- Business Secretary confirms how the £39.8 billion R&D
budget for 2022-2025, the largest ever, will be allocated between
partner organisations
- allocations will deliver on the government’s Innovation
Strategy, including the ambition to increase total R&D
investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027
- investments will enable the government to strengthen our
world-leading R&D system and cement the UK’s position as a
science superpower and innovation nation
The largest ever research and development budget, worth £39.8
billion, has been allocated across the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy’s partner organisations, the
government has confirmed today.
Driving forward the government’s ambitions as a science
superpower, the Spending Review committed record levels of
investment in the UK’s world-leading research base over the next
3 years, with R&D spending set to
increase by £5 billion to £20 billion per annum by 2024-2025 - a
33% increase in spending over the current parliament by
2024-2025.
The allocations will allow the government to deliver on the
ambitions set out in the Innovation Strategy,
with these investments supporting our commitment to ensure total
R&D spending
reaches 2.4% of GDP
by 2027.
These investments will contribute to the new cross-government
approach on research and development, helping to deliver
strategic advantage in science and technology, work alongside
industry to leverage private investment, and deliver prosperity,
security and resilience this century.
In turn, the investment will support priorities that are key to
the UK’s prosperity, from tackling climate change to levelling up
opportunities across the country, enabling investment in new
technologies from clean tech to AI, where the UK has a strong
competitive advantage globally and industrial strength at home.
Business Secretary said:
For too long, R&D spending in the UK has
trailed behind our neighbours - and in this country, science and
business have existed in separate spheres. I am adamant that this
must change. Now is the moment to unleash British science,
technology and innovation to rise to the challenges of the 21st
century.
My department’s £39.8 billion R&D budget – the largest
ever R&D budget
committed so far – will be deployed and specifically targeted to
strengthen Britain’s comparative advantages, supporting the best
ideas to become the best commercial innovations, and securing the
UK’s position as a science superpower.
This includes full funding for EU programmes, for which £6.8
billion has been allocated to support the UK’s association with
Horizon Europe, Euratom Research & Training, and Fusion for
Energy. If the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe, the
funding allocated to Horizon association will go to UK government
R&D programmes,
including those to support new international partnerships.
A significant proportion of the budget has been allocated to UK
Research & Innovation (UKRI), which will receive over £25
billion across the next 3 years, reaching over £8.8 billion in
2024-2025, its highest ever level and over £1 billion more than
in 2021-2022. This will include an increase in funding for core
Innovate UK programmes by 66% to £1.1 billion in 2024-2025,
helping connect companies to the capital, skills and connections
they need to innovate and grow.
The UK Space Agency’s budget will also grow to over £600 million
by 2024-2025, recognising the fact that our world-leading space
sector adds nearly £16 billion to UK GDP while underpinning
complementary parts of the economy including finance, logistics
and agriculture. This is equivalent to a real terms increase of
14%.
These allocations follow the government’s recent commitments made
in the Levelling Up White Paper to increase public investment in
R&D outside the
greater South East by at least a third over the Spending Review
period, and for these regions to receive at least 55% of
BEIS
domestic R&D
budget by 2024-2025.
The government’s ambitious R&D investment plans,
combined with our generous R&D tax credits programme,
will give businesses the confidence to invest in the field
following the pandemic, with research finding that every £1 of
public expenditure in R&D eventually leverages an
average of £2 of additional private investment.
Notes to editors
Read the full partner organisation
allocations publication.
