Rcuk history

Examples included the Radio Research Station, established in Ditton Park in 1924, which later became the Appleton Laboratory.

In 1949 Nature Conservancy was established as a research council in all but name.

To respond to this growth, in 1963 Sir Burke Trend chaired the Committee of Enquiry into the Organisation of Civil Science.

Lord Hailsham dubbed this separation of duties as "the Haldane principle" in 1964 when he was Minister of Science; it has remained a guiding principle ever since.

Also founded in 1965 was the Social Sciences Research Council (later the ESRC) bringing the number of Research Councils to five—Medicine, Agriculture, Natural Environment, Science, and Social Science—divided by disciplines that were not expected to collaborate.

In 1981, the emphasis in policy on innovation rather than pure science increased so the SRC became the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC).

In 1983 the ARC also changed its focus to outputs rather than methods to become the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC).

In 1994 SERC finally split into the EPSRC and PPARC to further separate innovation-orientated engineering from pure research into particle physics and astronomy.

In 1995, the CCLRC was spun out of the EPSRC, dividing responsibility for laboratories from those for the allocation of university research grants.

In 2005 the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) was established in order to bring research funding in the arts and humanities into line with that for other disciplines. It was created from the former Arts and Humanities Research Board, which had been managed by the British Academy since 1998.

In 2002 Research Councils UK was created as a secretariat in order to bring together the research councils at a higher level to work together more effectively.

In 2005 the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) was established in order to bring research funding in the arts and humanities into line with that for other disciplines.

From 2006 the research councils reported to the Office of Science and "Innovation" instead of "Technology", as the policy focus switched from technology objects to innovation process, although it was still within the Department of Trade and Industry.

In April 2007 PPARC and CCLRC were combined to form the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to create a single research council which provides access for UK scientists to national and international research facilities.