The University of Cambridge has been one of few winners in the latest battle for government research funds.

The Times Higher Education has produced modelling which shows that changes in the funding policy of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will see Cambridge receive a £2.8 million rise in research funding from 2010-11. The figure represents a 3.7 per cent increase over the previous year.

The increase comes as HEFCE simultaneously reduces funding for half the Russell Group and most of the 1994 Group of research-focused universities, and almost all the teaching-focused universities in England.

Cambridge has benefited from a change to HEFCE’s funding formula, which has been prompted by a shift in government policy to university-based research in the UK.

Recent government policy has been in favor of greater research concentration. As a result, HEFCE has altered its funding formula to give a bigger weighting to "world-leading" (4*) research in the 2010-11 allocations.

Other institutions that will benefit from the new policy include Oxford, UCL, Imperial, and LSE.