Edinburgh University principal Sir Timothy O'Shea says 'funding doing tremendously' Edinburgh University has attracted "tremendous" funding grants, its principal Sir Timothy O'Shea has said. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that the university was recruiting career researchers and competitive research grants. Sir Timothy added: "Funding is doing tremendously well. Two years ago, we were delighted to secure in one year £200m competitive research grants. Last year we were amazed when we hit £250m, this year we are on such a very good curve we hit £300m in competitive research grants and that will support work in medicine, in science, in humanities.