Yesterday’s announcement of the 5 year plan to boost the UK’s research and innovation through record levels of investment and a savvy insight into commercial realities will be welcome news to all stakeholders in the research and innovation (R&I) sector.
Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, a physicist knighted for services to global fusion energy, explained UKRI’s five-year strategy to channel a record £38.6 billion of Government investment into research and innovation.
He stated: “We are entering now a period with record levels of Government investment in research, creating a huge opportunity for all of us. But at the same time, the expectations from the public whose money it is that we are investing, they’re also growing. Together we’ve got to make the most of these opportunities so that we deliver for our stakeholders.”
“Although our previous strategy was actually due to run for another year, the world has changed around us quite a lot. We have a new government, we have a new spending review settlement, UKRI has a new Chief exec and a new chair. And we have a very different landscape to the one from five years ago. UKRI was established to bring a strategic coherence to our national Research and Innovation system, which enables multi-disciplinary research at real scale.”
“It was also to ensure that research delivers prosperity for every part of the country, in all regions and for all people. We’ve worked really hard on laying the foundations of a united UKRI which has just an extraordinary breadth, and an amazing remit. And the next five years, I hope really see us deliver on our potential.”
“The strategy that we’re publishing today is a high level framing of how we aim to deliver that. Last year, we brought in a mission to advance knowledge to improve lives and to drive growth. Perhaps unsurprisingly the first three chapters of this strategy are around that. How do we support discovery and curiosity driven research, how do we address societal priorities, and how do we help companies to start and to scale?”
“Over the next year, we aim to reduce our decision-making time so that we can back novel, ambitious research ever more quickly. We’ve already launched priority programmes in areas with the highest growth potential including Life Sciences and Artificial Intelligence. Now all of those industrial sectors have one aggregated budget, allowing us to do bigger, bolder research, and we’re strengthening what I call our curation of innovation providing a concierge service to the highest growth potential companies to help them turn into industry giants.”
Priorities are:
Support discovery and curiosity-driven research
Investing at scale in UK-wide applicant-led research and block grant funding for English universities, we will ensure UK research remains world-leading, and encourages novelty and intellectual risk-taking.
Address strategic government and societal priorities
We will take a new approach to investing through our Priority Programmes in areas such as AI, clean energy and the creative industries. These investments will benefit all parts of the UK, informed by co-creation with regions, and will take account of where the UK has the potential to be at the forefront of global R&I.
Help companies start, scale and stay in the UK
UK companies will shape the nation’s economic future. The UK leads Europe in spin-out value per country, yet few grow into larger companies and fewer still into giants. We want to change that. Resources will be focused on individual businesses and in wider sectors with the greatest growth potential.
Michelle Ferguson OBE, Director (Scotland) of the Confederation of British Industry, said, “Ian puts the honest tension on the table. The UK is world class at research. We are not world class at turning it into companies, scale and market share. That gap is the issue. His answer is to think like an investor. Not just backing technical excellence but asking what is the market opportunity, what is the UK’s competitive position, where do we back ourselves to win?”
What is UKRI?
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental UK Government body that brings together research councils plus Innovate UK and Research England to manage research and innovation funding. It was established to bring strategic coherence to the national R&I system, enabling multi-disciplinary research at scale, and to ensure that R&I delivery prosperity for the UK public.
In a recent visit to the University of Glasgow, Sir Ian met with Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Andy Schofield and was given a showcase of how advanced manufacturing is translating world-leading research into commercial impact through University spin-outs and the expansion of research into clinical and commercial impact. He said “I’ve had a genuinely great visit to the University of Glasgow. You can almost feel the culture shift in real time, bringing discovery research closer to tangible economic impact. From the Advanced Research Centre to conversations with spin-out founders and early career researchers, I’ve met inspiring people who are turning ambition into action.”
Please see links to the full reports below:
UK Research and Innovation Strategy 2026 to 2031 – UKRI
UK Research and Innovation Delivery Plan 2026 to 2027 – UKRI
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