Welsh universities share £200,000 in research culture funding

Medr has allocated a fourth year of its Wales Research Environment and Culture fund (WREC) to eight Welsh universities, with £200,000 once again available for supporting “projects, programmes and activities that actively contribute to supporting or developing positive and healthy research cultures and environments.”

WREC was initiated under Medr’s predecessor HEFCW in 2023 and is expected – “subject to future budgets” – until academic year 2027–28. Medr says that it is preparing for an evaluation of the fund in 2027 and may seek discussions with universities based on their submissions. A funding monitoring form must be submitted by 24 September detailing how planned activities align with the fund’s thematic areas – positive research culture, EDI, and responsible research – and how they will be evaluated.

The funding is shared proportionally between the eight universities in Wales which receive QR funding, with allocations ranging from £5,498 for Wrexham University to £78,114 to Cardiff University.

The allocation methodology is based on total FTE of staff on research or teaching and research contracts plus PGR students, as recorded in the 2024–25 HESA Staff return (notably, all institutions aside from Swansea record a lower number of staff and doctoral students engaged in research than in the previous year’s allocations).

Medr again notes that this methodology does not take account of research-supporting staff not on academic contracts. Instead, the regulator says that it “acknowledges the crucial contributions of these staff to research cultures and the research environment.”