Provost's update: Lessons from Nobel Prizes

When a department at UCL can claim two Nobel Prizes in one week, you have to conclude that it must be doing something right. So what lessons can we draw from the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit? Last month saw two of its worldwide community of “Greater Gatsbies” (founder Professor Geoffrey Hinton and alumnus Sir Demis Hassabis, founder of Google DeepMind) awarded Nobel Prizes for work that laid the foundations for modern AI and demonstrated the hugely beneficial applications to which it can be put.

To be clear the lessons to be learned from the Gatsby’s success are not just for UCL, but also for the wider sector and the government, at least if it is serious about its growth and renewal agenda. These are lessons about the importance of funding for the whole spectrum of research, from the most fundamental and curiosity-driven to the most problem-focused and applied.    

Prior to the recent Budget and one year spending review, worrying reports were ricocheting around Whitehall and the sector that the government was contemplating what would in effect have been a £1bn real terms cut to the budget of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (‘DSIT’). This would have had incredibly damaging effects on research intensive universities.  

In the face of these reports, the sector acted quickly to impress upon policymakers the huge value of research-intensive universities as drivers of innovation and engines of the UK’s long-term economic growth. (Remember that in 2022 we calculated that UCL has an annual impact of £9.9 billion across the UK economy). This is a resource that it would have been madness to damage with such swingeing cuts. Whether thanks to our engagement or not, those cuts do not appear to have materialised, though the devil is in the detail and we are watching the situation closely. In fact, DSIT’s budget has increased in real terms, which is extremely welcome.

The message, however, is clear that as a sector we need to be more coordinated and more persuasive when telling the story not just of what research-intensive universities do for the UK’s health and wealth, but the process through which we do it. Telling the story of our incredible innovation, application and impact is vital, but equally so is banging the drum for the blue skies, curiosity-driven research that underpins it: the kind of academic endeavour that does not have an immediate, explicit purpose or impact but that almost certainly will at some point and in some way, if invested in over the long-term so that complex ideas can germinate, develop and flourish. This understanding is central to the conversation underway at UCL about our academic ambitions.

Which brings me back to the Nobel Prizes awarded to Professor Hinton and Sir Demis last month. The UK is currently a world leader in AI and related technologies, to a great extent because the funding environment has largely recognised the importance of supporting ideas-led as well as problem-focused research, recognised in fact that there will be no problem-focused research without the curiosity-driven research that underpins it.  

However, in a challenging financial environment, the idea that you can differentiate between different types of research, between the necessary and the nice to have, is always going to be tempting for policymakers and something against which we need to robustly guard. Our economic contribution and return on investment are unquestionable, but we need to be sure that government and policymakers understand that the process of research and innovation is collaborative, iterative and non-linear. Often it is a case of two steps forward and one back. Often the first step to a significant (and economically valuable) application could not be recognised as such at the time.  

When critical services and infrastructure desperately need urgent funding, it is understandable that a government might be tempted to prioritise schools and the NHS now over investment in research that may reap rewards in 10 or 25 years. But if the UK wants to remain a global player, a magnet for global investment and talent, and to benefit from research that has a genuine impact on people’s day to day lives, it must protect its investment in the full research spectrum and in the universities that are home to an unbeatable critical mass of disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic excellence. That is our fundamental message to government in all our interactions.  

Philanthropy as a catalyst

While we make the case for the crucial importance of core government funding for early stage, curiosity-driven research, I also want to reflect on the tremendous catalysing role that philanthropy has played in the story of these two Nobel Prizes.  

UCL’s Gatsby Unit is so called, of course, because it was founded in 1998 through funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, established by Lord David Sainsbury, a visionary philanthropist who has a huge passion for directing his support where it will have the greatest effect. He subsequently went on to fund the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in which the Unit now sits.

This initial funding established the Unit from the start as an ideal research environment: a critical mass of theoreticians interacting closely and working in close dialogue with experimentalists to pursue ideas and create new knowledge. The award of two Nobel Prizes shines a spotlight on the extraordinary things that blue skies research can achieve: in under 30 years, this Unit of brilliant theoreticians has created knowledge that is now being applied in utterly transformational ways. For philanthropists like Lord Sainsbury, this is a clear validation of their vision and pursuit of impact through sustained investment in high quality fundamental research. And we can see too the multiplying effect, with Sir Demis’ company Google DeepMind, which has its roots in UCL, in turn partnering philanthropically with UCL to support the next generation of talent and innovation.

Philanthropy adds to and hugely enhances what core funding achieves. It cannot and will never replace it. Lord Sainsbury invested his money in setting up the Unit at UCL because of the critical mass of excellent multidisciplinary activity to which we were already home, a thriving research environment from which it could benefit and to which it could contribute. In general, philanthropists want to invest in success, rather than plug gaps. Where nations do not signal long-term commitment to their research base, philanthropists are unlikely to invest.

Regardless of methods of funding, huge congratulations should go to Professor Hinton and Sir Demis, and to all the Gatsby community, who have a share in this great success. Academic excellence is a team sport and UCL is lucky to be home to some of the greatest players in the world.

Wider reflections on the Budget and the HE sectors’ finances  

More broadly, the main headline for UCL from the Budget is the rise in employer National Insurance contributions, which we expect will add around £19 million per year to our costs, and around £6m in the 2024/25 financial year from which this will take effect. Following the Budget, the government also announced a decision to increase the maximum cap for home student undergraduate tuition fees and maintenance loans in line with inflation, meaning that the maximum allowable tuition fee will be £9,535, an increase of £285. Implementing this for new students will provide extra income of around £1 million per year, which is rather dwarfed by the extra NI contributions. Our excellent Finance team is working on incorporating these new developments into our financial planning as part of broader work to ensure that UCL is resilient in the face of financial shocks.

The ongoing challenges facing the sectors’ finances were further highlighted by the OfS report on financial sustainability last week. It demonstrated that the majority of institutions are facing deficit next year and the damage that the previous government’s visa restrictions and unwelcoming rhetoric has had on visa applications by international students. UCL’s position is thankfully stronger than many in the sector, but we continue to be alive to these challenges and to impress the importance of a stable funding environment on the government.

As always, I would very much welcome your thoughts on these issues and suggestions of other topics you would like to see covered in these messages. Please contact me at president.provost@ucl.ac.uk.  

Dr Michael Spence
UCL President & Provost