To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he plans to take to increase the proportion of public and private UK research and development spend outside the Golden Triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and London.
Answered on
3 February 2022
Making the most of R&D in places around the UK is a key government priority. The 2021 Spending Review sees record levels of investment in the UK’s world-leading research base with public spending on Research & Development (R&D) increasing by £5 billion per annum to £20 billion in 2024-25. The substantial uplift to research and science funding will not only allow the UK to build on our core strengths but will also provide opportunities to grow research and innovation investment across the entire country. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced in due course.
The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how we will maximise the contribution of innovation to levelling up. This includes a new mission that, by 2030, domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East will increase by at least one third over the Spending Review period and at least 40 percent by 2030, with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth.
In support of this, BEIS has committed to invest at least 55% of its domestic R&D funding outside the Greater South East by 2024/25.