The government has announced a £55bn funding boost for science and technology research and development (R&D) over the next five years. The R&D funding covers the government’s Spending Review period ending 2029/2030. It will see UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK’s national funding agency for science and research, delivering over £38bn across the period. UKRI supports and invests in research and innovation across the country, bringing together the UK’s seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), which aims to fund long-term projects with the potential to produce transformative technological change, will see its budget increase from £220m a year to £400m a year by 2030. One example provided by the government is the potential of robots and AI to help meet the growing demands for adult social care. More than £1.4bn will go to the Met Office and £900m to the UK’s prestigious National Academies. Over £550m will go through the National Measurement System and a further £240m via the AI Security Institute. All of these organisations will support investment in individual businesses, universities and research institutes across the UK.
Last year’s funding boosted AI, medtech and more
More information will be published before the end of the year on the projects that the funding will support, but the government provided examples of R&D projects and programmes that were publicly funded last year. These included £129m for BioNTech and its work on innovative cancer treatments, as well as £80m for 100 different research projects covering everything from advanced prosthetics to improved blood clot testing.
£44m was allocated to make industrial processes more efficient and greener using technologies including AI and engineering biology. £32m went to new medical scanners for cancer and cardiovascular conditions that are up to 10 times faster and 40 times more sensitive than existing devices. A further £19.6m went to researchers working on materials for the next generation of scanners and computers. More than £22m was invested into work on quantum computers.
The government said that R&D supports around 3 million jobs in the UK. Science and Technology Minister Liz Kendall said that researchers “are making the impossible, possible, from health to clean energy and beyond”. She added: “Their ideas will create tomorrow’s industries, boosting growth and transforming public services now and in the future.”
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