27th November 2002

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The campaign to end Northern Ireland’s status as the ‘poor relation’ of UK university research moves to London today, as the University of Ulster and QUB hold a joint series of in-depth briefings for MPs at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

The two universities will be asking Northern Ireland’s MPs for their support in lobbying Government to redress the glaring inequalities between the level of funding of university research in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

MPs will hear that:

• Northern Ireland has the lowest publicly-funded university R&D spend in the UK: just £15.81 per person, compared to £35.55 in Scotland
• In this year’s spending review, the Treasury allocated an additional £1.25bn for science and innovation: Northern Ireland’s share has been diverted away from its universities
• Northern Ireland is the only region of the UK where the results of the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise are not being funded

“Northern Ireland is heading for the slow lane of the knowledge economy if it fails to invest in research,” said Professor John Hughes, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development at the University of Ulster.

“The current draft budget leaves Northern Ireland’s two universities £30m per year short, compared to universities in the rest of the UK. If we are to retain our best staff and students, if we want Northern Ireland to be attractive to inward investors, that is a position which needs to be reversed urgently.”

Professor Hughes said that innovation would be hit, as would prospects for economic growth and future prosperity, if the university sector continued to be subjected to the funding famine of recent years.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk