Funding for Research and Innovation

Our Research Excellence Grant (REG) supports world-leading research in Scottish universities, ensuring Scotland remains globally competitive and attractive to the best researchers.

REG has a dual purpose:

• To recognise and reward research excellence wherever it is found and in whatever discipline.
• To uphold the principles of the dual support system, through making a contribution toward the full economic costs of research.

REG provides a long-term, stable source of research funding which institutions can use flexibly to develop and support excellent research as best fits their individual circumstances, thereby supporting the diversity of the sector and their ability to respond to challenges.

Principles

• A sustainable and predictable framework to support ambitious and excellent research across the Scottish higher education institutions.
• Robust and transparent allocation method based on clearly defined criteria and avoiding unnecessary complexity.

The Research Excellence Grant provides the majority of SFC’s funding for research in Scotland. It is intended to support sustainable research excellence across Scotland’s universities.

REG has a dual purpose:

• To recognise and reward research excellence wherever it is found and in whatever discipline.
• To uphold the principles of the dual support system, through making a contribution toward the full economic costs of research.

REG provides a long-term, stable source of research funding which institutions can use flexibly to develop and support excellent research as best fits their individual circumstances thereby supporting the diversity of the sector and their ability to respond to challenges.

Excellent research demonstrates originality and rigour in its approach and significance in its advancement of understanding and in the reach of its impact.

By supporting universities in Scotland to explore and improve the world by doing excellent research, they develop the knowledge and techniques which: deal with current challenges; address future challenges; and create future opportunities.

REG supports institutions to:

• Sustain an excellent research environment and a thriving and inclusive research culture.
• Consolidate and/or expand existing excellence to attract global investment and talent to Scotland.
• Respond flexibly to changing priorities and invest in new and emerging areas of research, ensuring that the research base is in a position to respond to the challenges of the future.
• Support researchers in their early career stages.
• Help meet the full economic costs of research work contributing a public good, supported by, for example, Research Councils and charities.

Funding method

The REG funding model takes into account the Research Excellence Framework (REF), a UK-wide system for assessing research in higher education institutions. It is conducted jointly by all four UK higher education funding bodies.

REG = REGa + REGb + REGc where:

• REGa (70%): supports quality and is allocated on the basis of: volume of research active staff, moderated by a quality weighting (4* = 4, 3* = 1) and a subject weighting (high/medium/low). Information on volume (staff FTE) and quality (the ‘overall’ quality profile) derives from the Research Excellence Framework (REF). It is calculated for each of the 34 REF units of assessment for each institution and then summed.
• REGb (17%): is a contribution towards meeting the full economic costs (fEC) for UK Research Council and other competitively funded research and is allocated in proportion to the amount of non-charity research income each institution receives – i.e. if they secured 10% of Scotland’s research income they will be allocated 10% of this grant.
• REGc (13%): is a contribution towards meeting fEC for charity funded research and is allocated in proportion to the amount of competitively-won charity research income each institution receives – i.e. if they secured 10% of Scotland’s charity research income they will be allocated 10% of this grant.

SFC’s Review of Coherent Provision and Sustainability included a commitment to ‘Restate the purpose of the Research Postgraduate Grant (RPG) to include support for postgraduates to acquire the skills to develop careers in or outside of academia, and to support collaboration between universities in areas of researcher support and development.’

Following consultation with expert working groups and the sector the following principles for RPG were endorsed by SFC’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee.

The Research Postgraduate Grant supports institutions to:

• Invest in a collaborative environment for research training and development that values positive culture, inclusivity and exposure to high-quality research as central to the postgraduate research experience; and
• Secure a pipeline of skilled postgraduate researchers and support their career development in a way that meets the needs of academia, industry and society.

Read about our support for Researcher career development and postgraduate research students.

The Scottish Funding Council’s strategic research investments drive collaboration and coordination across Scotland’s world-class university research base with the aim to leverage further funding, support researcher training and boost competitiveness. SFC is investing £1.07 million under this heading in the current academic year (2025-26). 

Strategic research investments support four cross-university Alliances for Research Challenges (ARCs) networks. The ARCs aim to leverage challenge-focused research funding into Scotland’s research base. 

