Recommendation 5

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.