The UKRI, which is the main public funder of research and innovation in the UK, needs solid financial backing. A recent report from the National Audit Office (NAO) highlighted several ongoing issues. First, there’s a lack of clear direction from government departments. The data systems in place are inefficient, and UKRI needs to create an environment that supports calculated risk-taking.
The report points out that the government doesn’t communicate its expectations of UKRI effectively. UKRI channels its budget toward the government’s research and innovation goals, but due to the long-term nature of its investments, it commits a lot of funds for future years. This often leaves limited resources to respond to new government priorities or start new projects.
UKRI gets input on policy priorities from various government sources—meetings, strategies, and spending reviews. However, the NAO found that none of this information is organized or prioritized, leading to confusion.
Since UKRI was formed, it has struggled with merging data from its predecessor organizations, which used outdated systems and had quality issues. While UKRI has created a system to classify grants using algorithms, it still faces challenges in tracking spending accurately. Around 15% of its grants lack complete descriptions, making automatic classification difficult.
Fraud is another concern. The NAO reported that UKRI’s counter-fraud team is short-staffed, leading to a backlog of cases and not enough proactive measures. In 2023-24, UKRI looked into suspected fraud involving £42.6 million in grants, identifying £4.6 million in fraudulent activity, preventing £13.5 million, and recovering £80,000. UKRI knows it needs to improve its approach to fraud and is reorganizing its counter-fraud team, developing a new strategy, and planning to enhance team culture and risk assessments by September 2025.
With an annual spend of about £9 billion, UKRI must figure out how to demonstrate return on investment for taxpayers. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, emphasized that UKRI is crucial for the research and innovation landscape but lacks measurable objectives and effective data for managing grants. He stressed the importance of supporting decision-makers to maintain the UK’s leadership in research and innovation.