UK regions promised research funding boost under ‘levelling up’

The Westminster government has put research and development at the heart of its plan to “level up” the UK, pledging to increase public investment outside the south-east by at least 40 per cent by 2030.

The spending pledge is one of 12 “missions” enshrined in the Levelling Up White Paper, due to be published on 2 February. Ministers said investment outside the “greater south-east” would increase by at least a third over the current spending review period, which runs until 2025, “with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth”.

These regions – including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – could already have expected to share in the overall increase in R&D investment planned as part of the spending review, from £14.8 billion this year to £20 billion in 2024-25. The long-term £22 billion target for public investment is now due to be hit in 2026-27.

But ministers said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – which distributes funds to the country’s research councils – had committed to invest at least 55 per cent of its domestic research and development funding outside the south-east by 2024-25. Further commitments to increase investment had been made by the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Transport, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Health and Social Care, the government said, with the last department confirming that it would increase its spending on medical research outside London, Oxford and Cambridge.

The White Paper also announces plans for three new “innovation accelerators”, centred on Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow, promising £100 million for local businesses and researchers, “learning from the MIT-Greater Boston and Stanford-Silicon Valley models”.

UK research funding has long been concentrated in the south-east of England, with the golden triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and inner west London thought to account for 31 per cent of all investment.

Leaders of some research-intensive universities have raised concerns that concerted efforts to distribute funding more evenly might reduce the importance placed on scientific excellence when making funding decisions. But the Conservative government’s attention on the issue has been focused by the new support that it drew from former Labour-voting communities in the Midlands and the north of England in the 2019 general election.

Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, highlighted in announcing the White Paper that the UK had “produced more Nobel prizewinners than any country other than America”.

“But not everyone shares equally in the UK’s success. For decades, too many communities have been overlooked and undervalued…Levelling-up and this White Paper is about ending this historic injustice and calling time on the postcode lottery,” Mr Gove said.

Another stated mission in the White Paper is to “significantly” increase the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training in every part of the UK by 2030. In England, this will lead to 200,000 more people completing courses annually, including 80,000 in the lowest-skilled areas, the government said.

The Department for Education had previously said the White Paper would include the creation of “education investment areas” to drive up school attainment, as well as the establishment of a “future skills unit” that would examine where regional skills gaps exist and in which industries.

The government said it would publish an annual report providing an update on progress against the White Paper’s missions.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com