Spec Europe - Starna CRM:Layout 1 16/02/2011 17 News
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UK funding
£200m boost for academic research
Maria Burke
The UK government is to add £200m of new money to a fund that supports long-term university capital projects. The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UK RPIF), which was launched with a government investment of £100m in May 2012, was heavily oversubscribed. These new funds will more than double the number of projects that will benefit. To access the money, universities must match
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the funding by at least double the amount from private companies or charities. As well as supporting the best proposals already submitted by universities, the fund, which is managed by the Higher Education Funding Council, will now re-open for further bids. Universities can apply for between £10 and £35m per project. Applications are judged on value for money and must build on existing strong research capability. The fund will run for three years until 2015. An independent evaluation of previous government investment in research capital has shown how successful this type of funding can be in accelerating private sector investment in UK university research infrastructure, according to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). For example, a £4.3m investment
UK legislation Claims deadline clarified Karthryn Roberts
In October, the UK Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by BCL against chemicals giant BASF to recover costs associated with inflated prices for certain vitamins, and so clarified the deadline for follow-on claims for damages. In 2001 the European Commission found
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that BASF had been involved in the illegal price- fixing of vitamins, and imposed a fine of €296m. BASF appealed the amount of the fine but not the EC infringement decision. In March 2006, the European Court of First Instance (CFI) ruled in favour of BASF and reduced the fine to €237m. Under UK law it is possible for anyone that has suffered a loss as a result of cartel activity
10 Chemistry&Industry • November 2012
to bring a ‘follow-on action’ to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Such actions must ‘follow-on’ from an infringement decision of the EU or UK competition authorities and allow the wronged party to claim damages from the infringers for the loss suffered. Importantly, any follow-on action must be brought to CAT within the two years following the expiry of the appeal period of the relevant decision. The case centred on what was the ‘relevant decision’ for the purpose of the two-year limitation period for bringing follow-on actions. The Supreme Court ruled that the claims should have been brought within two years of BASF’s deadline for appealing the Commission’s 2001 decision. BCL had made its claim over four years too late.
at Loughborough University led to a £60m investment by BAE Syst- ems; and at Dun- dee
Univer- sity,
an £8m invest- ment attracted £23m from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Merck and Pfizer. The Research Councils UK welcomed the announcement, saying the extra money will ‘provide the vital tools to help the UK’s best scientists make new discoveries more quickly and drive future innovation’. The Russell Group of 24 leading universities
called the news ‘a very welcome shot in the arm for UK science and industry, especially following recent cuts to capital funding’.