The UK research base is world class. It is second only to the USA on leading scientific indicators and crucially, during the current economic climate, ranks first on publication productivity and citations in relation to research and development public spend. Commonly known as quality-related (QR) funding because it is allocated selectively on the basis of excellence, it is provided as a block grant which allows higher education institutions the freedom to decide how they use these funds. This enables a degree of research stability and independence not provided by other funding sources. But the important activities that benefit from QR funding are often hidden or go unrecognised. It is hoped that the examples provided in this publication will demonstrate the wide variety of ways in which universities use QR funding, all of which are crucial to supporting a vibrant and healthy research base. The examples range from supporting cutting-edge research at its initial stages through to supporting early-career researchers who will become the world-leading researchers of tomorrow; and they stretch right across the breadth of research from the sciences to the arts and humanities. This is only a small selection of the ways in which QR funding is supporting the UK research base, but it is hoped it highlights the way QR funding underpins the most productive and efficient publicly funded research system in the G8 and enables the UK to continue to compete and thrive on the world stage. (Contains 3 footnotes.)