Research England QR funding is the block grant that Research England distributes to English universities based on the quality and volume of their research, as assessed by the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Unlike a competitive project grant, it is not tied to a specific proposal: institutions receive it as an annual lump sum and decide internally how to spend it, which is why it underpins long-term research capacity rather than individual projects.
Quality-related (QR) research funding is the UK’s main formula-based block grant for research, allocated by Research England to higher education providers (HEPs) in England as part of the four-nation “dual support” system. For 2025 to 2026, Research England distributed £1,987 million in total QR funding — the largest single component of its £2,731 million combined research, knowledge-exchange and capital budget, according to Research England’s own grant-allocations basis publication (reference RE-P-2025-04).
What is QR funding, and why does it exist?
- What is QR funding, and why does it exist?
- How does Research England calculate QR funding?
- QR funding vs competitive project grants: what is the difference?
- What changed in the funding formula for 2025-26 and 2026-27?
- What does this mean for institutional research capacity planning?
- Common questions about QR funding
QR funding exists to give universities unrestricted, recurrent income for research rather than money tied to a single project. Research England, the Department for the Economy Northern Ireland, Medr (Wales) and the Scottish Funding Council each operate an equivalent block grant, and all four bodies use REF outcomes to inform their formulas. This “strategic institutional” funding sits alongside — not instead of — competitive grants from UKRI’s seven Research Councils, forming the UK’s dual support system for research.
Because QR allocations are anchored to a periodic exercise rather than annual bidding rounds, they change slowly. Research England has said it is “seeking to maintain stability” in QR investment while REF 2021 outcomes remain the reference point ahead of REF 2029.
How does Research England calculate QR funding?
The QR formula weights each institution’s REF-assessed research quality and volume, then applies subject cost weightings and a London weighting before converting the result into cash. Mainstream QR — the largest QR element — totalled £1,303 million for 2025-26, including a London weighting calculated at 12% of mainstream QR, per Research England’s technical guidance for QR and HEIF allocations 2025 to 2026.
QR is not a single payment. Research England’s 2025-26 budget breaks it into five funding streams:
| QR funding element | 2025-26 budget | What it funds |
|---|---|---|
| Mainstream QR (incl. London weighting) | £1,303m | Core research quality/volume, weighted by REF outcomes |
| QR research degree programme (RDP) supervision fund | £344m | Postgraduate research student supervision |
| QR charity support fund | £219m | Overheads on charity-funded research |
| QR business research element | £114m | Overheads on business-funded research |
| QR funding for National Research Libraries | £7m | Five designated national-importance research libraries |
Source: UKRI, Research England grant allocations basis 2025 to 2026 (RE-P-2025-04), Table C. The Research Excellence Framework itself is run jointly by the four UK funding bodies roughly every three to seven years and involves more than 1,000 expert assessors across 34 subject-based panels.
QR funding vs competitive project grants: what is the difference?
QR funding is allocated by formula to an institution; competitive grants are awarded by peer review to a named investigator’s proposal. QR arrives every year regardless of whether a particular project succeeds; a project grant ends when the funded work is complete. This distinction is the whole point of dual support — one stream buys stability, the other buys targeted innovation.
| Feature | QR funding (Research England) | Competitive project grants (e.g. UKRI Research Councils) |
|---|---|---|
| Allocation basis | Formula, driven by REF quality and volume | Open competition, peer review of a specific proposal |
| Recipient | The institution (HEP) | The named investigator/project team |
| Duration | Recurrent annual block grant | Fixed project term |
| Use of funds | Institutional discretion | Restricted to approved project costs |
| Application required | No — based on REF and other formula data | Yes — competitive proposal submission |
Institutions typically use QR’s flexibility for costs competitive grants will not cover: bridging funding between grants, early-career research time, shared equipment, and preparing REF impact case studies. The Russell Group has described QR as playing “an essential and unique role in achieving breakthrough research.”
What changed in the funding formula for 2025-26 and 2026-27?
The core QR formula did not change for 2025-26: Research England confirmed “no changes to the funding methods or weightings for any other elements of QR funding” beyond one reversion. The QR research degree programme supervision fund returned to its usual calculation method in 2025-26, after a temporary adjustment had applied in 2024-25.
- Strategic institutional research funding (SIRF) review — the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has asked Research England to review the robustness and value of flexible formula-based research funding on an ongoing basis running to 2030.
- Transparency pilot — from autumn 2025, Research England began systematically collecting evidence on how institutions use their QR allocation, a shift reported by Times Higher Education in September 2025 as universities being “asked to explain how they spend millions of pounds received in quality-related (QR) funding.”
- Knowledge-exchange formula adjustment — a related Research England formula stream, the Higher Education Innovation Fund, introduced a £500,000 allocation cap for new entrants in 2025-26; from 2026-27, HEPs previously constrained by that cap receive their full calculated allocation without the annual increase modifier applied.
None of these changes alter the headline QR total, but together they signal closer scrutiny of how block-grant funding is spent — a planning-relevant shift for institutions relying on QR discretion.
What does this mean for institutional research capacity planning?
Because mainstream QR is re-based on REF outcomes rather than annual performance, institutions can forecast it several years ahead — but that stability window narrows as REF 2029 approaches and unit-level results begin to shift. Research administrators planning multi-year investments (research-space commitments, technician posts, early-career fellowships funded from QR) should treat the current REF 2021-derived allocation as a plateau, not a permanent baseline.
The transparency pilot adds a second planning consideration: institutions should expect to document QR spend against outcomes, not just receive and allocate it internally. Research administration teams coordinating REF impact case studies, research culture initiatives and postgraduate supervision funding are best placed to own this evidence trail before it becomes a formal reporting requirement.
Common questions about QR funding
What is QR funding?
QR funding is Research England’s main block grant for research, allocated by formula rather than by application. It is calculated primarily from Research Excellence Framework (REF) quality and volume scores, and unlike a project grant, it is not tied to specific research aims — institutions decide how to use it.
How much is QR funding worth?
Total QR funding was £1,987 million for the 2025-26 academic year, of which £1,303 million was mainstream QR, £344 million funded postgraduate research supervision, and the remainder covered charity- and business-funded research overheads and national research libraries, per Research England’s published 2025-26 grant-allocations basis.
How does QR funding work?
Research England converts each institution’s REF-assessed research quality and volume, weighted by subject cost and location, into a cash allocation paid annually. There is no application process; allocations shift only when an institution’s underlying data — such as REF results, postgraduate numbers, or research income — changes relative to the sector.
What is the Research England Policy Support Fund?
The Policy Support Fund is a separate strand of Research England’s strategic institutional funding, budgeted at £29 million for 2025-26, that supports universities in developing policy-related impact case studies and engagement ahead of future REF exercises — distinct from, but administered alongside, core QR funding.
Outlook: what to watch before REF 2029
QR funding will keep functioning as the UK’s most predictable research income stream in the near term, but three trends will shape how much institutional autonomy it retains: the ongoing SIRF review through 2030, the new spend-transparency expectations, and the approach of REF 2029, which will eventually re-base every institution’s mainstream QR allocation. Institutions that build evidence of QR outcomes now — rather than waiting for reporting requirements to formalise — will be better positioned when the formula next resets.
For research administration teams tracking how funder policy changes intersect with institutional compliance and reporting obligations, monitoring Research England’s annual grant-allocations publications alongside broader research administration developments remains the most reliable way to anticipate formula shifts before they land.
