£250 million additional funding to boost collaboration and protect ongoing research
Thursday, 1 April 2021 21:31
Scientists and researchers will get an extra £250 million funding
this year to support pioneering research and drive the UK’s
ambitions to become a science superpower. As a result, UK
scientists will have access to more public funding than ever
before. This takes total Government investment in R&D to £14.9
billion in 2021/22 and follows four years of significant growth in
R&D funding, including a boost of more...Request free trial
Scientists and researchers will get an extra £250 million
funding this year to support pioneering research and drive
the UK’s ambitions to become a science superpower.
As a result, UK scientists will have access to more public
funding than ever before. This takes total Government
investment in R&D to £14.9 billion in 2021/22 and
follows four years of significant growth in R&D
funding, including a boost of more than £1.5 billion in
2020/21.
It will mean UK Government R&D spending is now at
its highest level in four decades.
This investment reinforces the Government’s commitment
to putting research and development at the heart of
plans to build back better from the pandemic. It will
support vital and pioneering research while enabling
the UK’s brilliant scientists, researchers and
businesses to access and benefit from the world’s
largest collaborative research programme, Horizon
Europe – worth around €95 billion over the next decade.
Last month the Government announced the new Advanced
Research & Invention Agency (ARIA), backed with
£800 million by 2024/25 and tasked with funding
high-risk, high-payoff research that offers the chance
of high rewards, supporting ground-breaking discoveries
that could transform people’s lives for the better.
The Government remains committed to reaching its target
of 2.4% of GDP being spent on R&D across the UK
economy by 2027 and increasing the budget for research
and development to £22 billion.
Notes to editors
- The UK will associate to Horizon Europe as part of
the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) with the EU.
We will pay a fair and appropriate share into the
budget of this programme to enable the UK science and
research sector to further their collaborations with
our European partners.
- Horizon Europe will be at least 20 percent larger
than the previous framework programme, giving UK
scientists and innovators access to the largest
collaborative funding scheme in the world.
- In addition to the £14.6 billion budget for R&D
in 2021/22 set at the recent Spending Review, the
Government will be providing funding for ongoing UK
research projects already awarded under Horizon 2020,
Euratom and Copernicus, which is worth over £500
million in 2021/22 for UK scientists and innovators.
- The Government will be making available a further
£250 million for R&D through BEIS in 2021/22. This
comes on top of the £400 million increase in UK core
research budgets announced at SR20 for UKRI and
National Academies in 2021/22.
- £400 million earmarked at Spending Review for
2021/22 to support government priorities and drive the
development of innovative ways to build new science
capability will help to pay for association to Horizon
– meeting the key ask of the science community.
- The terms set by the EU for the UK’s participation
in Horizon EU involve significant upfront payments,
which will benefit UK scientists in future years.
Despite these upfront payments the generous envelope
for R&D means that, based on estimated receipts to
our scientists from Horizon, overall public funds for
UK scientists and innovators in 2021/22 will increase
compared to 2020/21
- This follows four years of significant growth in
government R&D funding and boost of more than
£1.5bn in 2020/21 alone.
- BEIS will now be confirming science budgets for its
partner organisations in 2021/22 as quickly as
possible.
- BEIS will provide a breakdown of its R&D
spending when final allocations are published later in
the year.
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