Concern Over Aid Money Used for Research Billions Routed Through GCRF and Newton Fund Under Scrutiny

Updated daily at www.ResearchProfessional.com Founded by William Cullerne Bown Inorms comment special 30 May 2018 Managers can be peacemakers – p20 How to be a global university – p21 What to do about rankings? – p22 Concern over aid money used for research Billions routed through GCRF and Newton Fund under scrutiny The governmenT’s decision to spend a sizeable chunk of by Eleni Courea [email protected] the foreign aid budget on UK-led research projects is being heavily reviewed. Development Committee, which is carrying out an Observers are increasingly concerned that the inquiry into the definition and administration of ODA, Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton the Independent Commission for Aid Impact warned Fund are distorting the priorities of both aid and that the government was getting “closer to the limits research spending. The funds are classified as Official of what is a permissible use of ODA under UK legisla- Development Assistance. tion and international rules”. The GCRF has a budget of £1.5 billion and the Alison Evans, ICAI’s chief commissioner, said that Newton Fund has £585 million, both between concern was due to some funds having a “dual purpose” 2016-17 and 2020-21. This represents a sizeable part of helping low-income countries and serving the UK’s of the £20bn science budget for 2016-17 to 2019-20. interest. “That is a complicated balancing act,” Evans Both funds support partnerships between researchers said. “There is very little clarity around how you achieve in the UK and in lower to middle-income countries. and measure the secondary purpose of meeting the UK Work must be led by UK researchers, and counts both national interest.” The government should be “incred- towards the government’s legal obligation to spend ibly transparent” about this and “never allow it to trump 0.7 per cent of GDP on ODA and its target to spend the primary purpose of ODA”, she said. 2.4 per cent of GDP on R&D by 2027. The international development committee’s One policy expert said that the large amount of report will be published in the first week of June. funding classified as ODA and targeted at low-income Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire Pauline Latham, countries “distorts what we can do in research” who sits on the committee, said she thought the because there is less money for partnerships with other government could legitimately spend ODA funds on countries. They were speaking at meeting on the inter- research but only if the Department for International nationalisation of research hosted by the Research and Development improved its oversight of them. Enterprise Network for Universities on 23 May, held A spokeswoman for UK Research and Innovation under the Chatham House rule. “It is becoming increas- said ODA funds “enable interdisciplinary approaches ingly difficult to set up collaborations with Japan, to tackling complex development challenges, while which used to be a top partner, and Russia, which we strengthening the capacity of our partners in devel- are trying to improve relations with,” the expert said. oping countries”. UKRI is also preparing to launch a On the aid side there are concerns about the bene- £110m fund to support collaboration with non-ODA eli- fits for lowest-income countries, especially those with gible nations over a period of three years, she said. less capacity to carry out excellent research. Newton A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy Fund rules explicitly state that partner countries must and Industrial Strategy said that GCRF and Newton Fund have a fairly developed research and higher-education spending “formed strong relation- system and be able to provide match-funding. ships” with low-income countries. Gideon Rabinowitz, a policy manager at the char- But Noel Castree, professor of Every new opportunity ity Oxfam, said: “A big concern around the GCRF is that geography at the University of for research funding there isn’t enough emphasis on channelling resource Manchester, said: “To so classify from every sponsor in through research entities in lower-income countries.” research as aid implies a certain the UK, EU, US & beyond Even where this does occur, it is to institutions in emerg- paternalism of UK expertise—one Every discipline ing economies rather than the very poorest ones, he said. that many British academics would Every fortnight In evidence to the House of Commons International feel most uncomfortable about.” Issue No. 523 2 editorial Research Fortnight, 30 May 2018 Edited by Sarah Richardson [email protected] editor Daniel Cressey [email protected]: 020 7216 6500 Tel:Unit 020 111, 7216 134-146 6500 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AR Unit 111, 134-146 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AR elsewhere “I will consider again the question of the International rescue timing of an independence referendum.” Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon says she will consider another independence vote once there is more clarity over the final Brexit Is it research funding, overseas aid, or both? deal. ITV’s Peston on Sunday, 20/5/18. “What can be the motives for this equal International collaboration is intrinsic to the lives of many of the UK’s treatment for UK and Ireland and to dis- criminate against the rest of the EU?” researchers. As we are frequently reminded, more than half of the coun- Kurt Deketelaere, secretary-general of the try’s research output involves international partnership; a far cry from League of European Research Universities, four decades ago, when not even 5 per cent of UK research publications criticises a planned deal that would allow Irish students to continue qualifying for had an international co-author. home fee status at UK universities after Given this shift, and the looming prospect of Brexit, it is no surprise Brexit. Times Higher Education, 17/5/18. that questions around the future of the country’s global research partner- “We are acting as detectives of the ships are preoccupying researchers and policymakers alike. atmosphere.” They will be at the heart of discussions at next month’s Inorms con- Scientists are detecting increasing levels of ference of research managers in Edinburgh. This week, however, the an ozone-destroying CFC chemical despite a global ban on its production, warns spotlight has fallen on an area of contention that cuts even deeper: the Stephen Montzka, an atmospheric scientist relationship between research and overseas aid. at the United States National Oceanic and As we report on the cover, scrutiny of this relationship is on the rise. Atmospheric Administration. Guardian, 16/5/18. MPs are examining the spending of money designated as aid for low- income countries, known as Official Development Assistance, on research “There is a complacency within the sector programmes led by UK universities. which has led to a slow pace of change.” Universities must make racial equality a This cash, channelled through the Global Challenges Research Fund and priority, says Valerie Amos, director of SOAS, the Newton Fund, is worth more than £2 billion until 2020-21. It is a clear University of London. Guardian, 16/5/18. boon for universities and—on the basis that their founding purpose is to “We haven’t had many good quality use knowledge for the good of society—has the potential to bring real ben- research projects on brain cancer.” efits to the countries with which they work. But for that potential to be Health and social care secretary Jeremy fulfilled, there is a fundamental question that needs to be considered far Hunt announces a fund that will double government spending on research into more carefully by government. What does it actually want this money to do? brain cancer. BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Whitehall counts the cash in question towards both the government’s 14/5/18. overseas-aid spending obligation and the UK’s own target to ratchet “The abundance of unemployed early- up spending on R&D to 2.4 per cent by 2027. Given that prime minister career scholars desperate for work just Theresa May, in a major speech on science last week, chose to emphasise encourages exploitation.” the power of research to transform industry, this leaves a clear tension Universities must do more to tackle precarious working conditions, says Emilie Murphy, lec- over what the funding is meant to achieve. A rise in productivity at home, turer in early modern history at the University evidently, should not be the purpose of providing overseas aid. of York. Times Higher Education, 21/5/18. Observers are concerned that this tension is skewing the direction of aid spending, preventing the lowest-income countries from benefitting as decade their higher-education systems are not developed enough to participate in research projects. At the same time, directing significant research funds towards partnerships with low-income countries is, some believe, reducing “If this trend in exchange the money available for partnerships with others. Partnerships that are of rates with the euro increasing importance to strengthen relationships beyond Europe. continues, then the cost of For universities, a further danger is that the scrutiny that has already our very large international begun within parliament ends up at their doorstep. So even though the tension is not of their making, institutions need to justify genuine ben- payments could increase efit to the communities that overseas aid is intended to help. significantly.” For government, the issue is further proof, if it were needed, that the A spokeswoman for the Natural UK’s place in international research needs urgent consideration. Environment Research Council expresses The questions, however, are much more far-reaching than GDP targets concern about the impact of the falling value of the pound.

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