RSM’s Research Professionals’ Wave 14 survey suggested that UK researchers were feeling more positive with the rate of growth reported for revenues/budgets increasing to 6.5% over the past year, compared with 1.9% in December 2012 and 1.7% in May 2012.

In addition, participants forecasted a 5.8% growth for the next twelve months in line with previous predictions.

The survey also found that all three economic KPIs tracked showed improvement and are the highest recorded since RSM began tracking them in October 2010 with a net score of +10% recorded for the ‘general financial health of the research sector’, up 23% percentage points from a net negative position last December.

The survey found a net score of +37 for the ‘economic prospects of my company’ while the queston of whether responders expected the general economic condition of the country to improve or get worse survey achieved a net score of 21%, an improvement of 22 percentage points from six months ago.