Sustainability of Research Centres - Advisory Science Council

Recommendation 4 (Expected Outputs)
It is recommended that funders should set indicator targets for each State-supported centre. In doing
so, they should be guided by the balance of emphasis on the academic and/or commercial indicators
that have been assigned to each of the four groups of State-supported research centres. Funders of
State-supported research centres should work with the working group established (in line with
recommendation 9) to define a common set of indicators to be collected from all centres.
4.2 Diversification of Funding According to Group
It is typically expected that a research centre that receives base-centre-funding from the State should
look to leverage State investment through seeking funding from a variety of sources. It is acknowledged
that expected diversification levels need to be considerate of the national and international context for
funding and the objectives and expected outputs of research centres. In particular, the expected
diversification of funding of a given research centre should not inhibit the research centre from delivering
on its objectives in a sustainable manner.
A set of archetypal funding diversification models were developed, with the intent of illustrating the
broad balance of funding sources for the four different centre groups for the Irish case. The models were
developed based on:
The rationale for public support for centres in each group.
The expected emphasis between academic and commercial outputs set out for each group in section
4.1.
The findings from the evidence base collected in relation to diversification of funding: the study
showed that a wide range of diversification of funding exists amongst the Irish and comparator
centres. However, the analysis showed some consistency in funding diversification across Group 1,
Group 3 (RTOs) and Group 4:
Group 1 the academic centres of excellence, are largely funded by the public sector with
some variability in their ability to attract private sector funds.
Group 3 (RTOs), are based on a much lower level of base-centre-funding along with higher
levels of private and competitive public funding.
Group 4 centres, the mission and sector focused centres, are predominantly funded by the
public-sector with additional funding from the private sector (usually in return for specific
services) and public competitive funds.
Group 2 funding models are much more variable with the exact model highly dependent
on context, such as the balance at national level between block grants to HEIs versus
competitive research project funding, and the availability of programmes specifically
aimed at funding research centres (and also any programmes’ specific requirements as
regards funding models). However, the key point for Group 2 is industry funding and
participation in use-oriented long-term research. Group 2 centres sit between Groups 1
Sustainability of Research Centres 33 June 2012