In the next few years the British Library Research and Innovation Centre will be offering more real leadership to research in the library and information field. There will be fewer, better projects, with more evaluation and more dissemination of results. The 1998-9 budget is 1.4 million. It is possible that there will be an increase next year to perhaps as much as 1.7 million.
Some longstanding grants are under serious review.
The Centre is working with the Tavistock Institute to improve the transparencey of decision-making and develop better links between research and practice. A review would consider whether overheads should be paid. But there will be calls for proposals under the information retrieval and preservation headings for support in the next funding year. One type of crosscutting study will be rapid response , this will be for investigations of very current events, such as 'information disasters'. Other projects will be funded under the headings of forecasting, international comparability, dissemination and take up, and evaluation.