Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted
Government lacks an overall consolidated picture of UKRI's expected policy support.
Recommendation
UKRI does not consolidate or rank the government policies and activities that it is expected to support, meaning that the government does not currently have an overall picture of what it is asking UKRI to do.17 We asked DSIT how confident it is there are clear lines of sight from the development of government policy to funding activity and through to UKRI.18 DSIT said that there was room for improvement. While there may be strong interactions between DSIT and UKRI, DSIT acknowledged that it was difficult for people outside this process to understand how UKRI manages 9 Q 33 10 C&AG’s Report, para 7 11 Q 6, 35 12 Q 26 13 Q 10 14 Q 33 15 C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 16 Q 34 17 C&AG’s Report, para 1.13 18 Q 34 9 the necessary trade-offs and convert government policy into action.19 Professor Grant cited health-related research as an area where it is hard to get a simple picture of what is going on and where.20 19 Q 34 20 Q 15 10 2 Oversight Monitoring performance against objectives
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and will publish new strategic objectives for UKRI by Autumn 2025 to clarify UKRI's role in delivering government priorities. This will increase strategic clarity and transparency around R&D investment and its expected outcomes.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2025 1.2 Research and innovation are central to delivering each of the government’s five missions. In June 2025, the Spending Review and the Industrial Strategy provided clear direction to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) around its role in enabling the government’s Plan for Change. UKRI will increase the support it provides to the growth-driving sectors outlined in the Industrial Strategy and pivot its programmes and budgets towards research and innovation priorities set out in the Sector Plans. 1.3 As part of this, the £500 million R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, delivered by UKRI, will target research and innovation towards addressing priority problems facing the government’s five missions, bringing together partnerships between research and industry. The programme seeks to leverage a further £1.5 billion of private investment and generate innovation solutions that can be pulled through to adoption in the public and private sectors. 1.4 The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will shortly publish new strategic objectives for UKRI, which set out the organisation’s role delivering government priorities. This is discussed further at recommendation 2. These new objectives will be aligned with the government’s three priorities for investment in R&D: protecting and growing curiosity driven research; addressing government priorities and tackling societal challenges; and supporting R&D intensive companies to start-up, scale up, and stay in the UK. This approach is intended to increase strategic clarity and transparency around investment and its expected outcomes, as part of the government’s plans to reform the R&D system over the longer term around a limited set of priorities.