Lincoln University Tops PBRF Funding Gains

19 January 2005

Lincoln University Tops PBRF Funding Gains

Lincoln University has received the highest increase in net funding as a result of the 2004 Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) allocations.

“We are very pleased that Lincoln University’s staff research activity, research degree completions and external funding of research have all contributed to the university receiving a 19 percent increase in funding, the largest of any university, from the Tertiary Education Commission,” says Vice Chancellor Professor Roger Field.

The results, which were released by the Tertiary Education Commission in its PBRF 2004 Annual Report, cover data from the 2003 calendar year and are used to set funding levels for the 2005 year.

The PBRF will distribute more than $43 million in research funding to tertiary institutions this year, with $1.46 million of that going to Lincoln University.

The PBRF is designed to encourage and reward excellence in research.

“The PBRF funding results reflect the focused excellent research at Lincoln University and the quality of research graduates completing their degrees, under supervision by academic staff with high reputations in their relevant fields,” says Professor Roger Field.

“Much of the increase was due to the opening of a new Centre for Research Excellence at Lincoln, which boosted the level of external research income in 2003 by 51.55 percent.”

External research income accounts for 15% of the PBRF allocation. Research degree completions make up 25% of the PBRF allocation with the remaining 60% based on staff research performance.

“Lincoln University is unique among New Zealand universities in that it specialises in the transfer of fundamental research into real-world application research. This research is recognised as being of great value by various external funding agencies and the commercial sector,” concludes Professor Field.

The average funding increase for five other universities was 8.6%. Only one other approached the performance of Lincoln University with an 18% increase.

ENDS

© Scoop Media