Last week the UK Government announced its Spending Review, which detailed spending plans for the next three years.
Ahead of the Spending Review, The Physiological Society wrote to the Chancellor to call on him to maintain existing spending commitments to reach £22 billion of public R&D funding by 2024/25 in order to keep us on the path to reach 2.4% of GDP investment in R&D by 2027.
In the Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a delay to this planned R&D spending, with £22 billion now set to being reached in 2026/27. However, public investment in R&D is still set to rise substantially to £20 billion by 2024/25, a 34% increase from 2021/22.
Commenting on the Spending Review, Chief Executive of The Physiological Society Dariel Burdass said:
“While it is disappointing that the investment in R&D is coming more slowly than originally pledged, it is welcome to see the Government commit to sustained additional income for UK science. I was pleased to hear the Chancellor re-commit the making the UK a science and technology ‘superpower’.
“In particular, it is positive that this additional funding will begin to flow earlier, rather than being pushed towards the end of the parliament.
“On our current trajectory, it is going to be challenging for the UK to meet its goal of 2.4% of GDP invested in R&D by 2027. The government needs to redouble efforts to build business confidence in the UK’s R&D agenda in order to bring in the private sector investment required.
“It was also welcome to see an explicit commitment to meeting the full costs of associating with Horizon Europe, and I hope the current delays to association will be resolved soon.
“Physiologists have been the backbone of the scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are playing a crucial role in tackling many of the challenges facing the world today such as climate change. As the science of how the body works, physiological research is essential to improving health, tackling disease and ensuring people can work and live healthier lives for longer.
“COVID-19 has shown how science, business and politics can work together to respond to a crisis. We know some of the unprecedented public health challenges we face: Long Covid, obesity, ageing, the climate crisis. They are challenging enough, and there will be many more we are not able to predict. The lesson from COVID-19 is that our best defence is a robust, diverse science base we can call on.”