Press Release

Sainsbury Review promotes contribution of all universities to knowledge economy

Lord Sainsbury’s Report on the future of the Government’s Science policy has been welcomed by Professor Les Ebdon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and Chair of the CMU Universities Group.

"Lord Sainsbury consulted widely and the Government has clearly listened to our concerns", Professor Ebdon said. "We are delighted that there is an unequivocal recognition that all universities should carry out research, teaching and knowledge transfer and that there is an equally important economic mission for universities focusing on professional teaching, user-driven research, and problem solving.

"We expect the Government’s promotion of a world-class university system in the UK to be backed by a significant increase in funds for innovation and we hope that this will be become a permanent stream of funding and that there will be a review of funding to promote research capacity. The proposals for a shorter and more flexible knowledge transfer scheme are also a welcome response to the problems which our universities identified in the current scheme."