Commit to spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on research, UK urged

The UK government should set itself a “bold” and “ambitious” target of spending at least 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product on research by 2035, says a new report backed by 10 former science and technology ministers.

Calling for more “long-term thinking on science” and an updated national innovation strategy, the report by the centre-right Onward thinktank has urged ministers to commit to increasing research and development spending levels over the next 12 years to bring investment on a par with current per-capita spending in the US, Sweden and Taiwan.

The UK’s R&D budget is set to increase to record levels of about £20 billion a year by 2024-25, notes the report, Wired for Success: Reforming Whitehall to support science and technology. But a long-term goal of spending 2.4 per cent of GDP on R&D by 2027 was achieved last year, following a statistical revision by the Office for National Statistics, with spending now at about 2.9 per cent to 3 per cent in 2020 under the new methodology.

“When it comes to R&D funding, the UK must go further,” recommends the report, published on 1 August, which adds that the UK “still sits outside the top 10 of OECD countries on R&D spend”.

“To be a science superpower, the UK should aspire to be in the top five of OECD countries – hitting this means having economy-wide R&D expenditure upward of 3.5 per cent of GDP,” it continues.

Achieving this goal by 2035 would require an average of 3 per cent annual growth, “amounting to roughly £100 billion being spent on R&D in the UK”, the study estimates, stating that the UK “should aspire to achieve this primarily by increasing the share of private sector R&D spend in the UK”.

In addition, the UK’s new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) should also be given new freedom to exempt it from Treasury controls, the report adds. That would prevent major projects, such as a planned £900 million exascale computer, being held-up by long-winded Whitehall procurement processes, it explains.

Treasury approval for major projects, usually done by Whitehall “generalists”, should be moved to scientific experts from within DSIT, says the report by Onward, whose former director Will Tanner is now deputy chief of staff at 10 Downing Street.

In addition, plans to build more lab space in high-growth areas such as Oxford and Cambridge – where some 2 million square feet of facilities are required – should be fast-tracked via the creation of a new category of nationally significant infrastructure projects, Onward states.

Universities should also be moved under the control of the new DSIT, rather than the Department for Education, while a new permanent secretary-level official should be appointed to lead the National Science and Technology Council – the body charged with coordinating R&D activities across Whitehall, which is chaired by the Prime Minister.

Commending the report, former universities minister Lord Willetts, who now chairs the UK Space Agency, said its recommendations “should guide further Whitehall reform to deliver the government’s ambitions to be a science superpower”, while former innovation minister Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford said she backed the call for “government to go further, faster, to unleash our science and technology potential”.

Lord Vaizey of Didcot, former digital minister, said the study showed “the need to reform Whitehall further to seize the opportunities of the tech revolution”.

“With the pace of innovation accelerating and a global race unfolding, it’s vital that government does not rest on its laurels in its mission to become a science and tech superpower,” he said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com