Private R&D investment fall prompts pre-Budget call for action
3 Mar 2024
In a statement timed ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget, the chief executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) has spoken of his concern over new ONS data that reveals a significant fall in private funded research and development (R&D).
It revealed a real terms year on year drop of 0.4% to £49.9 billion in 2022, compared to 2021. Dr Joe Marshall pointed out the fall coincided with efforts from the Government to make R&D investment central to economic gro
He said: “Today’s new data paints a worrying picture. Private R&D expenditure has only grown marginally since 2018 where it was £46.9 billion and in recent years has actually dropped in real terms.
"If the Government is truly serious about regaining the nation’s status as a science superpower, it’s vital that we become an even more attractive and competitive place for R&D intensive industries to do business. We need to see a genuinely transformative step change in the levels of private R&D investment."
Ahead of this week’s Spring Budget Marshall affirmed that his support for the view that a more research-intensive, innovation-led economy would offer a “globally competitive advantage, drive economic growth across the UK and also deliver a more sustainable, equitable and resilient society”
In a challenge to the Chancellor he added that every £1 spent on R&D generated £7 in economic and social benefits from helping to attract investment, boosting productivity and creating new jobs.
“We need a clear strategy and a suite of measures to raise the UK’s attractiveness as a place to perform and invest in R&D. Government investment has an important catalytic effect to attract greater private investment,” he continued
“We are calling on the Government to use [the] Spring Budget to step up if it is to meet its own goal of becoming a true science and technology superpower."
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