A Public Accounts Committee report has highlighted concerns over the impact of Brexit, leadership effectiveness and safeguarding of benefits.
The report notes that the Government aims to increase total UK investment in research from 1.68% in 2015 to 2.4% of GDP in 2027 but it lacks an ambitious plan for how it will achieve this. It also states that BEIS does not know enough about which areas of science have skills gaps, nor the potential impact on the availability of key skills arising from the UK leaving the EU. To address this it recommends that UKRI and BEIS should ensure that data on potential research skills gaps is used to establish whether key capabilities and productivity are at risk, and take appropriate action in response.
Our Brexit briefing notes that Horizon 2020 and its predecessor schemes have invested significant sums of money in transnational historic environment research – a total investment 1998-2014 of approx. £166.23 million of which UK research councils £60.78 million (or 36.6%).