Research funding that was redistributed to newer universities following the 2008 research assessment exercise will in part be returned to the traditional elite.

A handful of members of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities, along with some specialist colleges, are the biggest winners in terms of research funding in the 2010-11 grant allocations.

About half of the members of the Russell Group will see above-inflation increases in their recurrent grant for research after the Higher Education Funding Council for England rejigged the 2010-11 funding formula to favour "world-leading" research.

The largest overall rise goes to the University of Oxford, which will have its total research income increased by £7 million (a 6 per cent rise compared with this year). It is followed by University College London and the University of Cambridge, which are both up by more than £4 million (about 4 per cent).

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To fund these increases, other institutions - particularly newer universities that had "pockets of research excellence" that were rewarded following RAE 2008 - face real-term cuts.

The University of Worcester and Staffordshire University will both lose more than 10 per cent of their research funding, although the overall sums involved are relatively small.

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As 51³Ô¹Ï has reported, Hefce said that rejigging the funding formula to favour 4* work would "provide an initial step towards increased concentration".

An extra £32 million was added to the total research grant this year to counter the effects of inflation, which Hefce calculated at 2 per cent.

The total sum for 2010-11 is £1.6 billion, of which £1.1 billion is mainstream quality-related research funding.

Overall, the Russell Group universities' share will increase from 62.2 to 62.6 per cent.

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Other university groupings - the 1994 Group, the University Alliance, Million+ and GuildHE - will all see their pots shrink by small amounts to accommodate the change.

However, not all of the newer members will lose out: the University of Huddersfield will gain £200,000 (up 9.9 per cent), while London Metropolitan University and the University of Bedfordshire both stand to gain more than 6 per cent.

Across the sector, 37 institutions will see higher-than-inflation rises in research funding, while 85 will face real-term losses.

Among the members of the Russell Group that will lose research income are the University of Liverpool, down £448,000 (1.2 per cent), and Newcastle University, down £170,000 (0.5 per cent).

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zoe.corbyn@tsleducation.com