The University of Edinburgh has topped the chart for grant income from the Natural Environment Research Council this year.
In a table of success rates, published on 23 October, Edinburgh is shown to have come away with £5.7 million, having won 23 of the 78 applications it submitted to the council—a success rate of 29 per cent.
The universities of Manchester, Bristol and Leeds also took away more than £5 million each in 2011-12.
Bristol came away with a success rate of 28 per cent after winning £5.4m while Manchester and Leeds, who both took away slightly over £5m, had success rates of 31 per cent and 22 per cent.
All other institutions were each awarded less than £5m. The University of Oxford, which topped the table last year, saw its funding halved from £6.9m in 2010-11 to £3.2m. Oxford applied for 68 grants from NERC in 2011-12 but won just 16. Its success rate was therefore 24 per cent, down from 28 per cent the year before. However, much of the drop seen in Oxford’s NERC funding is because the university won some particularly large grants the previous year.
Oxford applied for 68 grants from NERC in 2011-12 but won just 16. Its success rate was therefore 24 per cent, down from 28 per cent the year before.
The universities of Exeter Durham and Liverpool all had particularly good success rates this year, despite taking away smaller overall winnings.
Exeter made 53 applications to NERC and won 19 of them, a success rate of 36 per cent. Its grants totaled £4.5m. Liverpool took away £2.6m with a success rate of 34 per cent and Durham secured £1.9m with a 35 per cent success rate.
Faring less well were the universities of Glasgow and Birmingham. Glasgow applied for more than £8.2m across 30 applications, but was successful in only five, receiving £1.14m—a success rate of 17 per cent. Birmingham made 31 applications, totaling more £9.2m, but was awarded just over £1m across only four successful applications—a success rate of 13 per cent.
Lancaster University had a success rate of 14 per cent, and Newcastle University only 13 per cent.
The overall success rate for NERC applications was 21 per cent in 2011-12, down from 24 per cent in 2010-11. In total, NERC received 2,186 applications and distributed £101m in grants.