Robin Bisson

Four major publishers agree deals with UK university sector - Research Professional News Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley meet “sector-agreed thresholds” in long-running talks

Just out: Four major publishers agree deals with UK university sector after long-running talks. Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley have met "sector-agreed thresholds for acceptance", says Jisc.

Via @robinbisson.bsky.social

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-o...

Four major publishers agree deals with UK university sector - Research Professional News Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley meet “sector-agreed thresholds” in long-running talks

BREAKING: Four major publishers agree deals with UK university sector

Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley meet “sector-agreed thresholds” in long-running talks

Free to read

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-o...

Easy to miss, but Research England will now require "minimum standards" on research culture as a condition of funding

Collecting baseline data was mooted as part of REF, but dropped "to keep REF focused on its core purpose"

Instead RE will "establish rigorous standards” on culture in 2026

STFC leadership braces staff for more job losses.

Around 80 employees to depart under first voluntary exit scheme, research council confirms, with more likely to come.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Kinda saying the quiet part loud this one...

Interesting to hear it coming from DSIT though. Slow recovery will drain £££ from the UK's research budget

Notable Jamie Arrowsmith of UUK saying that in the 3-year freeze-out there was “definitely a loss of expertise in things like research management”

REF after the pause: politics and a quiet retreat on culture - Research Professional News Changes risk reinforcing “extreme myopia” on traditional research outputs, write Simon Hettrick and colleagues

REF after the pause: politics and a quiet retreat on culture.

Changes risk reinforcing “extreme myopia” on traditional research outputs, write Simon Hettrick, Gemma Derrick, James Baker and Ola Thomson.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

Skills minister’s grip on university insolvency queried by MPs - Research Professional News Education Committee questions claim by Jacqui Smith that insolvent institution could continue research and teaching

Skills minister’s grip on university insolvency queried by MPs

Education Committee questions claim by Jacqui Smith that insolvent institution could continue research and teaching

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

Free to read this one, as is all our coverage on the REF reworking today 👇

REF 2029 changes: how the sector is responding - Research Professional News Responses from higher education and research organisations to reshaping of the Research Excellence Framework

REF 2029 changes: how the sector is responding.

Responses from higher education and research organisations to reshaping of the Research Excellence Framework.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

REF 2029: research culture metric overhauled - Research Professional News Research Excellence Framework reworked “to reduce burden”, with elements of 2021 exercise reinstated

🚨BREAKING🚨

REF 2029: Research culture metric overhauled (and weighting reduced).

Research Excellence Framework reworked “to reduce burden”, with elements of 2021 exercise reinstated.

All the headlines as the three-month pause ends. Free to read.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

UKRI chief pledges shift from short-termism in research funding - Research Professional News In RPN interview, Ian Chapman heralds specialisation drive for UK universities via “continuity and commitment”

UKRI's new CEO wants shift from "transactional" short-term grants to strategic relations with universities, based on "continuity and commitment".

Ian Chapman in his first sit-down interview - with @resprofnews.bsky.social @robinbisson.bsky.social

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

UKRI CEO Ian Chapman told me he doesn't want universities to “get into an unsustainable financial position because there’s any drive from us for them to put in lowball bids, not at all”

“I’m interested in quality and output, and if I pay a bit more for that quality output, fine, absolutely fine”

Our reporter @isaacbarbosa1.bsky.social went to the British Library and found staff at the picket line pessimistic about the recovery of library services after the 2023 cyberattack

"Things just aren’t improving", said the PCS union branch chair

Meanwhile, management have upped their pay offer

Jacqui Smith: ‘legitimate’ to link student grants with growth - Research Professional News Skills minister highlights industrial strategy context for maintenance funding, while hinting at future expansion

Grabbed a (very) quick interview with skills minister Jacqui Smith in Oxford last week. Longer version in the 8am Playbook this morning. Link in second post. 1/2

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

That's 2 out of 3 of the ERC's big schemes that the UK has come out with the most grants from this year (see www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...)

Further underlines that the UK does really well in the basic research bit of Horizon - it's the other bits where things are less hunky dory

There were warnings about this 2.5 years ago. (See www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...)

This is 60+ staff at one MRC unit in Cambridge

Cambridge has 6 MRC units

‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library - Research Professional News Humanities researchers suffer amid “agonisingly slow” recovery from 2023 cyberattack, as strikes cause further delays

Good piece by @francesjones.bsky.social elevating the voices of researchers such as @petermandler.bsky.social on how the issues at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social are impacting scholarship including abandoned/postponed projects.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

Publishers to trial removing fees from some journals in UK deals - Research Professional News Agreements under negotiation will include open access pilots hailed as “fundamental shift in business model”

Major academic publishing companies will trial removing article fees from certain journals as part of deals being struck between publishers and the UK higher education sector

#OpenAccess pilots represent a “fundamental shift in business model”, says Jisc

Exclusive from @sophieatrpn.bsky.social

Flew under the radar a bit last week, but Jacqui Smith said there will be no transformation fund, as UUK had called for

She was “not convinced that it should need a government bung in order to take your strategic responsibilities to your future financial sustainability and your partners seriously”

Have to wonder what it means for UK joining FP10. Ministers always careful to say that the UK will join as long as it provides good value for money

Somewhat hard to square the £330m loss and slow (but improving?) rate of UK participation with the claims before a deal was struck that the UK would bounce back quickly

DSIT going pretty hard on this - if it doesn't fit the industrial strategy, it's not gonna happen

"There is still a job to be done in making sure that association works in the best interests of UK science—and that the UK community fully exploits all the potential funding routes available" - Adrian Smith's valedictory RS address

UK due a rebate after not winning enough Horizon funding in 2024

“It would be improper of the University of Oxford to be applying for anonymity or restricted reporting orders in private while our leaders defend freedom of speech in public”

Oxford's governing body to vote on banning restrictive orders in January, reports @francesjones.bsky.social

Plenty of analysis of yesterday's budget news from @chrisjparr.bsky.social in this morning's 8am Playbook, e.g.
Adam Tickell, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, saying that although no one would welcome the levy, a flat-rate fee below £1,000 was the “least worst option available”

I KNEW Faisal Islam had something to do with it

This is quite a victory - universities (particularly research intensives) have been lobbying for real terms protection of QR for ages

It's a classic government give with one hand (QR) and take with the other (international student levy)

Correction, see bsky.app/profile/robi...

Hang on, I got this wrong (catching up with being off yesterday)

Breakdown of UKRI budget from 2026 is:
- £14bn curiosity-driven R&D
- £8bn national priorities
- £7bn business
- £7bn skills and infrastructure

So actually appears curiosity-driven will account for a smaller share than before

Only half of UKRI's future budget going to curiosity-driven research could sound worrying to some, but it's not actually a change of tack

Back in June, Patrick Vallance said that's how UKRI's budget already breaks down

What's different is limiting the non-curiosity-driven part to named priorities