The Research Councils endeavour to keep their spending on administration to a minimum, consistent with effective performance, in order to maximise their investment in research excellence. Noting the success of shared services initiatives in other public sector bodies such as HMRC, Defra, Tfl and the Prison Service - and with the encouragment of the Director General for Science and Innovation in DIUS - recognised that shared services would provide an opportunity to further pursue their long-term efficiency strategy.

RCUK SSC Ltd., the Research Council's own shared service centre was incorporated in September 2007 and is jointly owned by the Research Councils. It is intended to deliver headline savings of £450M over a ten year period through the effective consolidation of 'back-office' (HR, Finance, Procurement, Information Systems and Security, Grants Administration) functions across the Research Councils and their Institutes.

James will outline how and why the organisation has been created, the benefit to Research Councils, how it is structured and operates, and some of the challenges that have been encountered during the project.

Site credits | Accessibility