Call to end university research funds gap to level up UK

A LACK of investment in vital research and innovation to universities across the North of England is stifling economic growth and helping to widen the North-South education divide, a senior university leader warns the Government today.

Sir Chris Husbands, chair for the charity Yorkshire Universities and vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, said a disproportionate amount of national research funding goes into the socalled ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge.

He told a big gap.”

According to the UK innovation foundation the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), large parts of the UK including the North have been missing out to a tune of

“It’s £4bn a year on research and development funding. For regions where the state has under-invested in research and development, there is a double loss, since the private sector tends to invest on average twice as much as public spending, meaning those regions are missing out on £8bn per year.

To level up research and development spending across the UK NESTA estimated £1.6bn would need to go to the North of England, £1.4bn to the Midlands, £420m to Wales, £580m to South West England and £25m to Northern Ireland.

Professor Husbands, 61, said: “This is the most regionally imbalanced country in Europe.

“Go to Oxford, go to Cambridge, and these are successful urban economies. Across the North we don’t have that and denial of that is a disgrace, and we have to put that right.”

In a challenge to Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda, Prof Husbands said that this funding gap will drive education and innovation inequalities. This threatens to bring new disruption to an already fragile northern economy and exacerbate the North-South research and development divide for future generations.

He said: “Let’s just think what we could do for this economy if research funding was levelled up.”

A Government spokesman said last night: “We have committed £22bn to research and development funding annually by 202425 and are developing a strategy to build on and level up research and development capability across the UK.”