Research England Launches 'Old MacDonald' Funding Suite

On the farm: E-I--E-I-O
(Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash)

Regular readers will know that there's a special place in our hearts for funders and policymakers who use random letters of the alphabet to name their initiatives. The European Commission are past masters at this, realigning all of their thematic directorates to the letter P in February, and launching a '3 Os' agenda in 2016.

Not to be outdone, the newly-flush Research England is making great headway in getting on this bandwagon being a leader in this field. Keen eyed applicants may have noticed that their two most recent schemes, Expanding Excellence in England (E3) and International Investment Initiative (i3), are a bold and brave attempt to shoehorn a vaguely descriptive title into a single vowel.

'Bird of a Feather' to Join UKRI

In an announcement that has shocked the sector, Birds of Feather star and national treasure Pauline Quirke has been appointed as Programme Director of UKRI, the umbrella organisation for bringing together the Research Councils, organising the REF and distributing Brexit sweeteners.

'Whilst I very much admire her acting talents, her appointment to this pivotal role has taken me by surprise,' said Professor Gymslip Plimsole, Vice-Chancellor of Fundermental Towers University. 'I just hope that she gets on okay with Mr Gimlet.' 

Any similarity to Anne Dixon, Chief Operating Officer of Innovate UK, is, of course, entirely coincidental.

Quirke

Dixon