Maintaining access to a full range of world-class
facilities, either in the UK
or abroad, is vital if the UK is to remain a leading centre of research excellence.
The nature of facilities is evolving, so as well as the traditional large physical
installations, they also increasingly include networked resources. These resources
use advances in information and communications technology to underpin new collaborative
methods of research.
In the UK funding for large facilities and infrastructure is available from the Research Councils, Government Departments, Regional Development Agencies, Devolved Administrations, charities, the private sector, the European Commission and other international bodies. However, a particular source of funding is the
Large Facilities Capital Fund, administered by central Government.
Working together, the Research Councils are responsible for producing the
Large Facilities Roadmap. This Roadmap provides UK policy makers and researchers with a comprehensive picture of the new facilities which are already under construction in the UK or internationally, and provides details of potential large facility and infrastructure projects that UK researchers would like to see available over the next 10-15 years.
In many fields, research communities will increasingly rely on more centralised
facilities to provide data and experimental platforms that provide the basis for
integrated and large scale research efforts. These may be focused around particular
technologies, or the consideration of particular problems or user needs. This evolution
of large facility requirements is likely to continue for the foreseeable future
as technology develops.