Avoid tweaking research councils, says policy unit

The Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex has said in its submission to the Nurse review of the research councils that there should be either very small or very large changes to their structure.

SPRU says in its submission that it supports the recommendation of the triennial review of the research councils that there should be no wholesale changes to the council’s structures. Such changes “would be distracting and counterproductive at a time when the sector requires stability”, the policy unit says in its response.

However, if a reorganisation of the councils were deemed necessary, then SPRU says it would prefer a radical reorganisation to a smaller scale “reshuffling” of responsibilities. “Maintain the current structure of seven research councils, or go down to a single research council, but avoid other partial mergers or structural reforms,” the unit says.