Imperial gets most research kit kitty

Imperial College, London, and Warwick University have come out in front of Oxford and Cambridge in a national competition for research equipment funding.

Imperial was the biggest winner with five successful bids for grants totalling Pounds 3,353,602 and Warwick won grants worth Pounds 1,828,908 in bids for support from the Joint Research Equipment Initiative. Oxford netted only Pounds 1,223,694 and Cambridge Pounds 1,096,261. University College London got Pounds 1,117,477.

The initiative, run as two competitions for matched funding by research and funding councils, was launched last year in a bid to boost partnerships between higher education institutions and external research sponsors and support research relevant to the Technology Foresight Programme.

Awards announced this week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department of Education in Northern Ireland amount to more than Pounds 17 million.

But some winners have warned the initiative should not be seen as a substitute for standard grants.

The largest single award, Pounds 1,650,000, went to Imperial for a supercomputer for multidisciplinary work. Imperial also won Pounds 1,050,000 for a unique electron microscope for examining the structure of biological macromolecules.

Rodney Eastwood, Imperial's director of planning and management, said: "Obviously we are pleased. But while it is good for big science that these awards are made it does not make up for the big overall cuts in equipment grants."

Warwick was the second biggest winner, gaining seven awards. Ray Dupree, a physics professor, was responsible for the largest, worth Pounds 610,651. The money will be used to help buy a spectrometer.

JOINT RESEARCH EQUIPMENT INITIATIVE

Imperial College........... Pounds 3,353,602

Warwick University......... Pounds 1,828,908 Oxford University.......... Pounds 1,223,694 University College London.. Pounds 1,117,477 Cambridge University........Pounds 1,096,261 Bristol University..........Pounds 918,435

Birmingham University...... Pounds 868,777 University of Kent......... Pounds 842,002 University of Newcastle.....Pounds 626,564 Cranfield University....... Pounds 619,475 Durham University.......... Pounds 488,942

Manchester University...... Pounds 440,634 Sussex University.......... Pounds 398,925 Reading University..........Pounds 374,737 University of Teesside......Pounds 362,322 Leeds University........... Pounds 351,486 Bradford University........ Pounds 284,855

Liverpool University....... Pounds 9,583 Nottingham University...... Pounds 267,000 York University............ Pounds 247,577 Loughborough University.....Pounds 221,018 South Bank University...... Pounds 204,804 Queen's Belfast............ Pounds 200,000 Hull University............ Pounds 190,161 King's College London...... Pounds 150,000 Greenwich University....... Pounds 124,640

Queen Mary & Westfield College......Pounds 122,000 Surrey University...................Pounds 118,396 Manchester Metropolitan University..Pounds 63,720