In 2018, Universities UK International (UUKi) awarded Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grants totalling £2.34m to 24 UK universities.
The grants funded Rutherford Fellowships for 120 early career researchers from over 60 of the UK higher education sector’s strategic partner institutions in 18 countries. The grants were funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), through the Rutherford Fund.
In April 2021, two years on from the end of the UUKi Rutherford Fund Strategic Partner Grants, UUKi conducted a survey of former grant-holders. This report presents the survey findings and builds on evidence collected at the end of the fellowships to demonstrate the programme’s ongoing impact.
Highlights from the report include:
- 100% of former Rutherford Grant-holding universities responding to our survey confirmed they have continued to collaborate with their Rutherford Fellows and/or colleagues at their Rutherford strategic partner institution(s) in the two years since the programme ended.
- Researchers from at least 62% of all former Rutherford Grant-holding universities have co-authored publications with Rutherford Fellows during and/or in the two years since their fellowships. So far at least 41 co-authored papers have been published.
- 54% of all former Rutherford Grant-holding universities have reported securing additional funding to support ongoing collaboration with their Rutherford strategic partner institutions, including with their former Rutherford Fellows, since being awarded their Rutherford grant. UUKi Rutherford Grants contributed to former award-holding universities securing over £13m of additional funding to support continued collaboration with Rutherford Fellows and/or colleagues from their strategic partners.
- 75% of survey respondents reported that they would have been either very unlikely (30%) or unlikely (45%) to achieve such outputs and outcomes had they not been awarded a UUKi Rutherford Grant in 2018.
You can read the report here.