Universities Scotland has submitted its response to the Scottish Funding Council’s Knowledge Transfer Grant (KTG) consultation SFC/CN/01/2014.
The KTG has to date been a long-term, flexible funding stream to support knowledge exchange activities, including commercialisation of research, in a rapidly evolving landscape. While taking into consideration the Scottish Government’s priorities, the grant provides institutions with the freedom to determine which activities best meet their aims and to build on their existing strengths.
Given the importance of the KTG, we believe that stability of funding is critical, and as such, should be allocated on a minimum 3 year basis rather than the current yearly cycle. This will enable our members to more effectively plan the efficient use of resources and provide more consistency in how they support KE and impact generating activities.
In 2009-10, there was a 29% drop in formulaic KTG from the previous year’s high point of £21m to £15m; since then it has fluctuated, but has not risen above those levels. In the same period, KT income, as reported in the metrics, has risen from £360m to £436m. This suggests that there is still scope for additional KE growth and that therefore formulaic KTG should grow to incentivise, support and reward such activities.