All of the London Institute’s income is invested in extending the frontiers of knowledge in physics and mathematics. Half of the money we raise goes towards paying scientists’ salaries. The rest is divided equally between help, communication and space.
Salary
We pay our scientists just above the London university average. Combined with the cost of National Insurance and pension contributions, scientists’ salaries are half of our expenditure. For a typical postdoc, salary costs us £50,000 per year.
Gross salary
Our salary cost for an employee is the gross salary plus 17% for National Insurance and statutory pension. For a typical postdoc, it’s £42,700.
National Insurance
Our National Insurance Our National Insurance contribution is approximately 14% of the gross salary, depending on the salary. For a typical postdoc, it is £5,900.
Statutory pension
Companies must offer the option of a pension. Our average pension cost is around 3% of the gross salary. For a typical postdoc, it is £1,400.
Help
We give our scientists the assistance they need to focus on what they do best—making fundamental discoveries. We also provide training so that they can exceed their own perceived limits. For a typical postdoc, help costs us £16,700 per year.
Equipment and software
We provide our researchers with all of the computer equipment that they need, as well as software—from Mathematica to the Creative Cloud.
Fundraising
Our development team works with our scientists to win targeted support for research and meetings, from both grant agencies and foundations.
Writing
Our science writers describe our research for a broad audience on our website and in the press and help our scientists write better papers.
Event organisation
Our staff help our scientists plan, publicise and host a range of events, from seminars to public lectures to international conferences.
Accounting and law
Our finance and legal teams advise on funding sources, negotiate contracts, advise government and help our scientists immigrate and settle.
Communication
Our discoveries are valuable only if they are known to those that need them. This is why we take communicating our work so seriously—from our papers to our website to our events. For a typical postdoc, communication costs us £16,700 per year.
Award-winning website
Our website is how we share our discoveries and describe the Institute. It received a Webby nomination for the world’s top science website.
A national voice
Our articles in the press are shaping the debate on how to organise science, and our work with Government is affecting how it’s funded.
Travel
We pay for our researchers to visit collaborators, give seminars and attend conferences, to disseminate our discoveries and scout for talent.
Event communication
We make sure our events reach a wide audience by describing them on our website and in the press and broadcasting them via the Ri on YouTube.
Open access fees
We make our discoveries freely accessible by paying any journal open access fees, making others more likely to build on and apply our work.
Space
We provide our scientists and staff with space to focus and space to interact. Located in the Royal Institution in Mayfair, we occupy the world’s most iconic scientific building. For a typical postdoc, research space costs us £16,700 per year.
Private rooms to focus
Research and writing requires sustained, intense focus. We provide private office space for creative work in an inspiring research building.
Meeting rooms to interact
New ideas are fragile, and we encourage a mixture of focus and interaction to spark them. Our meeting rooms hold from five to 50 people.
Public rooms for events
We have access to the Royal Institution’s large event rooms, for 50 to 400 people, including the world’s most famous science lecture theatre.
Power of presence
We make extensive use of our space because everyone turns up for work during business hours. This makes us more aligned, agile and creative.
Visitors
We provide desks for our regular stream of scientific visitors, who collaborate with us and help us forge ties with other research centres.
