1. UKRI: A unified voice for research and innovation
20 min talk.
Thank the Chair and say hello.
Rebecca Endean – Strategy Director

2. What is UK Research and Innovation
UK Research and Innovation, launched on the 1st April 2018, is the new funding organisation for research and innovation in the UK.
It brings together the seven UK research councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England, working closely with our partner organisations in the devolved administrations.

3. The Numbers More than £6.5 billion in combined budget per year
3,900 research and business grants issued every year
151 universities receiving research funding
38 institutes, laboratories, units, campuses and innovation catapults

4. Mission UK Research and Innovation:
benefiting everyone through knowledge, talent, and ideas.

5. Foundations for Research and Innovation
To achieve our vision, we need to get the foundations right
We will focus on four key areas:

6. Our Values

7. Early priorities for UKRI
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
Infrastructure Roadmap
Innovation and Commercialisation
International Collaboration
Regional Innovation and Growth
Strategic Priorities Fund
Supporting Research and Research Talent
Supporting Societal Impact
Working towards 2.4%

8. Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
The Industrial Strategy White Paper announced £725m for a second wave of ISCF:
Six challenges in Wave 2 were announced:
Prospering from the energy revolution
Transforming construction
Transforming food production
Data and early diagnosis in precision medicine
Healthy ageing
Audience of the future
Two Pioneer Challenges were announced:
Next generation services
Quantum technologies
The Haldane principle remains applied to research funding, and similar expert advice is drawn in for innovation funding.
This is just as true when we are advising ministers on the overall portfolio of ISCF challenges, taking into account what will have the most impact and meaning for the future of research in the UK, as when decisions are made on what research projects actually gets funding.
Though Ministers have to take a view and make the decision on what Challenges are most important to deliver on the commitments the government has made, decisions on what excellent research means is still the domain of experts and UKRI is committed to keeping this so.
Wave 3:
Expressions of interest have been submitted–industry-led consortia have come forward with proposed major industrial and societal challenges

9. ISCF and the Grand Challenges
How the ISCF challenges fit with the
Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges
Audience of the future / Next generation services (pioneer) / Quantum technology (pioneer)
Artificial intelligence and data economy
Clean growth
Energy revolution
Transforming construction
Transforming
food production
Ageing Society
Medicines manufacturing
Data to early diagnosis and precision medicine
Healthy ageing
Future of mobility
Faraday battery challenge
Extreme robotics
National space test facility
Driverless cars
Next Gen (aero) materials mfg

10. Supporting research and talent
Investing £300m over the next three years in world-class talent
New cohorts of PhDs and Knowledge Transfer Partnership positions
£45m investment to support additional PhDs in AI and related disciplines, increasing numbers by at least 200 extra places a year by
We have been working with people throughout the research community, including the national academies, to design programmes of funding that takes into account of the concerns and skills gaps that exist.

11. Regional innovation and growth
£115m Strength in Places Fund
Supporting regional growth by identifying and supporting areas of emerging R&D strength
Growing the capacity of existing research excellence and high quality innovation in identified areas
While the highest funded subjects (medicine, biosciences, physics) obtain highest research funding per capita in the Golden Triangle/Scotland, there are many subjects where the highest spend per capita is elsewhere
Some examples are:
Civil engineering in the NE
Materials engineering in the NW (James Baker – CEO of the national graphene institute is speaking later in the day)
Mechanical/aero/production engineering in East Midlands
I have been lucky enough to visit many of these places (eg… Telford, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Manchester in last 3 weeks)
I hope you have all seen that the first call for expressions of interest into the new UKRI Strength in Places Fund launched last month.
The Strength in Places Fund is a fantastic early opportunity for us to demonstrate how we are bringing our collective expertise and functions together to be more than the sum of our parts.
The programme is truly unique. It will provide packages of research and innovation support to consortia located within specific ‘places’ in the UK. These consortia will include research organisations and businesses, and the funding will cover a broad range of activity that support the consortium partners to work together to build on the research and business strengths of their part of the country to drive local economic growth.
The creation of UKRI has made it possible to deliver such flexible, responsive and holistic packages of funding, and I am very excited to see the proposals that will be coming through over the next couple of months.
Innovate UK funding intensity per capita in different areas of the UK

12. Working towards 2.4% The Government has committed to reaching:
2.4% of GDP investment in R&D by 2027
Reaching 3% in the longer term
Additional £7bn by 2021/22
David Connell is speaking later in the day on:
Leveraging Procurement to Grow the Innovation Economy: Adding the Missing Ingredient to UK Innovation Policy
David Connell, Author of Government Review of SBRI, Senior Research Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School and Co-founder of Technology and VC Companies, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge (Confirmed)
In 2015 UK’s expenditure on R&D represented 1.7% of GDP – below the OECD average R&D intensity of 2.4%.

13. Thank you
@UKRI_CEO
@UKRI_news