ID164 A necessary step to save laboratory research at Keele

The Idea

All Universities in the UK are competing for a diminishing pot of research funds. Keele’s grant success rate is around 15-20% by total application number or by grant value (figures from RAISE). However a close inspection of the data shows that the average value of grants awarded to FMHS and FNS from 2021-2025 was £85k. Compare this to >£250k (as a minimum) typically required to recruit a postdoctoral fellow to conduct laboratory research for 2 years. So, our success rate for >£250k grant that are the ones that produce impactful research, is much less, probably around 10%. 

If a researcher writes two 250k grants each year, they can therefore expect to receive one grant every 5 years. If the grant lasts 2 years, that leaves researchers lacking significant funding for 3 of every 5 years. This makes it impossible to maintain research infrastructure and momentum to generate preliminary data for subsequent applications. Project students do provide some income to support research but often lack the laboratory experience to generate reliable data, and insufficient time to support two grant applications each year. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

The title of this document is no exaggeration. With the exception of some very successful researchers who have obtained significant external funding, laboratory research at Keele is in a non-tenable position unless we address this. We will cease to be a research-led University. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Relatively modest amounts of funding are required for research-active staff to conduct small scale experiments that generate preliminary data to support grant applications and maintain research momentum. If Keele wishes to retain its status as a research-led University, it needs to invest in its researchers. I recommend £3-5k p.a. (approximately half the annual consumables budget for a PhD student in Biological Sciences) be made available to any research active staff. The cost of the scheme could be reduced by restricting this to staff who have no other funding available.  are prepared to conduct laboratory work themselves to generate the data and who can show the award led to a substantial grant application. 

I appreciate that this is a lot to ask in these financially constrained times, but I honestly believe that without such a commitment, Keele will lose a significant fraction, if not all, of its research base. 

What Success Would Look Like

We remain a research-led University that attracts research funding and also undergraduates who want to come to a research-active Institution.