Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted
UKRI's fragmented IT systems and poor data quality hinder grant classification and analysis.
Conclusion
UKRI is formed of seven research councils, Research England (which supports research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England), and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.43 Since its establishment, UKRI has faced challenges unifying the separate data systems of its predecessor organisations, including poor and disconnected data.44 UKRI can classify its grants by theme, based on the award title and description, and can produce one-off analyses of parts of its portfolio. For example, in 2024 it produced a review of its portfolio of spending on net zero and climate change. Around 15% of UKRI’s grants, however, do not have a full description on its system, and in other cases the descriptions are poor quality and consequently spending on these grants cannot be accurately classified automatically.45 Professor Grant told us that during his independent review of UKRI in 2022, he found that 37 C&AG’s Report, para 3.4 38 Q 55 39 Q 55 40 Q 34 41 Q 55 42 Q 55, 56 43 C&AG’s Report, para 3 44 C&AG’s Report, para 13 45 C&AG’s Report, para 1.27 13 information was not easily accessible and that he was surprised at how far staff still relied on ad hoc spreadsheets and working on paper, rather than robust IT systems.46 Currently, UKRI’s IT systems and programmes have poor coverage of grants and require a lot of manual quality assurance.47
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the Committee's conclusion, detailing UKRI's ongoing organisational change programmes to enhance IT systems, data quality, and grant administration, including a new Databank and improved data collection, with an update to the Committee due by February 2026.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: February 2026 4.2 UKRI’s organisational change programmes are overhauling its systems and processes to enhance grant administration, data quality, information security and to implement other essential improvements. 4.3 UKRI has been investing in improved data capabilities over the last five years and has undergone two internal audit reports noting the progress made. UKRI has developed a data warehouse, Databank, to provide a central repository for UKRI data that can be consolidated from multiple sources. As part of its organisational change approach, UKRI is producing prioritised roadmaps for investment in data and other essential improvements. 4.4 UKRI has re-contracted with its supplier for collecting research outcome data for the research councils, following market engagement and competitive open tender. The revised contract requires changes that we expect will drive improvements to the completeness, accuracy and detail of metadata captured via this process, while minimising administrative burden. Outputs are analysed annually and UKRI will demonstrate these improvements by September 2026. 4.5 UKRI’s in-house systems for processing grant funding applications allow scope to invest to take account of changing user needs over time. UKRI will maintain a careful balance between: a) harmonisation and simplification with a focus on the efficiency of operations both within UKRI and the organisations we fund, and b) the need for flexibility and innovation to maximise the effectiveness of the platform in supporting the best R&I outcomes. 4.6 UKRI will provide an update to the Committee in February 2026 on implementation progress of the wider organisational change programme and plans for further modernisation.