Overview

  • Posted Opportunities 0
  • Founded Since 2018

Company Description

About UKRI

Our organisation brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which is responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

Our nine councils, delivering together

Our nine councils work together in innovative ways to deliver an ambitious agenda, drawing on our great depth and breadth of expertise and the enormous diversity of our portfolio.

Through our councils we maintain and champion the creativity and vibrancy of disciplines and sector-specific priorities and communities. Our councils shape and deliver both sectoral and domain-specific support.

Whether through research council grants, quality-related block grants from Research England, or grants and wider support for innovative businesses from Innovate UK, we work with our stakeholders to understand the opportunities and requirements of all the different parts of the research and innovation landscape, maintaining the health, breadth and depth of the system.

How we receive funding

As part of the government’s Spending Review we submit an overview on how we plan to spend money to DSIT, which considers this within the department’s overall spending plan that goes on to HM Treasury.

The recommendations from HM Treasury goes to the Cabinet (including the Prime Minister and Chancellor) which decides how to allocate funding to government departments in line with government priorities. In addition to the Spending Reviews, the Treasury also designates research and innovation funding in the annual Budget, and sometimes in the Spring Statement or other ad hoc announcements.

In addition to the funding allocated directly to us from DSIT, UKRI also manages programmes on behalf of the department and delivers additional funding for other government departments.

How we allocate funding

We work collaboratively across our councils and communities to recommend to the DSIT Secretary of State the distribution of funding across UKRI that best supports the delivery of ambitions set out in our first five-year strategy, UKRI Strategy 2022-2027: Transforming tomorrow together.

We allocate funding for collective programmes and to each of our councils: the seven research councils, Research England, and Innovate UK. The core Innovate UK budget, which supports business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions, is separate from the core budget for research councils and Research England.

For research councils and Research England we use the dual support model, where funding is allocated through:

  • grants for individual research projects (through the research councils)
  • block grants for research institutions (through Research England)

While project-specific funding can respond to new ideas and support national priorities, block grant funding supports institutions in providing a stable and flexible research environment through long-term strategic investment.

Who we are

Launched in April 2018, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Our vision and strategy

Our vision is for an outstanding research and innovation system in the UK that gives everyone the opportunity to contribute and to benefit, enriching lives locally, nationally and internationally.

Research and innovation enriches and improves our lives and increases prosperity by creating knowledge that enables us to understand ourselves and the world around us. This also empowers us to focus on the many challenges we face as individuals and as communities, nationally and globally.

We will work with partners to shape a dynamic, diverse and inclusive system of research and innovation in the UK that is an integral part of society, giving everyone the opportunity to participate and to benefit.

Our vision

Our mission is to convene, catalyse and invest in close collaboration with others to build a thriving, inclusive research and innovation system that connects discovery to prosperity and public good.

We bring together nine organisations with great depth and breadth of expertise, allowing us to connect research communities, institutions, businesses and wider society, in the UK and around the world.

This combination enables us to work across the whole research and innovation system, informed by our networks and expertise.

As the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation it is our responsibility to ensure the health of the system as a whole, now and in the future. As a steward of this system, we will work together with many other organisations.

These include our close partners at the heart of the research and innovation system such as higher education institutions and institutes, innovative businesses, investors, not-for-profit organisations and policy makers, and a wider set of partners such as those in the education system and civil society.

We will fulfil our stewardship role through the ways in which we catalyse, convene, incentivise, invest in and conduct research and innovation.

Our strategy 2022 to 2027

UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) first five-year strategy, transforming tomorrow together.

This sets out long-term, high-level priorities for how we will deliver our vision for an outstanding research and innovation system in the UK that provides everyone with the opportunity to contribute and to benefit, enriching lives locally, nationally and globally.

It also highlights UKRI’s key role in delivering the government’s ambitions for the UK as a global leader in research and innovation, and priorities set out in the:

  • plan for growth
  • research and development (R&D) roadmap
  • innovation strategy
  • the R&D people and culture strategy
  • integrated review
  • levelling up white paper.

UKRI’s strategy is underpinned by four principles for change:

  • diversity
  • connectivity
  • resilience
  • engagement.

These principles are fundamental to how we work as an organisation and will help to create the conditions for the UK’s research and innovation system to flourish.

In addition, the strategy outlines six objectives for how UKRI will deliver on its ambitions. Working with government and partners across the sector, to foster world-class people and careers, places, ideas, innovation and impacts, supported by UKRI as a world-class organisation.

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