Universities Scotland “delighted” by UK’s return to Horizon Europe Universities Scotland have welcomed today’s announcement that the UK will associate to the Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes for the remainder of this programme (until 2027). Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion. Over the…
Tag: Research and innovation
Principals welcome progress on association to Horizon Europe and urge the Prime Minister to bring back a deal
Three leading Principals of Scotland’s universities have written jointly to the Prime Minister to welcome his Government’s work to reach the final stages of a deal on the UK’s association to the Horizon Europe programme. Speculation has been growing that the Prime Minister is set to finalise a proposal over the weekend, to then be…
Key role of universities set out in the Scottish National Innovation Strategy
Universities Scotland welcome the publication of the Scottish National Innovation Strategy by the Scottish Government. The strategy has been co-produced with partners across our country and overseen by a Steering Group co-chaired between Scottish Ministers and Sir Jim McDonald, Principal of the University of Strathclyde. The Strategy recognises the key role of universities in making…
Submission to the Education, Children & Young People Committee Budget 2023 to 2024 session
Universities Scotland is extremely disappointed by the Scottish Government’s decision to withdraw £20 million of resource funding allocated to the higher education sector for financial year (FY) 2023/24 and to reverse aspects of the budget decision as supported by the Scottish Parliament in the Budget Bill (now Act) as passed on 21 February 2023.
£20m cut “extremely disappointing”
This afternoon (Tuesday 2 May), Principals of Scotland’s universities were informed by the Scottish Funding Council that the £20 million of additional resource funding allocated to the sector in December’s budget by the Scottish Government is now “not available for distribution and has been identified as a necessary saving”. Universities were told that Scottish Government…
AI in higher education – friend or foe?
The topic of Artifical Intelligence has been of huge interest in the early months of 2023. Our latest blog sees Abertay University Principal, Professor Liz Bacon, discuss the role AI could have in higher education reflecting on her decades of work in this area. With the disruption navigated by our universities during Covid-19 thankfully beginning to…
Horizon membership: a deal that works for Scotland, the UK and EU
Professor Iain Gillespie is the Convener of our Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee and Principal at the University of Dundee. In an opinion piece for The Herald which ran in its Monday 17 April 2023 edition, he outlines why it’s imperative a deal to secure Horizon membership for the UK is vital. Last month week…
Response to Scottish Funding Council indicative allocations
This afternoon (Thursday 13 April), the Scottish Funding Council published their Indicative university funding allocations AY 2023-24. This follows the passing of the Scottish Government Budget for 2023-24. Today’s indicative allocations set out the funding available to specific university grants for teaching, research and innovation and clarify the specific funding available to individual institutions for…
New innovation record set for universities’ work with business
New official statistics have been published that demonstrate the importance of innovation links between the business and higher education as Scotland’s universities continue to play their part in the economic recovery from the pandemic. The HE business and community interaction survey (HE-BCI) published by The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that Scottish universities in…
Twinning funds sees Ukrainian-Scottish research links strengthened
Six Scottish universities have been awarded funds made available through Universities UK International’s (UUKi) twinning initiative to support joint research with universities in Ukraine. The funding will support deeper collaborations between academia in both nations, through a series of twinning partnerships which was first created in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion in 2022. UK International…