To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he had has with the Minister for the Cabinet office on proposals for a new UK research funding agency broadly modelled on the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of that agency being established (a) being within the UKRI umbrella and (b) as an independent body.
Answered on
22 December 2020
The Government continues to progress plans to establish a new research funding agency as soon as possible. Discussions are ongoing across Government at both official and Ministerial levels to develop and deliver the new agency.
The Government has a high level of ambition for this new blue-skies research funding body, demonstrated by backing it with at least £800 million in funding over its first five years. There has been consideration of various options for how, and where, the body should be established to best meet that ambition.