Grant-aided bodies fear clause change ‘muzzling’

Changes to grant agreements would effect organisations that receive funding from bodies such as EPSRC and RCUK

The government has come under fire from the science and engineering community for making a change to research grant contracts that could prevent recipients from lobbying government on policy.

Critics slammed the proposed changes to grant agreements, which from 1 May would effect research projects and organisations that receive funding from bodies such as the Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), or Research Councils UK (RCUK), claiming they would “muzzle scientists”.

The chair of the Campaign for Social Science, Professor James Wilsdon and Dr Sarah Main, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case) have written a letter to Science minister Matthew Hancock asking for the removal of the clause because they fear it may have “unintended consequences”.

Main told PE: “It was most likely an oversight and everyone is very hopeful this will be resolved for research that falls under the Business Innovation and Skills department. But we must be mindful of work done, commissioned or fed into other government departments such as the Ministry of Defence or the Department for Transport where the science minister has no power to correct the clause.”

For the engineering sector, Main said that there were fears for any research that receives EPSRC, RCUK or Higher Education Funding Council grants. However, she added that it was her understanding that they are currently working on getting “a form of words” from the science minister to ensure they are exempt from the clause.