Research UK, the proposed umbrella body to oversee the research councils, should act as a forum to discuss budget allocations for the seven councils, former Royal Society president Paul Nurse has said.
Speaking about his review of the research councils at a one-off evidence session at the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on 15 December, Nurse said that the UK needs a mechanism to look regularly at the amount of money allocated to each council.
“The percentage spent on each research council has not changed very much over many, many years and the probable reason is that it is very difficult, and so history determines future spend,” he told the committee. “That cannot be a good position to be in. It is better to have a difficult discussion than to not have any discussion at all. Research UK could play that role."
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