Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
DSIT acknowledges further work is needed to consolidate R&D spending data across government.
Recommendation
DSIT highlighted work that it has done in recent years to be able to look at the whole range of R&D spending across government but acknowledged that there is a lot more work to do to bring together all the R&D data from across government and to be able to talk about it as a single system.36 For example, in 2024 the Department and UKRI set up a Metascience Unit to develop and share evidence on the best ways to 29 Q 76 30 Q 77 31 C&AG’s Report, para 1.15: Qq 16, 21 and 35 32 Q 40 33 C&AG’s Report, para 13 34 Q 42 35 Q 18 36 Q 40 12 practice, fund and support science, including through experiments to test potential improvements to UKRI’s processes.37 UKRI told us that these experiments would include ways to bring data sources together from across government on investment in R&I.38
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, confirming UKRI is developing a new online portal to replace Gateway to Research by Summer 2026, which aims to improve data accessibility and coverage across the UKRI portfolio and funds managed for other departments. UKRI will report on progress by February 2026.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2026 3.2 UKRI routinely publishes details of awards made via its funding systems through the UKRI Gateway to Research website. UKRI Gateway to Research provides ongoing open access to data on projects, people, organisations and outcomes from 2006 to the present day and is updated every quarter. 3.3 However, DSIT and UKRI acknowledge that further work is needed to ensure that this data is both comprehensive and easily accessible, and UKRI is developing a new online portal to replace Gateway to Research, currently planned to be launched in Summer 2026. The new online portal will draw data from UKRI’s data warehouse, Databank, which provides a repository for information on research and innovation grants. Work is underway to improve the coverage of the UKRI portfolio in this published data and to clearly identify funds managed on behalf of other government departments. This will improve the availability of UKRI funding data to all users, including government officials, investors and members of the public. 3.4 Changes to increase the published detail of UKRI funding data are underway now and will steadily deliver improved coverage of the portfolio. UKRI will report to the Committee on progress made and further plans in February 2026. 3.5 DSIT and UKRI will also publish a detailed breakdown of UKRI allocations for the next Spending Review period, before the start of the next financial year.