When David Sweeney retires as Research England’s executive chair next month, he will have encountered his 11th science minister since taking one of the most significant jobs for university-based research in 2008. Only a few of these politicians will have exerted the same level of influence on UK research as the mathematician over the past 14 years.
Some might wonder if that is overstating the importance of the head of the funding body, which distributes most of its £2.5 billion annual budget based on the independently decided results of the Research Excellence Framework.
But this view would overlook the central role that Mr Sweeney has played in shaping the last two REF exercises that have, to a large extent, decided what type of research is rewarded and funded in UK universities, and where it takes place. His reforms include the introduction of a research “impact” measurement from 2014, now accounting for 25 per cent of overall score.
