Government confirms £55bn boost for science and tech research and development

Climate science and AI safety are among the sectors receiving funding as part of a £55 billion boost for research and development (R&D), the Government has said.

The long-term funding will be available for UK research agencies and bodies to support R&D in a range of sectors areas including clean energy and health, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said on Thursday.

The funding allocations confirmed on Thursday come from the £86 billion package for science and technology R&D announced by the Chancellor at the spending review in June, the DSIT added.

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall marked the announcement with a visit to tech giant IBM’s London office on Wednesday, where she toured facilities and admired a robotic dog and a quantum computer.

The company is currently working in partnership with publicly-funded researchers looking at how AI and supercomputing could be used to discover new medicines and breakthroughs in clean energy, the DSIT said.

Speaking during the visit, Ms Kendall said: “£55 billion investment into research and development that we are announcing today, a record level, is absolutely critical to growing the economy and creating more good jobs.

“We know that for every pound of public money that goes into R&D, you get double the amount from the private sector.

“We also know that businesses that get R&D funding, on average, grow by 20% more and they actually expand their workforce by around 20% more.

“This is really critical to growing the economy, creating more good jobs, but also solving some of the big problems the country faces, creating more effective treatments and drugs and medicines, tackling climate change – all sorts of innovation which is really important.”

She added: “We’ve been hearing today about the huge developments in AI, quantum and robotics which will enable our public services to do more to get better results, to get better treatments, get better drugs, even prevent and maybe even cure diseases so I see this as about both good for the economy, but also to make sure we get better value for taxpayers’ money.”

The allocations, which cover the spending review period ending 2029/30, include more than £1.4 billion for the Met Office to help support climate science and more than £900 million for the UK’s National Academies.

A further boost of more than £550 million has been allocated to the National Measurement System, which comprises of measurement laboratories, and £240 million for the AI Safety Institute, which works to evaluate the impacts of AI and to mitigate risk.

Previous beneficiaries of UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) funding include Oxford Nanopore, who are developing the world’s first pandemic early warning system, and Cobalt Light Systems who make the technology used to screen liquid at airports, the DSIT added.