Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
UKRI is not doing enough to make sure the Fund is attracting successful bids from...
Conclusion
UKRI is not doing enough to make sure the Fund is attracting successful bids from across the country. Funding awarded by the Fund is distributed unevenly across the regions of the United Kingdom. By October 2020, just over 63% of the Fund had been awarded to organisations registered in London, the South East and West Midlands. UKRI does not assess the regional balance of bids in assessing awards. In part, this distribution of funding probably reflects to a degree the location of existing centres of R&D activity, for example the advanced manufacturing base in the West Midlands. The nature of the challenges selected could also have an impact on the location of projects funded, skewing project selection to existing areas of activity. The geographical distribution of funding, however, is not necessarily explained by the distribution of businesses undertaking R&D activities in the economy. UKRI asserts that activity can take place outside of the regions where the company in receipt of funding is registered, but does not have additional analysis to show that this was the case. Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund 7 Recommendation: The Department and UKRI should, by October 2021, set out: the factors that are inhibiting more widespread participation in the Fund; and the steps they are taking to attract more interest in the Fund from across the UK.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: October 2021 5.2 The department and UKRI recognise that all R&D funding has a key role to play in the levelling-up agenda. As outlined in The Queen’s Speech 2021, levelling up opportunities across all parts of the UK is a key government agenda. This is supported by UKRI through its mission to build a research and innovation system in the UK, to which everyone can contribute and from which everyone can benefit. 5.3 The Fund has made significant investments across the whole UK. The NAO report cites investment in all four nations of the UK. • Scotland £128.5 million4 • Northern Ireland £16.2 million • Wales £87.5 million • England £1640.9 million 5.4 Data to assess regional investment have been collected throughout the lifecycle of the Fund with continued improvements made to the monitoring and evaluation of regional impacts. As this data set matures, officials in the department will continue to work with UKRI to investigate the drivers behind regional disparity of the ISCF funding distribution to date and will seek to improve participation across all parts of the UK for future Challenge-led funding. . 5.5 The government is due to publish its UK R&D Places Strategy later in 2021, which will also address these issues. 5.6 The department and UKRI will write to the Committee by October 2021 setting out the factors relating to regional participation in the Fund and how learning will be embedded into future Challenge delivery.