Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 23
41st Report - UK Research and Innovation
Published 23 Jul 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee UK Research and Innovation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, 41st Report - UK Research and Innovation (HC 826), 23 July 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-first Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 23 September 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-first report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on UKRI's priorities, objectives, data, IT systems, risk and scaling innovation, with target dates between Autumn 2025 and Summer 2026.
- On objectives, DSIT is developing strategic objectives for UKRI underpinned by measurable key results, and will publish them "by Autumn 2025".
- On data visibility, UKRI is developing a new online portal to replace Gateway to Research, "currently planned to be launched in Summer 2026", and will report to the Committee on progress in February 2026.
- On risk, UKRI will incorporate the NAO's recommendations into its 2025 review of its risk appetite statement, "to be completed by February 2026" and "closely monitored by DSIT".
- On scaling innovation, the impact of the new Proof-of-Concept funding "will only be possible" to understand after the first rounds conclude and are evaluated, with evaluation dates "not yet confirmed".