UNIVERSITIES in northern England are missing out on a share of £54 million of research funding, eight mayors have warned.

A total 12 institutions have access to the Global Talent Fund to help attract 60 to 80 leading researchers into Britain.

But the mayors, including Labour’s Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, have called on the government to build a “new funding model that truly reflects the strengths and aspirations of all of our regions.”

They warned that investment was “concentrated disproportionately in London and the south-east.”

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said the money is intended to bolster industrial strategy by helping universities to back research in sectors such as life sciences, defence and the creative industries.

Beneficiaries include Oxford and Cambridge universities, the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which is also based in Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Birmingham.

Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and Cardiff University in Wales are also listed as being in line for money from the fund.

But northern universities’ “exclusion from the Global Talent Fund undermines their contribution to the UK’s economic success, as well as the government’s stated commitment to rebalance our economy,” the mayors wrote in a joint statement.

They said: “We are deeply disappointed that universities in the north of England, some of the best and brightest in the world, have once again been overlooked in the allocation of national innovation funding, despite their research credentials.

“Investment in innovation must reflect the full breadth and depth of talent that exists across the country, not continue to be concentrated disproportionately in London and the south-east.”