The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) closed at the end of March 2018, with its research and knowledge exchange functions assumed by Research England, a new council within UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Research England distributes over 2.2 billion British pounds to universities in England every year. Its responsibilities include:
- providing grant funding to English universities for research and knowledge exchange activities;
- developing and implementing the Research Excellence Framework in partnership with the UK Higher Education funding bodies;
- overseeing the sustainability of the Higher Education research base in England;
- overseeing the 900 million British pounds UK Research Partnership Investment Fund;
- and the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
