London

British universities say they could be forced to drop out of the European Union's Framework research programme under rules being proposed by the UK government.

The universities say that the government's efforts to change the way it provides their financial support could make it unproductive for academics to seek Framework grants. At the moment, most UK research grants cover only about half a project's true costs, and the main source of the remaining money is block government grants to research institutions. But the block grants have not been keeping pace with the growth in research income (see graph).

So the government announced in July, as part of a ten-year strategy for science, that it would make researchers apply for grants to cover the entire cost of their projects. But although UK research councils are getting extra funds to help them cope with the switch, the European Commission is sticking to its current arrangements.

Some UK universities might even stop researchers applying for Framework funds because the resulting grants would be unlikely to cover the total project costs, claims Universities UK, which represents most of Britain's institutes of higher education. “This will bite hard on some departments,” says Simon Jones, deputy director for research services at the University of Cambridge.

A drop in applications could hit research hard. Britain currently receives some €700 million (US$860 million) in Framework funds a year and wins a quarter of all the money allotted to universities by the programme.

Universities want the government to create a new funding stream to help make up the shortfall, which would cost about €100 million a year. Last month, they sent a paper outlining their ideas to the government.

“We hear what is being said,” says Tino Hernandez, a spokesman for the government's Office of Science and Technology. “But at the end of the day it is up to universities to make decisions about the research they conduct.”