From which government, NGO or Private companies do universities receive funding’ for research?

The request was partially successful.

Dear Oxford Brookes University,

I am writing you for a Request of information, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) on the following topics: “From which government authorities, NGO or Private companies do universities receive funding’ for research?”, a research based on information of public interest, for journalism purposes.

Can you provide information to the following questions?

1) What is the total amount that the university received in funds for research, industrial consultancy fees and/or funded researches from government, NGO or private companies in the last five financial years (from 2013 till 2017)? The information should be broken down by organization or company name, year per year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), in a CSV format, if possible.

2) A portfolio statement for the funds the university has investments in. If you do not have a copy of it, can you provide a list of funds and corresponding management companies? Details should be broken down year by year, for the last financial years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), provided in a CSV format, if possible.

3) Can you provide details of research projects (such as executive summary and details of reports’ publication, university department and researchers’ names) of projects whose funds exceed £50,000, in the same period of time (2013-2017)?

Yours faithfully,

Santino Pani

Vanna Leathart, Oxford Brookes University

Dear Mr Pani,

Freedom of Information Act Request - our reference 2018-026.

Thank you for your email dated 5 February 2018 requesting information from
Oxford Brookes University about research funding.

The University will respond on or before 5 March 2018, the date on which
the 20 working day response period permitted by the Freedom of Information
Act ends.

I may need to contact you again if the request needs to be clarified; this
is to ensure that we provide you with the information you require.

Please note that in certain cases some information you have requested may
not be provided to you; this will only be information that can be withheld
by law. In these cases the reasons will be explained to you along with
your copy of any information that can be released to you.

Yours Sincerely

Vanna Leathart
-- 
Vanna Leathart
University Records Manager
IT Services
Oxford Brookes University
Tel: +44 (0)1865 484046
Please note my normal working days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Vanna Leathart, Oxford Brookes University

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Pani,

Freedom of Information Act Request - our reference 2018-026.

Further to your email of 5 February 2018 asking for information from
Oxford Brookes University about research funding, I am able to provide the
following information in response to your request.

You asked:

1) What is the total amount that the university received in funds for
research, industrial consultancy fees and/or funded researches from
government, NGO or private companies in the last five financial years
(from 2013 till 2017)? The information should be broken down by
organization or company name, year per year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,
2017), in a CSV format, if possible.

2) A portfolio statement for the funds the university has investments
in. If you do not have a copy of it, can you provide a list of funds and
corresponding management companies? Details should be broken down year
by year, for the last financial years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017),
provided in a CSV format, if possible.

3) Can you provide details of research projects (such as executive
summary and details of reports’ publication, university department and
researchers’ names) of projects whose funds exceed £50,000, in the same
period of time (2013-2017)?

Answer:

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that searching for the
information you have requested will exceed the appropriate time and
costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 
This is currently £450 (equivalent to 18 hours staff effort).  Re
question 1, our systems do not classify the source of funds in the way
you have requested (government, NGO, private companies), therefore we
would have to manually cross check every line to see which category
applies.  For question 3, to provide executive summaries and details of
reports' publication would again involve going into each research
project individually to find the information requested.  These issues
would easily take us beyond the time cost limit in section 12.  However
under the duty to advise and assist in section 16, I can give you a list
of the projects with funds exceeding £50,000, with the departments and
researcher's names in the attached csv file.

The information requested in question, we are withholding under section
21 of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 21 relates to information
that can be found elsewhere. This information can be found in our
Financial Statements on our website
here:  [1]https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/...

If this information does not address your requirements under the Freedom
of Information Act or you wish to complain about any aspect of the
handling of this request, then you should contact the undersigned in the
first instance. Should you remain dissatisfied, then you may apply for an
internal review by contacting the Director of Marketing and Communications
at Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3
OBP (email: [2][email address] ).  Your request for internal
review should be submitted to us within 40 working days of receipt by you
of this response. 

During the independent review the handling of your information request
will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with
this response. If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your
request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information
Commissioner at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Further contact information and
details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be
found on the Commissioner's website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk/ 

Please note that the Information Commissioner is unlikely to investigate
your case until the University’s internal review process has been
completed.

Yours sincerely

Vanna Leathart

--
Vanna Leathart
University Records Manager
IT Services
Oxford Brookes University
Tel: +44 (0)1865 484046
Please note my normal working days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Dear Mrs Leathart,

Thank you for your response. I acknowledge that answering my question would exceed the limit, and that I will need to start a new request, for the questions 1 and 2.
I wish ask if it would be enough for you, regarding your limit of time and costs, if I make a separate request for each question (1 and 2), and eventually if you can process them directly (other authorities responded me splitting my requests using separate references). This would make it easier for you, as you are already aware of these questions, and for me as I have a deadline for an article (this research is for a newspaper) in two months.

Regarding the link you provided about the financial statements, I was already aware of them, as I made a deep research before starting this request. I analysed them and, taking as example the last statement – for the year 2016/17, from page 25 to 40 - it provides a summary of investments, funds and endowments, but it doesn’t mention from which companies or organization are received.
I noticed that your university divides the funds and endowments from restricted (whose the funder requires the money to be funded on specific researches) and unrestricted, restricted expendable endowments, and restricted permanent endowments. This let me understand that you have separate data for each of these type of files. Can you provide details of these funds and endowments? As I already mentioned above, you can split the question, allowing you to have more time.

I await for your response,

Yours sincerely,

Santino Pani

Vanna Leathart, Oxford Brookes University

Dear Mr Pani,
Thank you for your reply to my response and for your suggestion that we
split your questions into 2 distinct requests.  However the legislation
states that two or more requests made by the same person within 60 days
and on similar topics can be aggregated to a single request.  This is
explained in section 39 of the Information Commissioner's guidance
document here:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio....
As both of your questions relate to financial income, the questions would
be aggregated.
I stated in my earlier response that we are unable to answer question 1
within the 18 hours set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.
In relation to question 2, the endowments listed in our Financial
Statements are donations to the University, and not managed fund
accounts.  We would be able to provide a list of these for the last two
financial years if that would be any assistance to you.  Our investments
are a £10m 365 day notice deposit account and a £5m 95 day notice account
both held with Santander. 
If you are still unhappy with our response, you may apply for an internal
review by contacting the Director of Marketing and Communications at
Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 OBP
(email: [2][email address] ).  Your request for internal review
should be submitted to us within 40 working days of receipt by you of this
response.  

During the independent review the handling of your information request
will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with
this response. If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your
request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information
Commissioner at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Further contact information and
details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be
found on the Commissioner's website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk/  

Please note that the Information Commissioner is unlikely to investigate
your case until the University’s internal review process has been
completed. 
Yours sincerely
Vanna Leathart

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