UKRI to increase research and innovation investment to £1.1 billion a year by 2025
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which supports ambitious innovative UK businesses, has set out how it plans to spend its annual £7.9 billion budget.
It builds on UKRI’s five-year strategy, transforming tomorrow together, providing more detail on how UKRI will deliver its ambition for UK research and innovation set out through six strategic objectives. It will be followed by publication of strategic delivery plans for UKRI’s nine councils.
Commitments in the plan include increased investment in technologies of the future, including building on investments in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and engineering biology.
There is also a £2 billion talent programme alongside a promised increase in research and innovation infrastructure investment to £1.1 billion a year by 2024 to 2025.
The total Innovate UK budget will increase more than £1 billion to 2025 and the agency plans to pilot Innovation Accelerators in Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Glasgow.
There is also an extra £185 million across UKRI to target global and national challenges, including the move to net zero through a new ‘Building a Green Future’ programme and a pilot £65 million investment in “new and emerging areas that reach beyond disciplinary boundaries”
UKRI Chief Executive Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser said: “Our corporate plan sets out the key actions UKRI will take over the course of our three-year budget settlement to foster an outstanding research and innovation system for the UK.
“This collective programme of work across UKRI is guided by our ambitious strategy, which outlines our strategic objectives and four principles for change: diversity, connectivity, resilience and engagement.
“We are committed to ensuring that UKRI realises its full potential, working with our many partners to convene, catalyse and invest in the UK’s world-class research and innovation endeavour, enriching lives locally, nationally and globally.”
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng added: “Research and innovation is crucial to the UK’s future; it will drive prosperity in every part of the country and deliver benefits for all.
“UKRI’s corporate plan outlines how we will support the UK’s world-leading researchers and innovators to thrive, strengthening our position as a science superpower and the best place in the world to innovate.”
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