The Economic Case for Independent Research

Here I explore the idea that universities do not always offer the best value-for-money in research and look at whether independent researchers might sometimes be a better alternative.

According to the CBI “the UK is now seen as the most expensive place in the world to fund a post-doctoral researcher”[1]. A major factor in this is that research grants once only supported direct research costs but now also include a very large component to cover the operating and development costs of research institutions to support their long-term sustainability. In combination with increased economic pressures and changing research methods this has driven up the cost of research.


A transparent approach to costing, which underpins these extra costs, guarantees only transparency, not value. While the extra costs have led to greater institutional stability and growth it is widely acknowledged (behind closed doors) that the sums requested are regularly excessive, often extremely so. Rather like Sir Humphrey Appleby’s explanation of tax and the Treasury, some universities seem to pitch for as much as money as they think they might get away with, then work out what to spend it on, rather than the other way around. Be in no doubt that the full cost of research is very often not that requested in grants.

Yet one might contend that all of the above is nonsense, that research is equally expensive wherever it is performed, and that grants really do capture the true cost of research to the university. From here one must posit that universities are currently offering the best possible price for research they can to the taxpayer. Can the same research be performed more economically beyond university walls? If so the benefits are obvious - more research can be performed for the same cost.

For certain research topics at least, I contend that it can.

Research Beyond University Walls

To move research away from universities we must first examine where costs might be reduced. Aside from directly incurred costs (those arising directly from the research project), other costs include Estates and utilities, management and administration, IT support services, Human Resources, laboratory stores, libraries, and various others.

Now consider how these activities relate to a researcher not in the university. First let us examine who this might conceivably be. A relevant field is bioinformatics, which uses computational methods to explore problems of biology. Where laboratory peers require much equipment and consumables, the bioinformatics researcher essentially needs only a laptop and web connection (all other costs being roughly equal across different types of researcher). We will take bioinformatics as an example of scientific research at its lowest cost. It is also an area that can be easily moved outside of the university setting - some bioinformaticians can and do work effectively at home. In so doing one immediately loses Estates and practically all utility bills, university management and administration machinery disappear (this is not to say that all administration costs also evaporate), IT support services are largely unnecessary, there is no requirement for HR, bioinformatics does not require laboratory stores. Many (most?) of the costs simply vanish.

This is not to say that this alternative is perfect, but it is perhaps preferable. It does possibly limit interaction, which is a major part of research, and libraries still play an important role in provision of journals. There is also the question of how those essential administrative tasks can be performed (managing salaries and tax) - perhaps the independent researcher needs to be self-employed? These are technical points that can and should be overcome if costs can be cut without loss of research capacity.

For a field like bioinformatics, where direct costs are already very low and nothing about the research itself prohibits it, working outside of university walls would reduce indirect costs very considerably and so is a far more efficient way to work. I believe that new and innovative approaches to research such as this could be very valuable and, given the massive number of PhDs, particularly in parts of biology, may provide the only viable route to continued research for those who do not secure further university contracts.

[1] CBI Submission to the RCUK/UUK Review Panel on the Impact of Full Economic Costing.