Third Sector Magazine: 'all change on the research front'

Third Sector Magazine has published an article setting out reactions to the rejection of TSRC's bid for continued 'Centres and Large Grants' funding from ESRC (the Economic and Social Research Council).

Managing editor Andy Hillier reports that TSRC "had, by common consent, made a good start in a programme for which the ESCR had chosen it only six years before and established several key projects. But now it has had to reduce its staff from 20 to five and prune its planned work, and faces an uncertain future. ... An ESRC spokeswoman said the competition for its Centres and Large Grants programme had been intense: there were 99 applications, of which only four were successful.

TSRC Director John Mohan says it's hard to understand the decision by the Economic and Social Research Council not to provide it with further funding ... 'It means there won't be an organisation that has a core mission of researching the resources, roles and relationships of the third sector,' he says. 'Nor will there be any independent academic body that takes the lead on construction of the evidence base about the sector – but we will continue to work with key sector partners such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations on this.'"

Read the full article for more reactions from NCVO, Navca, Civil Exchange, the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy, and others.