UK: Not-for-profit sector gets special research centre

Britain's Birmingham University is to lead a new, three-site Third Sector Research Centre to strengthen academic services available for non-profit organisations such as charities, social enterprises and small community organisations.

The centre will receive an investment of £10.25 million (US$20 million) over the next five years from the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the British government's Office of the Third Sector or OTS, The Barrow Cadbury Trust and 15 universities in Britain.

The centre's work will be supported by two capacity building units led by the English universities of Middlesex and Lincoln. The clusters will provide the next generation of researchers, provide studentships, knowledge transfer partnerships and an innovative voucher scheme designed to allow third sector organisations to buy in academic expertise.

Middlesex will focus on social enterprises: profit-making business usually established to tackle social or environmental issues. The Big Issue, a magazine sold in the UK by homeless people, is one example; another is The Eden Project, an environmental educational trust based in Cornwall where it operates a huge multi-climate zone glasshouse popular with tourists.

The Third Sector is a priority for the current centre-left Labour UK government which is keen to foster charities, voluntary organisations, non-government organisations and social enterprises. In 2006, the government created the OTS, based in the Cabinet Office, to support the sector and coordinate work among various ministries.

Professor Pete Alcock, head of Birmingham's school of social sciences, said: "This is an exciting new opportunity to provide an extensive and robust research resource for the third sector and to work closely with policy makers and practitioners in building capacity and engagement."

diane.spencer@uw-news.com