Extra £20 million to offset UK overseas research cuts

Almost £20 million has been made available to mitigate large cuts to research funded by the UK’s overseas aid budget.

Announcing the release of an additional £19.7 million on 10 February, UK Research and Innovation said a total of 46 organisations would receive between £100,000 and £1.35 million to offset reductions announced in March 2021 that left the funder with a predicted £120 million shortfall in funding for 2021-22.

That followed the decision by the UK government to reduce its spending on foreign aid from 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to 0.5 per cent, hitting collaborative research on global challenges such as poverty, disease and renewable energy. In monetary terms, the annual budget for research grants funded by foreign aid was set to fall by almost £300 million, or 70 per cent, to about £125 million a year.

According to the latest statement by UKRI, “mitigation initiatives implemented by UKRI reduced the shortfall to just over £70 million” prior to the latest announcement.

A full list of research organisations to benefit from the new money will be published once this financial year has ended, it added.

Christopher Smith, UKRI’s international champion, said UKRI had “targeted, as far as possible, this additional funding to the areas of greatest need, helping you sustain your Global Challenges Research Fund work and partnerships”.

“We are aware of and deeply regret the huge problems caused for you by these fluctuations in funding, and we are sorry that we have only been able to finalise this advice at short notice.”

The additional funding is being distributed on a basis that is directly proportionate to the reductions made earlier in the fiscal year, UKRI added.

It also said it did not yet know how much it would receive in foreign aid in 2022-23, but the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy had told the delivery partners of its Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund “that legal commitments for existing projects from 2022-23 will be met”.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com