certainly around the impact agenda, there are some tweaks that are trying to address the localism that was felt to be underpowered or undervalued, and I hope the panels will do a bit more on that,” she said.
UKRI told Research Professional News that the removal of the two-star quality threshold for research underpinning impact case studies should mean the REF better recognises the diversity of research and impact across the sector, including at a local level.
Earlier this year, UKRI also announced it expects to have reformed Research England’s formula for distributing quality-related research funding via the REF by 2030, to encourage greater specialisation and collaboration.
View this article on Research Professional