Research Contracts Benchmarking 2023 Public Report

Research contract management is a critical function for all research-active universities as a foundation for constructive collaboration, achievement of strategic institutional research aims, and effective income growth. At the same time internal pressures driven by growth, complexity and a challenging climate for recruitment and retention impact on management, investment and skills. This report is intended to provide an evidence-based assessment of current practice, to assist those managing research contracts functions and inform future directions for policy.

This report summarises the findings from a study examining and benchmarking research contract management at 24 universities in the UK (19) and Australia (5). The participating universities completed a common assessment framework in mid-2023. The participants represent a wide range of scales of activity: annual research incomes ranged from over £500m (A$954m) to under £2m (A$3.6m).

Collectively these 24 institutions reported on the activities of 240 full-time equivalent (FTE) research contract staff (in a range of leadership, managerial, officer and administrative roles, including temporary staff) who delivered a total of 22,465 new research contracts in the final year of the study period. They completed more than 100,000 new agreements in the five years covered by the survey.

This project follows on from two previous research contracts benchmarking projects carried out by Research Consulting in 2013, on behalf of 20 UK research intensive institutions, and in 2018, for 19 UK and 11 Australian universities.