Innovation UK > News > Innovation UK Vol5-1 > Excellence with impact

Research Councils UK is the strategic partnership of the UK?s seven Research Councils. The UK Research Councils fund world-leading research that generates new knowledge, which in turn drives advances in technology, business, policy, culture and the quality of life.

As the UK?s biggest public funder of research and postgraduate training, the Research Councils play a key role in ensuring that the UK remains one of the most attractive locations in the world for science and innovation.

We also help to ensure that the UK has the trained people it needs to compete successfully in global markets. We work with business and a wide range of users to harness and exploit research outputs. This benefits the UK economy in terms of new jobs, goods and services and also delivers better healthcare, better public services, policy-making and cultural benefits.

We work in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders to promote science and innovation at every level. From encouraging and enthusing young people about science, and enabling public participation in innovation and research, to forging international partnerships that raise the UK?s profile around the world, the Research Councils reach out both locally and globally. From supporting and developing the careers of researchers at every stage, to helping them work with industry to commercialise their ideas, Research Councils actively support all aspects of the UK research base.

The RCUK partnership is supported by the Strategy Unit, whose role is to foster cross-Council collaboration. It works equally across the Councils to provide the platforms, tools and impetus needed to keep the UK?s research base world-class. The Strategy Unit presents the unified voice of the Research Councils working together, demonstrating the impacts, benefits and achievements of collaboration.

For more information, visit:
Website: www.rcuk.ac.uk

ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL (AHRC)

Each year, the AHRC provides approximately £105m from the government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,300 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded.

Arts and humanities researchers constitute nearly a quarter of all research-active staff in the higher education sector. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.

For more information, visit:
Website: www.ahrc.ac.uk

BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (BBSRC)

BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by government, BBSRC annually invests around £420m in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre and Rothamsted Research are Institutes of BBSRC. The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities.

For more information, visit:
Website: www.bbsrc.ac.uk

ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (EPSRC)

EPSRC funds research and postgraduate training in engineering and the full range of physical sciences, encompassing mathematics, physics, chemistry, materials, ITC and electronics and supports around 5,000 research projects a year. Early EPSRC support for Sir Alec Jeffries led to the development of genetic fingerprinting with its subsequent impact on crime detection.

For more information, visit:
Website: www.epsrc.ac.uk

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC)

By supporting independent, high-quality social science research and training, ESRC offers insight into some of the most pressing issues facing the UK and the wider world in the 21st century. Cognitive and developmental psychology, development studies, economics, politics and anthropology are just some of the disciplines funded by ESRC that provide world-class evidence of ways to combat poverty, respond to globalisation and global security issues, live more environmentally sustainable lives and adapt to an ageing population.

For more information, visit:
Website: www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (MRC)

The MRC funds excellent science with the aim of improving human health. Its work ranges from science at the molecular level to public health research carried out in universities, hospitals and a network of units and institutes. The MRC works closely with the Health Departments in England and the devolved administrations, the NHS, other research councils, industry and charities. The results have led to some of the most significant discoveries in medical science and benefited millions of people in the UK and around the world. Our work boosts the economy. It improves the health of the workforce, helps to fuel the ever-growing knowledge economy, and attracts international investment to our shores.

For more information,
visit: Website: www.mrc.ac.uk

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL (NERC)

NERC funds environmental research, training, survey and monitoring in the marine, polar, atmospheric, earth, terrestrial and freshwater sciences, in universities and its own research centres. NERC?s strategic goal is to deliver world-leading environmental research at the frontiers of knowledge, particularly to enable society to respond urgently to global climate change and the increasing pressures on natural resources, and to predict the regional and local impacts of environmental change from days to decades.

For more information,
visit: Website: www.nerc.ac.uk

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL (STFC)

STFC operates world-class, large-scale research facilities and provides strategic advice to the UK government on their development, as well as managing international research projects in support of a broad cross-section of the UK research community. STFC also funds research and postgraduate training in astronomy, particle physics and nuclear physics. It promotes the exploitation of the enabling technologies developed for its research for wider benefit. STFC?s researchers, together with the UK Institute of Cancer Research, have used particle physics technology to develop a cheaper and more effective positron emission topography (PET) camera, which will enable hospitals to better detect and manage cancers.

For more information,
visit: Website: www.stfc.ac.uk