The investments also support two Scottish Graduate Schools which provide advanced training and an enriched student experience through a national cohort approach.  

A further investment of £150,000 in 2025-26 (part of a three-year investment of £450,000) is supporting and advancing positive research cultures by funding the post of Research Culture Collaboration Manager.

Alliances for Research Challenges (ARCs)

Scottish Graduate Schools

Research Culture Collaboration

The Scottish Funding Council’s  Innovation Infrastructure Investments are integral to Scotland’s innovation eco-system, providing long-term support and working collectively to drive industry engagement with Scotland’s academic base to help deliver economic and societal impact through collaboration.   

Innovation Centres 

Scotland’s Innovation Centres connect academic expertise with key industrial sectors to help solve industry  problems, as well as supporting skills and training to develop the next generation of researchers and knowledge exchange practitioners.

Converge is an integral part of Scotland’s  knowledge exchange and innovation infrastructure and plays an increasingly important role as a catalyst for the thriving and sustainable businesses we need for the future economy.   

Interface innovation vouchers encourage businesses to work with universities and colleges for the first time to help solve industry problems and develop new processes, products or services. SFC will be supporting innovation vouchers with £615,000 in 2025-26 . Scottish Enterprise will provide an additional £250,000 to support Advanced Innovation Vouchers. 

The Scottish Funding Council ‘s SFC’s Higher Education Research Capital (HERC) grant contributes to the long-term sustainability of university research through capital investment in physical infrastructure. 

The grant can be used in different ways. Examples of its use include contributing towards major new build projects; refurbishing existing research spaces; investing in cutting edge scientific equipment; upgrading essential IT equipment; and routine maintenance of research spaces and facilities. All are equally important in providing the environment needed for delivering world class research. 

HERC provides a long-term, stable source of investment that’s essential to maintain research infrastructure, stay up to date and at the cutting edge.

HERC Case Studies

In 2021 SFC’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee (RKEC) conducted a review of REG and RPG including extensive sector consultation:

• Research Excellence Grant and Research Postgraduate Grant.
• REG and RPG Consultation: Published Responses.

In light of the review, the following changes were made to the REG formula allocation model from AY 2022-23:

• Removal of STEMM premium.
• Changes to unit of assessment (subject) weightings (informed by the 2019 review of subject weightings).
• The budget for Part A of REG (REGa) has been divided using the same proportions as the REF sub-profiles (60% Outputs, 25% Impact and 15% Environment) and those shares of the REG(a) budget have been allocated by reference to the relevant REF sub-profile quality scores.
• The percentage of funding allocated through Part C of REG (REGc) has been increased from 11% to 13%, bringing Scotland more in line with the rUK.
• The quality weighting has been changed to 4:1 (4*=4, 3*=1).

From AY 2022-23 the REG allocation model refers to the REF 2021 results.

The 2021 REF results had a significant impact on universities’ REG allocations. To avoid significant disruption to individual institutions, SFC limited the level of any university’s reduction in REG for AY 2022-23 to -10%. This transition was for one year and limitations were removed for AY 2023-24.

The Shared Services Collaboration Fund (SSCF) is a new funding call which opened in April 2025 with an application deadline of 29 August 2025.

SSCF provides university funding to develop sustainable models for the implementation of shared services, including, but not limited to, sharing technology transfer office (TTO) facilities and research offices.

In December 2020 the European Commission and the UK Government agreed that the UK could fully associate to Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation funding programme. Horizon Europe is the successor to Horizon 2020 and runs until 2027.

As an Associated Country the UK can participate in Horizon Europe on equivalent terms as Member States and other Associated Countries. Researchers can therefore continue to access funding via all parts of the Framework Programme. As with other Associated Countries, on very limited occasions there may be limited access to some topics under exceptional and justifiable circumstances.

The funding has been delivered through UK Research and Innovation who published Horizon Europe guarantee guidance. This gives details on:

• Eligibility for the guarantee scheme.
• Scope of the scheme.
• How to apply.

It also includes a Q&A. Any questions on the guarantee guidance should be directed to eugrantsfunding@ukri.org.