- New plans unveiled to support long-term, ten-year funding for certain R&D activities
- Change will provide long-term certainty to researchers and industry, deepening opportunities for partnerships in vital R&D work that could transform UK economy
- Introduction of guidance meets key manifesto commitment, supporting the government’s upcoming Industrial Strategy and delivering growth as part of our Plan for Change
Vital R&D work exploring innovation in areas as diverse as human health and cutting-edge computing will be given much-needed long-term certainty under new criteria unveiled by Science Minister Lord Vallance today (Monday 19 May).
It will enable and support government departments and other public bodies to fund R&D over a ten-year period – giving certainty to world-class research organisations that their work will continue over the long-term, helping to attract greater private investment, grow the UK economy and deliver on our Plan for Change.
While specific funding will be determined in the coming weeks, it could, for example, see research organisations tackling areas like antimicrobial resistance or developing quantum computers – complex issues which can take years to develop and understand – granted longer timescales to boost their chances of unearthing truly valuable solutions and improving lives.
It could also mean longer-term funding for infrastructure, such as large-scale research facilities and equipment, giving them certainty that the tools they need to drive progress are secured.
This will more broadly enable long-term research that tackles the key issues facing the UK, and will crowd investment into the sector from businesses attracted to the certainty of public backing.
Evidence shows that the average £1 invested in public R&D leverages double that in private investment and generates £7 in net benefits to the UK economy in the long run – providing a major boost to the UK economy. This also delivers on a manifesto commitment and on calls from research organisations, innovators and milestone independent reports such as the Landscape Review of R&D.
The criteria which will be used by departments and public bodies to identify and prioritise relevant ten-year funding proposals are centred around 4 areas:
- Infrastructure and core capabilities – where ten-year funding will allow recipients to develop or maintain core national infrastructure or support more impactful use of such infrastructure, which would not be possible under shorter funding cycles.
- Talent attraction and retention – where the skills development in a particular area is demonstrably vital to the UK growth agenda and longer-term funding would enable development of a pipeline of skilled researchers, scientists or engineers that otherwise would be difficult.
- International collaboration – where there are demonstrable, additional opportunities for international collaborations with wider strategic benefits.
- Partnerships and business collaboration – where there is demonstrable need for long term partnerships with industry – including charity and philanthropy – to tackle a significant challenge relevant to economic growth, and where shorter funding cycles would impede effective partnerships.
Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said:
Research and innovation, from computing and AI to health breakthroughs need stability of funding.
We are delivering on our manifesto commitment to support and encourage public bodies to deliver long-term ten-year funding streams where appropriate, while retaining the flexibility of shorter-term cycles to deal with emerging priorities.
This change will provide certainty to certain types of research organisations and unlock vital business investment into our world-class research sector to drive the growth at the heart of our Plan for Change.
The announcement comes ahead of the publication of the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy and will ensure the UK continues to be a world leader in growth-driving sectors delivering increased investment and secure, skilled jobs for working people across the country.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has worked with the Treasury and other stakeholders to develop the principles of ten-year funding and the process by which public bodies will select specific activities or institutions for long-term funding, to provide transparency for the R&D sector.
The guidance recommends that public bodies should set a maximum limit for the proportion of R&D budget that, at any one time, should be allocated to ten-year funding. This will retain the agility to respond to new and emerging priorities in the short and medium term.
Further details on the initial recipients of ten-year budgets will be set out in the second phase of the Spending Review, and in due course following the allocation of the R&D budget.
Departments will operate their own selection process, in line with the guidance. The guidance will allow departments to implement a targeted approach and allocate ten-year budgets to the specific programmes, activities and smaller research organisations that would best be able to unlock the economic and scientific benefits associated with long-term funding.
Ten-year budgets will also act as a signal of government’s long-term priorities in key sectors, helping to underpin the government’s upcoming Industrial Strategy. This is part of a wider government approach to reforming R&D funding over the longer-term, including providing stability and certainty to the R&D sector by giving clarity on the government’s R&D priorities.
