What is the Research Register?
What information is currently held?
How can I search the database?
How accurate is the data?
What types of partners are listed?
How is a project's value split and allocated?
Why does the spend for a given energy category not agree exactly with other published data?
How is a project assigned to a category?
What to do if you think your project's details are Incorrect
What to do if one of your energy-related projects is not Listed

What is the Research Register?

The UKERC Research Register has been prepared by the Science and Technology Facilities Council Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The Register allows online searches to be carried out on a comprehensive list of all UK publicly funded energy Research and Development. Each project in the Register has been assigned a set of energy 'categories' thus enabling highly targeted searches to be carried out. Links are provided to project-specific www sites, and to PDFs of project papers and reports, where these have been provided by the lead researcher.

What Information is Currently Held?

The content of the Register will constantly evolve as details of newly funded projects are added.

To date the following information has been loaded into the database:

• Research grants funded by
  • EPSRC: the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - www.epsrc.ac.uk
  • ESRC: the Economic and Social Research Council - www.esrc.ac.uk
  • NERC: the Natural Environment Research Council - www.nerc.ac.uk
• Applied Research grants funded by the Carbon Trust: www.carbontrust.co.uk
• Grants funded by the Clean Coal and Renewable Energy programmes of the former DTI (Department of Trade & Industry)
• Grants funded by the DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government - www.communities.gov.uk). This will includes research funded by the former ODPM - Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
• Grants funded by the DfT (Department for Transport) http://www.dft.gov.uk/
• Grants awarded by the Leverhulme Trust (www.leverhulme.ac.uk)

How can I search the Database ?

The database can be searched in two distinct modes :

• To list all the grants which meet user-defined criteria. A comprehensive menu allows the user to create their own searches, and four simpler searches have been set up to allow the user to list grants held by a given individual, by a specific organisation, in a particular UK region, or in a specific energy topic
   
• To create summary tables of the number of, and value of, grants for user-defined categories, funding bodies, or region of the UK . Successive screens allow the user to 'drill down' until individual grant records can be displayed. It should be noted that as grants can be held by more than one institution, and deal with more than one energy topic, it is not possible to simply add the number of grants in a column to obtain the total number of grants - this information is therefore provided in a 'Total' line at the base of each table. The financial data presented in the tables takes into account whether the grant deals with several different energy categories, and how the funding is distributed between partner organisations (see the comments above).

How Accurate is the Data?

Whilst the Register allows analysis of R&D funding to be carried out, either on a whole project basis, or by Calendar Year, or by Financial Year, it is very important to appreciate that the funding distribution during a grant is assumed to be constant. Subsequently it might be possible to include some limited information about industrial co-funding (subject to us receiving the data from the data providers).

What types of partners are listed?

The lead partner of a project (defined as the person/body who is contracted by the funding body) is called the "Principal Investigator" (PI) - there can only be one PI for each project. Other partners who are known to be receiving funding to carry out the project are known as  "Other Investigators" (OIs). Other organisations associated with the project but not in receipt of funding are known as "Industrial Collaborators" (ICs). Individual researchers who have helped propose the project and whose salary costs are being paid using the project's funding are sometimes known as "Recognised Researchers" (RRs). There is no limit to the number of OIs, ICs, or  RRs for a given project.

How is a Project's value split and allocated?

In multi-partner projects (eg consortia) the lead partner (PI) receives the total grant and manages its distribution to the other partners (OIs). Therefore a detailed funding breakdown is only shown where this information has been provided by the lead partner. For multi-partner projects, the initial assumption made is that the lead partner (PI)  receives 99.99% of the funding and the other partners (OIs) a nominal amount - and the lead partner asked to provide a more accurate breakdown. Any Industrial Collaborators (ICs) and Recognised Researchers (RRs) are shown as receiving 0%. The spend on any grant is assumed to be at a constant rate per month.

Why does the spend for a given energy category not agree exactly with other published data?

The data obtained from the Register should not be compared with that from individual funding bodies, as often different energy categorisation schemes and definitions, and spend rates will have been used.

How is a Project assigned to a Category?

Whilst we take note of any categorisation which has been made by the funding body, we apply a specially designed UKERC categorisation scheme to each project. The category consists of four distinct parts:

• the energy research activity (based on the IEA classification)
• the type of R&D funding
• science and technology description (based on the UNESCO and the RAE schemes)
• description of the cross-cutting inter-disciplinarily of the project.

The detailed definitions of the four parts are given in the Category List. It should be noted that the categorisation scheme allows percentages to be assigned between different topics.

What to do if you think one of your Projects' details are incorrect

Please email us at ERCPManager@rl.ac.uk and we will make the necessary updates to the database - we would particularly welcome PDFs of reports to upload, links to project-specific www sites , and information about the distribution of funding between partners.

What to do if one of your Energy-related Projects is not listed

Please use the Submit My Project to the Register button on the Register Home Page. or email us at ERCPManager@rl.ac.uk giving details of the funding body, project title and reference number, start date, end date, and value.

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