Recommendation 23

UKRI’s total portfolio of funding comprises a wide range of investments, including R&I grants, strategic institutional funding to English Higher education providers and institutions, and UKRI says it balances risk across its portfolio by the type of funding mechanism.57 UKRI considers R&I grant funding to be of higher risk than some other types of funding. It seeks to operate with ‘open/bold’ risk when deciding what to fund for R&I grants, meaning it intends to take high risks where there is the potential for high rewards.58 Sir David Grant and Professor Boyle highlighted the need to think about risk in a complex way and told us that perceptions of risk depend on the individual or on the situation; for example whether it is a risk around the research topic to be funded, or the timeliness of the funding being given.59 UKRI repeatedly referenced the importance of portfolio management in R&I funding and told us that it has “a very long and strong track record of taking really high risks in the research that [it] invests in”.60 DSIT told us it considers the world of R&I to have a mature understanding and approach to risk taking but also noted the need to define the areas in government where more risk taking is needed and “go hard at them.”61