Andrew Mackenzie
Head of Strategy, Policy and Communications
More than ever before, science is now a political and policy priority. Building and maintaining an effective Research and Development (R&D) landscape is now a top priority for UK politicians and policymakers, as demonstrated by the historic increase in public research funding committed by the Government at last October’s Spending Review.
From playing a leading role in the response to COVID-19 through to taking centre stage in the fight against climate change, research by physiologists is essential to tackling the grand challenges facing the world.
What does 2022 hold for UK R&D policy? Here are three key areas The Physiological Society is hoping to see action on over the next 12 months.
1. The UK will fully associate to Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe is the world’s largest multinational research and innovation programme. The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, signed in December 2020, paved the way for UK association to the programme. Despite the fact the programme is now up and running, the UK remains locked out due to broader political disagreements between the UK and the EU, and the UK Government has started drawing up plans for a UK only ‘plan B’ programme should talks fail.
Last month, a letter to the Government from leading UK research bodies, such as Wellcome, the Royal Society, CaSE and the Russell Group, warned that if the UK did not associate to Horizon Europe it would be a “tremendous failure of politics”.
The UK and EU are staring down the barrel of a ‘lose-lose’ outcome if talks fail and the UK drops out. We have seen over the course of the COVID-19 how important collaboration is to scientific research. From climate change to preparing for the next pandemic, the scale of the challenges we face are vast. We should be removing barriers to scientific collaboration rather than putting new ones up.
2. Boost QR funding to invest in long term fundamental research
Quality-research (QR) funding is an integral part of the research funding system, which provides institutions with a degree of research stability and independence not provided by other funding sources.
QR funding, which is awarded on a competitive basis to universities depending on their performance in the Research Excellence Framework, constitutes most of the funding for research in UK higher education institutions. Institutions can use QR funding to invest in long term planning for research and it underpins much of the UK’s research activity. This is vital to maintain and develop fundamental research, an essential component of UK Government’s ambition for the UK to be a ‘science superpower’.
We have all seen the dividends from such long-term research during the pandemic. The vaccines may have been produced in record time, but they built on years of prior research.
However, the Russell Group has calculated that the value of QR funding has declined by 17% in real terms since 2010. They found that the balance of funding between QR and Research Council funding has fallen from 80p in the pound in 2007 to 64p in the pound in 2021/22.
Last October’s spending review included historic increases in public R&D budgets between now and 2024/25. It is important that some of this is used to boost QR funding in order to enable institutions to invest in long term fundamental research, boost the research talent pipeline and position the UK as a ‘science superpower’.
The Physiological Society’s recent report, The Future of Interdisciplinary Research Beyond REF 2021, considered how this mechanism could evolve to foster greater interdisciplinary research.
3. Place knowledge exchange at heart of research system
Knowledge exchange is at the heart of realising the value of the UK’s world-leading R&D and higher education. Without it, our ingenuity would not have been translated into the products and services we enjoy today. In addition to tangible benefits, it is also crucial for inspiring continued innovation and the next generation of researchers. We want 2022 to be the year knowledge exchange takes its place at the heart of the research ecosystem.
The Physiological Society’s 2021 report, Translating Knowledge and Research into Impact, shone a spotlight on the contributions to knowledge exchange made by physiologists. It highlighted the importance of increasing interactions between higher education institutions and businesses, public services, charities, public engagement, communities, policymakers and government to create societal and economic benefit.
The UK Government have made commitments to significantly increase R&D spending over the coming years, and it’s important to the UK economy and society that knowledge exchange activities benefit. In line with the recommendation in our report to increase investment for knowledge exchange, we have called for the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to increase to £500 million by 2024/25 and for a new Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) of £220 million.
Throughout 2022 and beyond, keep up to date with The Physiological Society’s policy work: physoc.org/policy