We recently joined the Financial Recovery and Sustainability programme at a London university to examine the root causes of their challenging financial position. This led on to a discrete piece of work examining cost recovery on R&D activities and opportunities for improving the revenue attracted by the wide range of research programmes undertaken by academic staff. Developing ideas for rationalising costs was also a key focus and business cases were signed off to rationalise spend in certain areas such as equipment and facilities.
In total, financial improvements worth £55-70m pa were developed and taken to the decision-making committees for approval.