Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
The government has a target to increase the UK’s public and private investment in R&D...
Conclusion
The government has a target to increase the UK’s public and private investment in R&D to 2.4% of gross domestic product by 2027. The Fund contributes to this target.24 In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, the UK invested 1.7% of its gross domestic product in R&D. This is below the average across the OECD of 2.4%. UKRI told us that it thought the UK should be aiming well above the OECD average. It told us that in 2018 Germany spent 2.9% of its GDP on R&D.25
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The government has committed to increasing UK investment in research and development (R&D) to 2.4% of gross domestic product (GDP). To achieve this target, the government has committed to raising public investment to £22 billion per year: a record increase in spending. 3.3 The R&D Roadmap2, published in July 2020, sets out our ambitions for science and research and how our commitment to 2.4% will enable the UK to push harder at the frontiers of knowledge, unlocking brilliant new technological breakthroughs and enabling applied research to create transformative benefits for government, businesses and communities right across the UK. 3.4 As announced in the Build Back Better: our plan for growth, published alongside Budget 2021, the department is working across government to develop an innovation strategy, due to be published this summer, which will look closely at how we can leverage private sector investment to achieve the government’s target of 2.4% economy-wide spend of GDP by 2027. The strategy will outline how we will look to achieve our ambitions in innovation and where we want to focus our efforts over the next decade. It will aim to set out the strategic objective and create the confidence for increased business investment in R&D and innovation. 3.5 The government recently published allocations following Spending Review 20203 and will set out further plans for public funding of R&D in Spending Review 2021 later this year.